Why Emily In Paris Is The Only Marketing Masterclass You Need This Year
How many marketing webinars have you signed up for this October?
Well, ditch them all and watch Emily in Paris.
If there ever was a lesson in marketing worth learning, Netflix has delivered it. Here’s why I binge-watched the whole series and came out feeling better than I did before the binge.
Spoilers available here like pain au chocolat at a Parisian boulangerie.
On having one ear trained to the ground
What is the one thing you’re waiting to do ‘once the vaccine arrives’?
Most people would likely, and rightfully, say travel. Be it to meet family after a long, long time or to experience the freedom of being on your own in a new place, travel is what we all need.
Which is why Emily in Paris isn’t Lonely Planet’s version of unseen Paris. It is, instead, the glitzy, touristy version we’re all looking forward to.
It is the version where pink roses must be bought to match the pink dress, because Instagram. Emily in Paris caters to the primal tourist instinct in even those with a high viral load of #Wanderlust.
On using the world around as inspiration
Our protagonist Emily is a marketing professional. She has a Masters in communication, and a Masters in Marketing.
But her most powerful tool is her own brain and an interesting insight into the world around her. She visits a Starry Night installation and then promptly puts a bed on a Parisian street to promote a client’s mattress product.
Emily is Paris is replete with these extremely satisfying examples of what happens when Alice leaves Wonderland and becomes a brand manager.
The only thing that feels off-key is a client who is promised a spot at the Louvre and is instead relegated to a glorified footpath, and doesn’t seem to complain.
Please tell me where to find these clients who don’t micromanage their vendors!
On stopping a series at just the right time
Series fatigue is real. I’m watching season 2 of This Is Us, an arguably great show, and wondering how they managed to stretch it to seasons 3,4 and now even 5. Because there’s only so much that can happen in a person’s life.
As with every story stretched into a series format, episodes 8 and 9 of Emily in Paris fall as flat as some conspiracy theorists think the Earth actually is.
But thankfully, at ten episodes in total, the series ends just before we grow tired of seeing too much of the Greek-God like future boyfriend, the cobblestone streets and men who don’t seem to know how to flirt properly.
Moral of the story- keep it short, silly. Or at least leave enough material for season 2 to keep people invested.
On being unapologetically indulgent
Good clothes, a perfume as the centrepiece, multiple instances of being lost in translation, strong avoidance of public transport- Emily in Paris feels a lot like a great slab of chocolate. And I do mean the entire slab.
Particularly in a scene involving douche, the implications of English vs. French are hilarious to behond.
The series is as indulgent as only Netflix can be.
So indulgent, in fact, that I seriously considered becoming an Instagram influencer myself. And that’s the whole point- to transport one to a different reality, to make a parallel universe possible, to sell a different dream- this is also why some of us watch horror shows.
The thrill of life is best experienced outdoors, or in the case of 2020, on one’s couch with a Netflix subscription.
Creating, bottling and selling hope, I believe, is the art, science and age-old tradition of marketing. And today, the circumstances are just right to bring this tradition to life.
If you need a lesson on how, cancel the day’s meetings and host a Netflix watch party with your colleagues.
