NETFLIX NEEDED A BREAKTHROUGH CAMPAIGN TO OPEN THE UPSIDEDOWN IN MANHATTAN
OVERVIEW
In partnership with Netflix, Giant Spoon, Superbien, and the Empire State Building, the launch of Stranger Things 4 became a global entertainment event built for fan obsession, cultural scale, and social conversation. The challenge was to make the season premiere feel bigger than a content drop: giving Netflix a worldwide platform for immersive franchise storytelling, while turning the Empire State Building into the New York centerpiece of a coordinated global takeover spanning 15 landmarks in 14 countries.
The result was a full-building “rift” experience that transformed the Empire State Building into a portal to the Upside Down, using projection mapping, synchronized lights, sound design, social clues, cast participation, and an on-the-ground fan gathering in Flatiron. For two hours, an original Stranger Things storyline played across the building’s 500-foot façade, bringing Vecna, the Upside Down, and the world of Hawkins into the New York City skyline.
SOLUTION
The Marketing Team turned the Empire State Building into the New York anchor of Netflix’s global rift takeover, designed to drive fan participation while giving Stranger Things 4 a landmark-scale platform for immersive storytelling, earned media, and cultural visibility. The campaign connected cryptic social clues, cast amplification, projection mapping, synchronized lights, sound, fan gathering moments, livestreaming, and aerial content capture into one cinematic launch experience. Each layer gave fans a new way to discover, decode, witness, share, and participate, while extending the season premiere beyond streaming and into a real-world global spectacle.
MY ROLE
I led the end-to-end strategy for ESB’s digital campaign, spanning content capture, website experience, go-to-market planning, advertising, campaign marketing, and post-launch amplification. In partnership with Netflix, Giant Spoon, PR, social, and our CMO, I helped shape the surprise media moment and fan journey behind the rift, aligning creative, messaging, timing, and channel execution to make the activation feel shareworthy, show-stopping, and commercially valuable. My role was to turn a major entertainment launch into a full-funnel brand moment, connecting social conversation and fan excitement to website traffic, ticket interest, Observatory relevance, and measurable performance for ESB. I did this by spearheading all creative final products, including photo, video, designing and advertising with an incredible team of in-house creatives.
CAMPAIGN IN
ACTION
RESULTS AND IMPACT
100M+
Influencer Reach
Creator and social coverage extended the spectacle
190M+
Organic Impressions
Fans interacted across posts, shares, comments, and partner amplification
110K+
In-Person Viewers
Came to watch the phenomenon and visit the Empire State Building
social channels featured
STRATEGY&
LONG-TERM VISION
Launches = live cultural rupture.
The strategy was not to promote a premiere. It was to make the premiere feel like it had physically broken into the real world, using the Empire State Building as the New York portal where fans could experience the Upside Down at landmark scale.
Build the audience journey around suspense.
The campaign used cryptic coordinates, social clues, and a surprise reveal to pull fans into the story before the activation even appeared. That mystery created a natural path from speculation to gathering, viewing, sharing, and deeper engagement.
Protect the idea through execution.
A campaign this ambitious can easily become fragmented across teams, vendors, and channels. The strategic focus was keeping the core idea intact from reveal strategy to content capture, fan experience, PR, social, web, and paid media so every touchpoint felt like part of the same world.
Design for capture, not just attendance.
Every layer was built for how fans actually behave around culture: they film, post, react, livestream, and share. On-site photo moments, aerial footage, social content, and real-time coverage helped turn the activation into a distributed content engine.
Make every channel earn its place.
The campaign was not built as one hero moment with supporting assets around it. Each channel had a job: social created mystery, PR created scale, content capture extended the moment, web gave audiences context, and paid media helped move attention toward action.
Create a repeatable model for high-stakes IP launches.
The campaign showed how ESB could support major entertainment partners with more than visibility. It created a model for turning global IP into a coordinated launch system across story, spectacle, audience engagement, digital amplification, and commercial impact.
