Is incorporating user data into PR messaging ‘creepy’?

Santa might know who has been bad or good, but Netflix knows how many times you watched “A Christmas Story” this week.

In a humorous tweet, the video streaming company poked fun at dozens of users who had repeatedly viewed “A Christmas Prince” in recent weeks.

To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?

— Netflix US (@netflix) December 11, 2017

The tweet was retweeted over 100,000 times and got lots of play among Twitter’s more waggish users. Netflix’s tweet recalls other brand presences that have added a little snark, including Wendy’s and DiGiorno.

Some users found it creepy that Netflix admitted that it had tapped into user data.

This is amazing. Except for the “watching us like big brother “ part ;)

— blake (@blaketopia) December 11, 2017

So unknown creepy Netflix staff have access to your viewing data, use it to creep on you, laugh at you, maybe publicly. I guess it's like video store staff, except a massive database means it's easier for creepy Netflix staff to find and creep on individual people they know. https://t.co/JUlAau4xkQ

— ben goldacre (@bengoldacre) December 11, 2017

Others seemed ready to own up to their viewing habits:

My wife every night before bed she puts it on.. I have it almost memorized lol

— Jeff Bartrom (@DocCupCake84) December 11, 2017

Some mused that it was obvious Netflix would have this kind of data about its customers:

People actually think @netflix's tweet was creepy? They just pulled back the curtain and revealed what we all already knew. If you aren't buying physical media with cash from brick and mortar stores, your viewing habits are collectable/quantifiable data.

— Everyone's Devil (@BrackenMacLeod) December 12, 2017

The Washington Post reported on Netflix’s jab:

The tone of the message is also drawing criticism. Netflix, after all, produced and promoted the movie, which is in the vein of an uplifting, unapologetically cheery Hallmark film. Shaming its subscribers, even in jest, for a feel-good film meant to cheer up its viewers didn't sit well with everyone. One user even compared the tweet to “bullying.”

Many other reactions were lighter, with several people taking the opportunity to say that Netflix itself was hurting them—either by pulling their favorite shows or with its disappointing selection.

Netflix defended its tweet, pointing out it hadn’t revealed the identities of the 53 “Christmas Prince” aficionados.

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The BBC wrote:

In a statement, Netflix said the privacy of its members was important.

"This information represents overall viewing trends, not the personal viewing information of specific, identified individuals," said a representative.

Not lost on some was that the music streaming service Spotify has used similar customer data for recent advertisements.

Why is it when @Spotify creates billboards about what people listen to it’s cool but when @netflix does it it’s creepy?

— Spenser Myers Foley (@spenserfoley) December 12, 2017

Spotify’s efforts were profiled in Ad Week, which wrote:

The streaming music service’s new global out-of-home campaign for the holidays uses the same basic approach as last year—billboards with snappy headlines based around fun tidbits of user data. This year’s tweak is that the campaign is positioned as “2018 goals,” with the ads highlighting #winning behavior from 2017 that should serve you well in 2018.

For example, the ad at the top of this story will run globally. The headline reads, “Take a page from the 3,445 people who streamed the ‘Boozy Brunch’ playlist on a Wednesday this year.”

Spotify’s efforts are just as risky as Netflix’s, with the music streamer even dipping its toes into the politics. Ad Week reported that some of Spotify’s holiday billboards took aim at Trump’s disgraced lieutenants, including former press secretary Sean Spicer and short-term White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

However, Spotify’s efforts haven’t been savaged on social media, as some Twitter users seem unaware of its long history of using customer data for humorous messaging.

A takeaway for communicators is that a tweet can reach a lot more people than a billboard, but the digital billboard equivalent is volatile and requires a robust response plan. On the internet, consumers have billboards, too.

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