5 Lessons the Squid Game Phenomenon Can Teach You About Viral Marketing

There are lots of things you could take from the incredible popularity of the Netflix show Squid Game, but marketing lessons may not be the first to come to mind. When you look at its huge success and realize Netflix rolled out relatively little press or publicity for it prior to its debut, the viral nature of its reach becomes apparent.

Few would have predicted that the gruesome and disturbing drama series would become the hit it has, so what can you learn from the marketing behind Squid Game?

1. Big advertising budgets can’t compete with word of mouth

Organic chatter about Squid Game proved more valuable than any amount of ad budget, no matter how large, could have procured. Those who watched the show talked about it in real life and online, leading to others wanting to be part of that conversation.

Social media takes the age-old technique of word of mouth marketing to a whole new level, with memes and comments spreading faster than ever before. Of course, the violent nature of Squid Game is what fuelled the conversation, but if you can find a way for your brand to capture the public imagination, word of mouth can result in significant ROI.

2. It’s good not to provide all the answers

So often in marketing the challenge is seen as being how to get as much information about a product or service into a small space, before losing the audience’s concentration. Squid Game became a huge TikTok trend, with many viewers sharing niche jokes about the series and the only way to understand them was to watch the show itself.

A less is more approach to marketing has been shown to work on occasions in the past, with brands that provide fewer answers sticking in the heads of potential customers for longer. Piquing your audience’s interest and letting them come to you may seem like a gamble, but Squid Game showed it can work.

3. Calculated risks can pay off

Many marketing departments settle for running regular campaigns in a tried and tested format that get them a reasonable level of attention. This safe approach is predictable, but precludes any innovation that could result in viral content and the start of a journey to all that free world of mouth marketing.

It took a long time for the Squid Game script to be picked up for TV - over a decade in fact - but the timing of it eventually cut through the rest of the content being streamed at the time. An intriguing new concept has much more potential to reach further than something similar to what’s gone before, but there’s no way to know how audiences will take it.

4. Audiences relate to basic human emotions

Most viewers of Squid Game are not well versed in South Korean culture or the games the characters are being asked to participate in. This doesn’t stop them from engaging with the dilemmas they face and the resulting emotions, making the challenges universally understood.

This idea of tapping into emotion is one marketers understand and building a connection in this way can help a product to succeed. Basic humanity can transcend cultures, meaning there’s no need for explainers, so it’s worth thinking about deeper factors in campaigns.

5. Make considered visual design choices

Design should never be an afterthought in your marketing campaigns but should be carefully considered for maximum impact. Squid Game used colours and design concepts in a number of clver ways to ensure it stuck in the viewer's memory. The three main ones were:

Familiarity

Referencing familiar motifs, such as Escher’s stairwell or the red suits seen in Money Heist, the creators of Squid Game built a sense of comfort and belonging among audiences. This is a powerful way to bring potential customers in and boost affinity.

Set a color palette

Colors drive emotion and the pastel backgrounds in Squid Game contrast powerfully with the red and green of the characters’ uniforms. Red suggests danger or anger, while green symbolizes renewal, helping to build the expectations associated with different groups in the show. Marketers can help to set parameters in a short space of time through the effective use of color.

Simple logos

The clean, simple design of the logos associated with each game and those seen on the masks of the guards show the importance of not overcomplicating such elements. Brand logos should follow these rules to allow space for potential customers to project their own perceptions onto them as the relationship grows.