Romantic, aerial shots of Paris. Juicy love triangle drama. An entire show about… marketing?!

Talk about an immediate binge in my book! After weeks of travel, I was so delighted to finally sit down and start watching Emily in Paris.

Right away Emily Cooper felt like a kindred Chicagoan spirit (am I like this…with no marketing ‘off’ switch?).

While I died a little inside every time I saw her on screen in a beret (not you Julien or Sylvie…your outfits were a *chef’s kiss*), I found myself wishing I had a trip booked to France ASAP.

And fashion differences aside, Emily Cooper is a marketing magician?‍♀️. Clients love her ideas, her followers are happily influenced by her, and even disgruntled Sylvie (President of the Agency she works for) reluctantly admits that she knows what she’s doing.

But this all happens in the land of Netflix. So how realistic are some of these campaigns they run on the show?

?The Vaga–Jeune (all episodes linked in case you forgot!)

This client came across Emily’s desk as an intentional ruse by Sylvie, who was annoyed by her presence in the office. However, Emily quickly goes *viral* when she shares a meme about how the word for Vagina in French should be feminine, not masculine and that meme is retweeted (love the cross-platform sharing happening here LOL) by French First Lady, Brigitte Macron.

What can we learn: 

Social media is all about the conversation. Emily started a conversation by offering a strong opinion about a French word she didn’t agree with, but the genius is that she organically connected it to the brand.

Takeaway for you:

Don’t be afraid to share your opinions! In this scenario it may have been a bit risqué (see what I did there?) for Emily to assume a brand’s POV. However, in your own business – where you are the brand – it’s a great strategy. It helps attract people whose values align with yours, and it’s shareable content because it makes people pause and rethink their assumptions.

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? Durée Cosmetics Influencer Event

Once Emily’s personal social following starts garnering attention, she’s invited to an “influencer event” by Durée Cosmetics. She captures the attention of the CMO when she shares her personal story and connection with the brand in a video.

What can we learn: 

The reason Olivia – CMO of Durée – liked Emily’s content is that it felt natural and organic. She did a great job at telling her story of how she tried the lip gloss for the first time after her friend stole it from Target. She also spoke about its value (smudgeproof!) from personal experience.

Takeaway for you:

Storytelling is and will always be an incredibly powerful marketing tool. It’s why we watch Netflix shows in the first place – they’re manufactured stories. Don’t just bullet point the facts at your audience! They’ll lose interest. The key is to weave those bullets into an entertaining story that resonates with your audience.

?Champere

Emily’s friend Camille (we won’t go any deeper into this relationship here) asks her to help her family’s Champagne house move surplus bottles. She visits their Chateau where she meets Camille’s father who calls himself the Champere (Father of Champagne). Meanwhile, Emily’s other friend Mindy is back home at a bachelorette party, and when Emily sees a video on Instagram of the Bride spraying champagne, she gets the idea to make Champere the spray of Paris with Camille’s father the face of the campaign.

What can we learn:  

Marketing is about understanding your client’s needs and connecting with them at the right time and place. In this scenario, Emily was inspired by a real use case for an extra, cheaper bottle of Champagne to spray during celebrations (whether this is an actual use case IRL is debatable). She didn’t try to change people’s behavior. Instead, she shared with them the perfect product to match what they were already doing – spraying champagne!

Takeaway for you: 

If you have a really deep understanding of your ideal client and the things they’re already doing related to your niche, you have a treasure chest of ways you can support them. This takeaway can be used for product development and marketing.

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? Maison Lavaux Perfume

In this episode, Antoine (the “nose” of Paris) is upset because his new scent came out with only one good batch amongst many bad ones – which would cost him a lot of money. Emily saw this as a marketing opportunity and pitches the simple idea of using a limited supply to attract high-worth clients who were already at the bougie car event where the episode was set.

What can we learn: 

Using the psychology of supply and demand is the oldest and simplest trick in the book. If something is rare and everyone wants it, the price shoots up. This idea still made Antoine enough money through profit margin, even though he was decreasing sales volume.

Takeaway for you: 

If you’re a service provider, your time and energy are already scarce. You don’t have to manipulate the supply-demand curve. What you DO need to do is communicate that you have limited supply (aka only so many appointments) and make the quality of your work so dang good that demand continues to compound over time.

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Phew! That was a blast. Honestly, it makes me a little sad that Season 4 is so far away?.

While marketing isn’t always as sexy and easy as the show makes it look, it can be as simple as applying one of these lessons in a super small way.