What makes Netflix stand out? Discovery, apparently. Especially among younger viewers, who are three times more likely to pick Netflix when looking for something new to watch. So the streaming service’s new campaign by Mother and Netflix’s Brand Creative Studio is full of surprise – including an axolotl, an astronaut and a vampire. It’s where you’ll Find the Thing You Never Knew You Needed, in the streaming service’s new work.  

The campaign harnesses what happens in that split second when a show you may not have expected becomes the thing you can’t stop talking about? That jolt that’s equal parts surprise, obsession, and “wait, why am I like this now?” 

Find the Thing You Never Knew You Needed has launched initially in the US, Canada, Brazil and Spain.

The campaign films were directed by Vania & Muggia through Iconoclast. With post-production by ETC, they built three distinct worlds with an obsessive attention to detail that turn familiar fan moments into epic stories, all rooted in the truth that once you find the thing you never knew you needed, you can’t imagine life without it. Each celebrates its characters and world in every aspect of production. All three stories were shot on 35mm film, each with a different aspect ratio. 

• Axolotl embraced widescreen
• Dawn is inspired by old horror and shot in 4:3
• Hypersleep is shot in anamorphic format to bring a sense of vast space to life

Each set is built from the ground up, across multiple weeks. The music brings fans deep into our characters’ world, driving emotion while also creating a moment of surprise and contrast when each show is revealed.

The films are: 

Hypersleep: A discovery you can’t wait to share. 

A lonely astronaut can’t hold it in any longer. He wakes a crewmate from hypersleep early, but not for an emergency, and rather to talk about KPop Demon Hunters. Shot in anamorphic to bring the vastness of space to life, with an eerie score that drops you into the feeling of loneliness.

Axolotl: A discovery that connects you with new people.

A new amphibian in the tank becomes the unlikely hero to his fellow fish by keeping their Bridgerton marathon alive, using the one asset no one else has: feet. Shot in widescreen and set to a gentle song about gathering the family and heading home, played over an upbeat disco beat. 

Dawn: A discovery so good that nothing else matters. 

Staying up too late to finish one more episode is a universal experience. It’s a bigger problem when you’re a vampire, the sun is coming up, and you still haven’t finished the new season of Love is Blind. Inspired by old horror and shot in 4:3, with a driving heartbeat of a soundtrack that captures the urgency of risking it all to finish the show you love.

“People come to Netflix trusting they’ll discover something new to love, often something they didn’t see coming. We wanted to celebrate that moment when you get hooked. So we started with the things real fans do, like staying up for one more episode or blowing up the group chat about a new obsession, and turned them into a campaign as entertaining as the shows and films that inspire them. Because once you find the thing you never knew you needed, it’s hard to imagine life without it,” stated Aarti Thiagarajan, senior director, Brand Creative Studio, Netflix

“A brand platform for Netflix had to represent the quality and craft that goes into every piece of entertainment featured on the service. ‘Find The Thing You Never Knew You Needed’ gave us permission to make three films that feel completely different – different worlds, different genres, different kinds of obsession – but all deliver that same feeling of finding something you weren’t looking for and suddenly not being able to let it go. Quintessentially Netflix, crafted in a quintessentially Netflix fashion,” added Nick Hallbery, executive creative director, Mother

The idea of Netflix disccovery was born in January, when Mother asked the world, “What Next?”, the same question you ask every time you sit down to watch something. The Netflix Tarot experience, matching Netflix shows to tarot card readings.

Credits

Client: Netflix
In-House Creative: Netflix Brand Creative Studio
Creative Agency: Mother
Creative: Mother
Strategy: Mother
Production: Mother 

Production Company: Iconoclast
Director: Vania & Muggia
Managing Director: Guy Rolfe
Executive Producer: Kaiya Taffel
Producer: Joseph Taussig
Production Managers: Sam Jackson & Alice Pitt-Carter
Director of Photography: Mathias Boucard
Production Designer: Mark Connell
Costume Designers: Elise Bouquet & Reem Kuzayli

Service Production Company: Unit + Sofa 
Executive Producers: Fardy Salame, Martin Sobotka & Veronika Hajkova
Line Producer: Jan Hlavsa
Production Manager: Robert Zapletal

Edit House: Trim Editing
Editors: Paul Hardcastle (Axolotl & Hypersleep) & Liv Ay (Dawn)
Assistant Editor: Keira Hay
Executive Producer: Sophie Honour
Senior Edit Producer: Polly Kemp
Executive Edit Producer: Noreen Khan

VFX & Colour: ETC 
Colourist: Jason Wallis 
Creative Director: Dean Robinson
VFX Shoot Supervisors: Joel Savage and Thiago Dantas
VFX 3D Supervisor: Joel Savage 
3D Lead: Jack Powell
Animation Director: David Bryan 
VFX 2D Supervisors: Thiago Dantas and Scott Ryan
2D Lead: Adam Woolrich
Executive Producer: Vic Lovejoy
Producer: Rosie Corbett
Production Assistant: Marta Matuszewska

Sound Design: King Lear
Sound Engineer: Jack Sedgwick 
Head of Production: Natalie Curran