How Netflix and Giant Spoon turned the Empire State Building ‘Upside Down’

In New York City, it’s not uncommon to see weird things while out. An alien on the subway? Sure. Someone walking their pet duck? Why not? Vecna opening a portal to the Upside Down through the Empire State Building? Sounds like a Thursday.

No, really: To mark the return of Stranger Things, Netflix helped create the Empire State Building’s first immersive show using light, sound, and projection. It was also part of Netflix’s largest campaign activation to date, marking the return of the show’s fourth season, running for two hours on May 26.

If you can make a portal here, you can make it anywhere

“We’ve done things that are as cool and as ambitious before, but have I ever projected an original piece of content 500 vertical-feet in the air in New York City? No,” Monica Herman, VP and group creative director, experiential at Giant Spoon, told Marketing Brew.

Herman said Netflix approached Giant Spoon in September, giving more time than most activations. “I think that’s what allowed us to do something so spectacular and monumental,” she said.

Giant Spoon, which had previously worked with Netflix on promo for Waffles + Mochi and Outlaw King, created custom animations for the marketing stunt with the help of the Netflix VX team and the Duffer brothers, who created the series.

“We know that Stranger Things fans are always craving and wanting more from the series, so it was a no-brainer for us when thinking about creating custom content,” Shelly Gillyard, VP of marketing for US and Canada at Netflix, told us.

Getting those animations onto the Empire State Building required 46 projectors mounted to an adjacent building. The projection was accompanied by a tower lighting scheme made in collaboration with Marc Brickman, resident lighting designer at the Empire State Building, to “really [make] it feel 360° versus just one facade of the building,” Herman explained.

Netflix told us that more than 9,000 fans congregated in New York to watch the display, many of them in Flatiron Plaza, where a lighting ceremony was held with some of the stars from the show. Buses also circled around the area playing custom background music as people watched.

“That was a really fun thing to see on the ground,” Herman said. “You’re standing with the fans and then, like, [character Jim] Hopper came out [on the projection], and everyone just lost their minds.”

All around the world

While New York was what Herman called the “linchpin” to the whole campaign, similar experiences could be seen in 14 other landmark places around the world, including Bondi Beach, Australia and the Gateway of India in Mumbai. Hints on where each one would be were posted on social media beforehand.

“When thinking about the specific locations, we thought about scale, size, what would be the most visually appealing, and also places where we knew some of our most passionate fan bases are,” Gillyard said.

More than 7,000 fans gathered at the Duomo Plaza in Milan, 1,000 in Mumbai, and 2,100 at the KL Tower in Malaysia, according to Netflix.

While Giant Spoon only handled the New York execution, it came up with the concepts and stylistic direction used around the world. “​​It was really great to see something that started here ripple out to all the local markets,” Herman said.

For anyone not nearby a landmark, there was the option to view the NYC show via livestream. Drone and helicopter footage was also used for both Netflix and Stranger Things’s social media channels. Combined with the Empire State Building, which went all in before, during, and after the show on social, Herman said they reached more than 100 million people.

After a monumental kick-off, Gillyard said fans shouldn’t expect an experience of this scale when the second half of the season drops next month, but there will be other ways to connect with the series. Herman could not disclose the budget for this undertaking, but said, “It was worth it.”