The livestream for Netflix’s third annual Tudum fan event garnered 78 million views across all of the streamer’s social platforms Saturday, marking this version — presented in front of 11,000 people in São Paulo, Brazil — as up 86% in viewership from last year’s 41.8 million views, and more than 203% from 2021’s initial 25.7 million.
Netflix likely didn’t set out to bring the in-person Tudum crowd to tears during the three-hour event — but once they started flowing, it was a fortunate side effect the streamer proudly displayed on social media.
“I wish you could have been there to convey the electricity of the audience and capture those moments,” Netflix chief marketing officer Marian Lee told Variety Tuesday about the streamer’s first attempt at pulling off Tudum as a real-time presentation with an in-person audience, following two years of the virtual-version of the event. “We posted on Twitter crying fans in the audience because it was just like that sort of Beatles moment every time one of their favorites came on stage, there were just sobbing tears in the audience.”
It wasn’t just the Netflix C-suite that was pleased with the emotions that were running high during the three-hour, livestreamed event: “Never Have I Ever” star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who co-emceed Tudum alongside “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes and “Back to 15″ star Maisa Silva, was blown away by the response as well. “I knew the energy and excitement would be outstanding, but I could have never imagined it would be as amazing and passionate as it was,” said Ramakrishnan, who was promoting the fourth and final season of the Mindy Kaling comedy alongside her co-stars. “Brazil made me feel so welcome and that truly is just so special. Tudum got to highlight the power of TV/film but also the immense power of fans internationally.”
That’s from a star whose hit Netflix show has already concluded. For those like “One Piece” star Inaki Godoy, who were debuting the first footage from their upcoming, long-awaited projects, the rabid fans’ overwhelmed reaction might have been even more impressive.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to be included in such a massive event,” Godoy said. “The experience was everything I could have ever wished for and the people of Brazil were so welcoming. I am so happy we were able to celebrate such a special moment with them.”
Also in attendance were A-listers with Netflix projects, including Henry Cavill (“The Witcher”), Gal Gadot (“Heart of Stone”), Chris Hemsworth (“Extraction 2”), Arnold Schwarzenegger (“Fubar”) and Zack and Debbie Snyder (“Rebel Moon”). Those splashy appearances were mixed with first-looks and announcements for big-budget titles including the final season of “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday” Season 2, live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” “One Piece,” “3 Body Problem,” “Bridgerton” Season 3, “All The Light We Cannot See,” and “Squid Game: The Challenge,” among many others.
And all of this was just what those tuning into the livestream saw — as Netflix hosted a three-day, in-person immersive experience for Tudum attendees in Brazil to shop, eat and photo-op their way through Netflix series and movies at the Bienal at Ibirapuera Park. Per Netflix, “Over 25,000 attendees ventured into the space which featured 21 interactive activations and dozens of meet and greets with talent.”
On social media, Tudum was trending at No. 2 in the U.S., Brazil and worldwide, while “One Piece,” the highly anticipated Netflix adaptation of the popular manga of the same name, grabbed the No. 1 spot globally after its teaser debut.
Overall, Netflix says that 2023 Tudum content — which it counts as pre-event trailers, the event itself, and day of title-asset-debuts across Netflix and talent handles — drove over 1.2 billion views in aggregate worldwide.
Here, Variety breaks down the in-person and livestreamed aspects of Saturday’s Tudum event with CMO Lee, as well as her plans for future iterations and the streamer’s live experiences strategy at large.
How did you decide to make Tudum a large-scale, in-person and fully live event this time around?
Marian Lee: We are always thinking about how we can innovate. And I don’t know if you know this, but Tudum started in Brazil as a smaller, local activation. And then we took it digital during the pandemic, because we still wanted to be able to engage with fans around the world. Immediately after last year’s, we started to think about, how do you make it even better next year? And the Brazil team was like, we know, this sounds crazy, but what if we bring it back to a live event and then stream it live globally from São Paulo? And that’s what really got the wheels in motion to have it back in Brazil, in person, but keeping that global livestream component that has been so successful for us over the last two years.
I know the TV and film fan community in Brazil is particularly passionate and active at fan conventions and events. Was that why you decided to return to Brazil rather than host it somewhere else?
You nailed it — but a large part of it was the history of the fact that when we had it locally in Brazil, the level of fandom, for something much smaller scale, was off the charts. You know this, like Brazil Comic-Con is even bigger than the Comic-Con in San Diego. The Brazilians just engaged with fandom on a next level. And so it really came out of, not just the global team thinking about how to make this even better this year, really the Brazil team saying, our fans eat up any news that comes out of our social handles, we have 850 million people engaging in Netflix social handles, and just the acknowledgement that we could really create something unique and fun for Brazilians on the ground, and that they would really be game to try this with us.
