The Upside Down of Marketing with Stranger Things

One thing’s for sure: the 80s were a simpler time, and brands didn’t need to consider the evolving digital landscape (hello, AI), social influencers, or the fact that almost everyone with a smartphone is now considered a creator. However, Stranger Things has proven that looking back (or even upside down) can make a huge difference to your brand’s marketing.

Stranger Things Season 4 is the third-most-popular series on Netflix globally, following Wednesday and Adolescence, racking up 1.35 billion hours viewed in the first 4 weeks of its release. 

In Europe, Netflix has shared the following release dates:

• Volume 1: 27th November, 2025
• Volume 2: 26th December, 2025
• The Finale: 1st January, 2026

This is the final goodbye to Stranger Things, which first aired in July 2016 (almost a decade ago?!), and it’s crazy to see the main characters working on their own projects (shout out to Djo).

The final season starts in autumn 1987. I think it’s going to be an emotional one. Instead of multiple storylines happening in different places, the whole group are back together again. 

In the trailer, we see a closed-off Hawkins and military quarantine complicating things, with the group’s movement restricted, and the whereabouts of Vecna, and his plans, unknown. It’s going to be an intense finale – the Hawkins gang versus Vecna. 

With old storylines returning to the surface (Will just can’t catch a break) and action-packed scenes, if season 4 is anything to go off, season 5 is going to be darker than ever.  

There are many strange ways Stranger Things has truly flipped the marketing world upside down, which is why we have put together a few ways the show has really made marketers rethink how to engage audiences.

Stranger Things has opened the gate for brands to jump on the bandwagon. Many brands can harness the buzz during the lead up to any new series to create strange content that links back to their brand. From fast food chain Burger King offering an Upside Down Whopper Meal, a regular whopper burger simply served upside down, to Coleman releasing camping gear with the iconic vintage colouring and retro Stranger Things inspired graphics, and Covergirl releasing ‘Vecna’s Curse’ – a PH transforming blush. When it comes to marketing you should always be open to strange ideas.

Today, data drives everything from the content we create to the experiences we have, meaning simple curation is no longer enough. For example, when Stranger Things season four was released, Spotify gave customers a personalised playlist that would help you escape from Vecna and the Upside down.

For the release of Season 5, Netflix has teamed up with Funko for a new line of Pop! Yourself accessories, which allows you to create a Funko Pop! figure of yourself, with clothing and accessories based on the upcoming season.

This shows that marketers need to always be looking for ways to personalise content and experiences so people can relate more to their brand.

Take Google’s hidden Easter Eggs, for example… Stranger Things has utilised these by creating one that turns a Netflix user’s page upside down. 

While everyone is buzzing for the new season, Chips Ahoy has created limited-edition packs with a QR code that takes you into a 3D-rendered Hawkins, where you’re tasked with finding hidden cookie icons in the Upside Down. Each one you find becomes an entry towards a real-life prize, with the big one being a one-of-a-kind Stranger Things guitar modeled after Eddie Munson. 

Integrating gaming tactics to amp up its cool factor and embed the unexpected into fans’ interactions with the show. Brands that look to gamify their brand narrative are bound to win, especially with millennials.

The Stranger Things team took advantage of consumers’ thirst for intel by creating a YouTube playlist called Hawkins Monitored. The playlist allowed fans to spy on Hawkins residents with the use of hidden cameras – giving a deeper insight into their favourite Stranger Things characters. Brands that look far beyond their brand storylines are able to make deeper and more long-lasting connections with their customers.

Netflix wrapped up it’s third Upfront of 2025 in May 2025, and they’ve unveiled a new AI-powered modular framework that lets marketers literally step into the worlds of shows like Stranger Things.

You can take their library of visuals and create branded content that matches the look and feel of the series (think Stranger Things style, but with your brand’s spin). This makes creative experimentation faster and scalable. 

There is a fine line to this, though. As generative AI becomes advanced and more capable of creating lifelike images, controversy around the topic has only grown, especially in creative sectors like film and TV.

Apart from giving us a show to binge on, Stranger Things provides several insights on how marketers can reach consumers. Here are four marketing lessons you as a business can learn to help you draw more customers in.

Stranger Things uses nostalgia to its full advantage. It features plenty of relatable moments that causes fans to fall in love with the show’s characters. From first kisses to Joyce trusting her instincts when searching for Will, you can use emotional connections to encourage fans to relate to your brand just like the show does. To do so, you need to focus on inclusivity, go beyond customer expectations, give your audience a sense of belonging and be authentic. Aim to understand your customers’ key emotional motivators through social listening and messaging analysis, so you can draw on these insights to help you shape your marketing activity.

Let your customers and social media followers be your very own spokespeople, by encouraging them to create user-generated content. This will allow them to tell your story to like-minded people, no doubt growing your business and audience reach in turn. In the lead up to the release of Stranger Things their marketing hype was small but they made up for it in high quality content created by their own fan base, which was highly effective. In effect, Stranger Things made such a good impression on its fans that they as consumers sold it to other consumers.

We can’t forget the ‘Chrissy, wake up,’ memes and the iconic ‘Running Up That Hill,’ moment, which caused fans to make their own montages.

 Social buzz is a great indication of how popular a show, service or product is and people are more likely to purchase or watch something when they see others they know talking about it.

Product placements are a great way to connect with consumers and increase brand awareness. Stranger Things has some amazing examples throughout many of the seasons, including Coca Cola’s ‘New Coke’ screen time, which brought in roughly $1.5 million in product placement ad value. As audiences look for advertisement-free viewing platforms, companies like KFC are looking for ways to place their products within TV shows. Keep in mind though that placements need to be organic and naturally placed within the shows – avoiding hard selling.

Collaborations are a great way to reach more customers and capitalise another brand’s audience. We have already mentioned Stranger Things’ partnership with Burger King, but there were many more. The show’s creators always ensure they collaborate with the right partnering brands, ones that will truly appeal to their target audience. This is why they chose Nike, as fans were obsessed with both the 80s pop culture and Nike’s cult shoe designs. When it comes to partnerships you need to engineer buzz around the collaboration: sharing video teasers and dropping hints on social media, but never reveal too much information at the beginning to make sure your audience stays interested.