Netflix “Narcos“ Season One Mobile Ad Campaign

Role: Creative Developer

In 2015, InMobi competed against several other mobile advertising companies to win a major partnership with Netflix, resulting in several consecutive mobile ad campaigns. My creative services team proved instrumental in securing this account, providing several creative concepts, pitches, and demos throughout the process. Our biggest campaign during this collaboration was for the major hit series Narcos. After considering our concepts, their creative agency AvatarLabs produced amazing key art and video trailers which we then developed into interactive rich media.

These units were part of an overaching campaign that won “Best Entertainment Rich Media Online Campaign” at the 2016 Internet Advertising Competition.

Additionally, each of these units were translated and developed in French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and run in 14 countries.

Blow-Activated Rich Media

This innovative execution features the audacious image of a map of South America formed from razor-chopped cocaine, compelling users to watch the trailer with the novel call to action “Blow on your phone for the trailer.” By leveraging the microphone to detect the user’s blow, the map appears to blow away, transitioning seamlessly to a fullscreen vertical video trailer.

Tilt-Activated Rich Media

The second of two unconventional rich media experiences, this unit utilizes tilt motion to proffer a choice between “silver or lead,” a phrase made notorious by Pablo Escobar and a central theme of the show. The user is presented with an image of Pablo Escobar, divided down the middle—with money and the word “silver” on the left and “lead” and bullets on the right. As the user tilts their phone to either side, the money and bullet elements move in response to their motion, and after a few seconds their choice is locked in and the corresponding video trailer begins.

Early Client Assets

After a few rounds of concept ideation, the creative team at AvatarLabs shared their work in progress images, which led to further ideation from InMobi. The first two images led to our final rich media concepts. Seeing the cocaine map creative led me to the idea of using the microphone-triggered “blow away” animation. The second image, featuring the character of Pablo Escobar led, to the “Silver or Lead” concept.

Blow Away Animation Sequence

Blowing into the phone triggered this animation sequence, which segued to to the full length trailer. (Click to enlarge)