What we were able to show you all on the livestream was really just one component. Right next to where we were livestreaming, for three days we had a huge activation in the massive convention center and we created all of these immersive activations for some of our biggest titles. People were queued up to take pictures in the “Bridgerton” orange grove, we had a “One Piece” pirate ship, we had a climbing wall for “Heart of Stone,” for “Extraction,” you got hitched and harnessed up and there was a game and all this participation. On the second floor, we had this massive Korea Town, because Brazilians love Korean content. And we had photo opportunities: the “Squid Game” tug of war and the red light, green light. We had a roller rink from “Stranger Things.” And then a huge Tudum store where they could pick up custom merchandise from all of our shows, and also custom Tudum merchandise. And then a massive food court with food from all of our shows and all of our brands. That part, in and of itself, I toured for two days. It was just even bigger, next level, thousands of people engaging. Our talent was able to come, we had a stage there and also a glass studio. It was fandom next level.
Was it a ticketed event, or was it free?
We had two different sets of tickets, one for the actual livestreamed event that you saw. And then you needed tickets to go through the convention center. Everything was free to fans, but just for us to crowd control, we issued tickets. We sold out in the first hour of us issuing tickets. And then I think the morning of, we also issued another set of tickets that sold out immediately. But everything was completely free.
The merch was a regular store, and within the store, it’s a bookshop of all of the IP that we have on Netflix: the “Heartstopper” books, the “One Piece” manga, we had all the Addams Family stuff. And then we had the usual T-shirts, hoodies, and we had a custom screen-printing area where you could make your own T-shirts. And it was every time I walked in there, I was like, next year, we need to have double the size of this store because it was so crowded.
What does this cost to put on — and aside from the merch store and food court, what revenue streams does Netflix see from Tudum?
We don’t really focus on this as a revenue stream for us. This is all about connecting with our fans. And so we really look at it as an extension of the marketing activities we do for all of our shows and movies. And that’s how we really approach all of our consumer products and our live experiences, just as an extension of our content for our fans. That’s why we don’t sell tickets. It’s really just a way for everyone to just have an opportunity to be up close and experience something that they never have before.
With it being entirely livestreamed this year, were there any kinks with that? How was it different from previous years, where the stream was made up of pre-taped segments?
Well, thank god it was completely flawless. I’m there live, but I’m watching every stream. I’m watching the U.S. stream, we also livestreamed on our Netflix platform and everything went off without a hitch. And so I feel really grateful that everyone was looking down on us and we executed that really well. I think from a show perspective, we always just think about how we can improve and this is really a global, cross-functional team discussion of what really works, what news are we debuting, what do fans want to see? We really start with what the fans want to see. We think about what shows or movies have just come, like “Extraction 2” had just come out, and we had Chris Hemsworth there with Sam Hargrave, and that was really incredible. We had Arnold Schwarzenegger there, he just had his docuseries debut and also his television show, “Fubar.” But then we are introducing new shows, like “3 Body Problem” and “One Piece,” which isn’t out. And so it really is for us a discussion of what do our fans want to know about, what’s the best timing, and all of that. And this year, we were localizing the livestream in real time to all the countries. And that was also an incredible technological feat to do that.
How do you decide what news to break out of Tudum, and what to release throughout the year in other ways?
I consider ourselves to be really lucky because we have a lot to choose from, in terms of breaking news or exclusive first looks, or it could be a trailer, it could be a clip, it could be that we have the entire cast of “The Witcher” there. It really is a discussion of, Tudum is in June, what do we have on the schedule, and then what’s the news that our fans want to hear? For me personally, having Arnold come out to talk about “Fubar” and his doc series, but then to connect it with Linda Hamilton from “Terminator” and then be able to connect them to Linda Hamilton joining the cast of our last season of “Stranger Things” — that’s incredible. That really goes to show you the power of Netflix and all of our shows and movies.
Were there any internal conversations about the timing of Tudum amid the WGA strike, and it being unfortunate the writers and creators of these projects could not participate?
No. There was none of that discussion happening in the planning of it.
Have you started working on plans for next year’s Tudum? Will it be another in-person event?
I don’t have anything concrete yet. But I will say that, the show ended and we all looked at each other and said, what are we going to do next year? How do you top that? It was just this feeling of complete and utter joy to see fans literally crying, and then for talent to come up to us to say that they had never experienced this before in their lifetimes. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but even Zack and Debbie Snyder, to be able to tell us — and they have rabid, rabid fans — for them to tell us that it was so overwhelming for them, we always think about this as, how are we going to top this next year? But I just got back from Brazil yesterday, the teams who are on the ground are all coming back now. And I think everybody is super excited to start talking about how we’re going to top ourselves.
And even though this was just a massive endeavor for our part, we have a lot of live experiences on the ground. We announced while we were in Brazil that the “Bridgerton” ball is coming to São Paulo. It’s a fan favorite. We’ve had 44 wedding proposals that have happened around the world at that event. We just announced Netflix Bites, which is our food pop-up in Los Angeles, which is launching at the end of the month. We have our “Stranger Things” play, which is debuting in the West End in December. We just opened the largest “Stranger Things” store in Las Vegas this month. And we have just so many live experiences around the world that will keep those fans satiated until we figure out what we’re doing for Tudum.
How is Netflix prioritizing those in-person and live experiences in its overall strategy moving forward?
It will be a big part of our strategy. It’s so critical. People want something tangible to go to and to engage with. And so this has been such a fun part of marketing our shows and getting to really think about our shows and movies year-round, instead of just in that promotional window.