I’ll be there for YouTube

It has been over a decade since Friends came to an end, but its popularity remains. New Zealanders continue to get their daily dose as it holds the 6pm week day spot on TV2, while in France people are now tuning in on Netflix thanks to a clever pre-roll ad campaign.

Netflix recently acquired the rights to stream all 236 episodes across 10 seasons and using Ogilvy Paris, it decided to use YouTube pre-roll ads to draw in viewers.

Using the programmes huge number of memorable scenes, ‘the friendly pre-roll campaign’ matches Friends moments with the videos users were searching. The idea being that no-matter what you are watching, there is something in Friends related to it.

For example, users looking for cat videos will get a pre-roll of Rachel’s character showing off her cat.

The campaign saw Ogilvy tag thousands of YouTube’s most searched videos as well as creating pre-rolls in real-time to relate to trending searches.