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Netflix brings in Jamie Curry to coach Australasian audiences

YouTube starlet has become something of a branding sweetheart in recent months. Last year, Coca-Cola commissioned her to promote its #colouryoursummer campaign in Australia, Google has included her on its YouTube stars roadshow and she is currently part of theContiki troupe of influencers currently sharing travel stories from Asia. And she also recently caught the eyes of marketing team at Netflix.

Two weeks ago, Curry posted a video called ‘How to Netflix’ on her YouTube channel as part of marketing push by the SVOD player to expand its reach across Australia and New Zealand.  

In the video, Curry discusses how, like many New Zealanders, she didn’t know what Netflix was despite hearing the name bounced around the internet. She goes on to discuss her excitement of the series coming here and how she binge watched all of Orange is the New Black. She then goes on to quirky—and largely impracticable—tips on how to enable non-stop Netfllix-watching no matter where the viewer might be. Her solutions, which are clearly geared at her younger audience, include asking a teacher if you can put headphones on and listen to music when working on your computer, or expertly cutting an insert into your pillow and stitching your iPad inside so you can watch Netflix in bed. 

At the time of writing, the video has already garnered 313,340 views, which shows that it is resonating with fans. However, it’s also worth noting that the clip is not referred to as an ad anywhere, and this again reiterates how native advertising, particularly through new media channels, remains something of a grey area.

According to Curry’s agent Johnson and Laird Management’s Anna Lawrence, Australian agency We Are Social, which manages the social media for the Netflix launch, contacted the agency to find out whether the YouTube star would be interested in being involved in promoting the service. 

“They were looking to collaborate with some of Australia and New Zealand’s top talent to co-create relevant content for their channels related to the platform and Netflix Original series.  Jamie was identified as a key talent to partner with.  From there J&L negotiated the deal for Jamie and managed the process between Jamie and We Are Social, from the briefing in Sydney to the posting of Jamie’s video.”

Lawrence says Netflix had a sound understanding of the importance of social influencers for launching its platform. 

 “They provided a very thorough briefing session in Sydney for the influencers to attend, outlining why they were leading with content and their social approach through to the history of Netflix and how Netflix worked.  This allowed the influencers to plan their approach to their social content with a sound understanding of the brand.”

 Lawrence said Curry was lucky enough to attend the launch of Netflix in Sydney where she walked the red carpet with the stars and interviewed members of the cast from Orange is the New Black. 

“There is more activity planned so watch this space,” Lawrence says.

According to an article on Stuff, Curry’s videos take her five hours to create, and after finishing high school, she now works on them full-time. “At the moment I’m sorta doing the YouTube but we’re trying to use that to get into acting,” she told Stuff.

Curry was also nominated for “Favourite Internet Sensation” by the Kids’ Choice Awards this year, but lost out to fellow internet sensation Troy Sivan.

Before using Curry, Netflix, which reached New Zealand shores last month had been pretty quiet in terms of advertising its services here, and had released one TVC, which wasn’t particularly catered to a New Zealand audience. But with the utilisation of Curry it appears the SVOD platform is now trying a bit harder to connect to Australian and New Zealand audiences as it slowly rolls out its service.

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