Product & Innovation
How did Netflix market itself before people owned DVD players?
Answered independently in 2 episodes, by 2 different people. Every line below is verbatim from the transcript, timestamped to the moment it was said.
The short answer
What the archive says
01Because almost nobody owned DVD players, Netflix skipped mass advertising and instead put free-rental coupons inside DVD players from every manufacturer plus retailers like Circuit City—fishing where the fish were. source →
02With almost no DVD players in homes, TV advertising would have wasted 99.5% of the spend — so Marc personally sold DVD manufacturers and retailers like Circuit City on in-box coupons for free rentals to catch buyers at peak excitement. source →
In their words
What 2 people actually said
But you did start building and seeding the Netflix brand and that's where I remember it circuit city I bought a DVD player and it came with the 10 free CDs.
Circuit City I bought a DVD player and it came with the 10 free CDs I think that's why I bought the CD the DVD player I can't believe that you asked to remember that because you're correct after we did the deals with the DVD manufacturers You did a big deal with circus city It would be a big deal with all the other retailers.
The episodes
2 episodes answer this
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