Netflix hands SEA and TW media duties to Hakuhodo's H+

Netflix has appointed Hakuhodo's H+ as media agency of record for Southeast Asia and Taiwan, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands.  

Upon the appointment, H+ is responsible for planning and buying the full regional media for Netflix.  

This comes after Netflix ended its partnership with UM for its media account and will now consolidate its media agency of record with H+ in the SEA and Taiwan regions.  

In November 2022, Netflix first launched its US$6.99 per month ad-supported plan, Basic with Ads which will include an average of four to five minutes of commercials each hour and the inability to download titles. At launch, commercials were 15 or 30 seconds in length and played before and during shows and films. 

This comes months after Netflix first mulled ad-supported plans in April despite its then co-CEO Reed Hastings being opposed to it for a long time.  

The Basic with Ads tier was first made available in 12 countries - Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US. Netflix has also partnered with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to verify the viewability and traffic validity of its ads beginning in the first quarter of 2023. 

On the content front, Netflix announced earlier that it is ramping up on its Chinese content offering by introducing a slate of Chinese-language content from Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Hong Kong’s action film Warriors of Future, Taiwanese fantasy series Agent From Above and Taiwanese LGBTQ+ show The Nipple Talk.

While Netflix’s recent acquisition certainly makes for an interesting indication of the emerging power of Chinese content, it is worth noting that as early as 2015, Netflix had already begun acquiring director Zheng Xiaolong’s costume drama Empresses in the Palace.

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