A strange promotion for Netflix
Whiskers just wrote about the Netflix summer promotion “Netflix Rolling Roadshow” where the movie-rental company brings movies to you, as it defines its business, by screening a series of American classics in the places where they were filmed. That’s not a bad promotional idea in and of itself, but I don’t think it makes as much sense for Netflix as it would for a theater chain. The industry’s problem is not that people don’t watch movies, plenty of people watch movies practically all the time, though usually on TV, which is exactly where Netflix expects its customers to watch them. But the Roadshow promotion aims to build awareness of the Netflix brand by dragging people out of their homes to a, in effect, theater. That seems oddly at cross with what Netflix does for a living.
Geeky disagrees and calls it “one of the best ideas” she’s heard in a long time. Ben Edwards calls it “a great idea” and TravelPost.com thinks it’s “pretty cool.” I agree with them, just not when it’s done by Netflix.