We have detected that Netflix is using stealth marketing practices so that the plan with ads seem much more attractive of what it really is. A rather questionable strategy, which can lead to confusion for users.
Netflix introduced a couple of months ago its new cheapest plan with advertising, but apparently it is not attracting users. To the point that press reports ensure that some advertisers have asked for their money to be returned, or to delay the campaigns for later, because they do not have enough impressions (viewings).
Netflix need subscribers for your ad planso he is using all kinds of “tricks” to make the ad-supported plan looks more attractive than it really is. Let’s check it out.
Netflix’s trick to make its plan with ads look like a bargain
Suppose we are a new user who has never used Netflix, and we want to sign up. Or simply create another account.
We enter the Netflix website and see that at the top there is a banner that informs about a cheap new plan. Great, just what we’re looking for, now that we’re going to sign up!:
We touch on More information, and the page appears with the plans that Netflix offers us.
We take a look at the table… and hey, that Basic plan with ads it’s not so bad… you have to swallow 10 or 12 ads for each broadcast hour and watch everything at 720p, but compared to Standard, you save 7.5 euros per monthis an important paste:
Any user who does not understand, stays with those plans and you may subscribe to the Basics plan with adswhy supposedly you save 7.5 euros a month. But… there’s something weird about that list of plans…
What is the problem? That Netflix is deliberately hiding the Basic plan. There, in the middle of the text, in very small print, you can see a link that says See all plans. When you press it, this appears:
and of course here that changes completely. It turns out that the hidden Basic plan has no adsand it only costs 2.5 euros more per month.
Netflix It doesn’t explain anywhere how many ads does it broadcast. But we know that you have to watch complete between 10 and 12 30-second spots for every hour of broadcast. At the beginning, at the end, and even in the middle of a chapter or movie.
And honestly, between swallowing 10 ads for each episode of Stranger Things, or having your viewing cut in half, and paying 2.5 euros more per month… Well you stop buying yourself some sweets or having a couple of coffees at the bar per monthand you have already saved those 2.5 euros.
That’s him weak point of Netflix ad plan: what there is little difference in price, in exchange for having to see a lot of advertising. And Netflix knows it, that’s why deliberately hides the Basic plan. A rather questionable practice, which should be reconsidered.
