The fourth season of the famous Spanish series Money Heist has arrived on Netflix and with it its consequent revolution. In addition, the success of the production is such that the documentary “The Paper House: The Phenomenon” is also released on the same platform. And we ask ourselves: How has “La casa de papel” become the current phenomenon? What have been the keys to achieving the virality that it has come to have? We tell you below.
Netflix’s commitment to La casa de papel
The series was born as a Atresmedia production that was broadcast on Antena 3 between May and November 2017, achieving 4.5 million viewers. So it worked well, yes, but the international success of La casa de papel, or also known as ‘Money Heist’ in non-Hispanic marketsreally came when Netflix bought its rights and joined its catalog at the end of 2017.
That’s when they incorporate it into their catalog as just another series, without advertising, but it doesn’t take long for it to establish itself and gain popularity. From there, they decide to continue with the series by releasing the third season and Netflix adapts the chapters that go from having a duration of 70 minutes to 40 minutes, thus betting on shorter and more intense chapters. Such was the success on an international level that it has already become the most viewed non-English speaking series on the platform.
Clear and replicable symbology
Symbology is especially important to create a movement, a phenomenon as such. The symbols of La casa de papel are mainly three: the Red color (used on the jumpsuits worn by the beloved muggers and featured in many scenes using neutral backgrounds), the masks with the face of the painter Salvador Dalí and the famous “Beautiful bye”which is a popular Italian song that was adopted at the time as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance.
Tokio, one of the protagonists played by Úrsula Corberó, tells in one of the episodes: «The Professor’s life revolved around a single idea: resistance. His grandfather, who had fought against the fascists in Italytaught him the song and he taught it to us». And he taught it so that it would remain, without a doubt, as an anthem of the production as well. Following its appearance in the series, the song has entered the charts of various countries such as Germany and has been covered by several well-known artists.
These symbols that have been used in the series, have been replicated in freedom and resistance movements against various injustices in various countries, like the one that was at the time the German and Italian fascism against which the Italian partisans fought to the rhythm of “Bella ciao, ciao, ciao”. They are easy symbols to recreate, repeat and adapt to the situation you want.
Thanks to having these symbols, the phenomenon has become even more viral than another similar series could have been without these components. This is what Jesús Colmenar, the executive director of the production, said: “That iconography has been one of the reasons, if not the most important, for international success.”
international phenomenon
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The series began to have a very large reach and visibility. It is beginning to be seen through the Netflix platform in many countries around the world and people’s reception of the history and symbols that we mentioned before is more than positive. And that was noticeable at all levels.
The same actors and actresses from the series they began to see their followers grow, who no longer understood borders. They went from being famous actors and actresses in Spain to being famous internationally. There they began to notice that the series was taking on a much larger dimension than they expected and the boom was very clear.
The increase was more than remarkable, as we can see, by way of example, in the following graph shared by Verne (El País) in which the evolution of the followers of six of the actors in the series in the first months is shown of 2018.
Álex Pina himself, creator of the series, explained that when working with local teams in different countries where they recorded the last seasons, «it was curious because those teams knew ‘La Casa de Papel’ and were nervous because they were going to participate in the Serie”.
He also acknowledged that to choose the city names that the members of the band have, they took into account that they were direct and had sonority but also analyzed the sites where there were more followers of the series in the world.
People wearing red jumpsuits and Salvador Dalí masks or singing the Bella Ciao have been seen at many events in many countries: demonstrations, sports matches, video clips and many others. And of course, in carnival, becoming one of the most popular costumes 😉
From SEAT to Neymar
The paper house has also taken advantage of its success to incorporate great figures and brands in its production. This also helps to make the series and the phenomenon itself more viral.
Neymarfor example, declares himself a fan of La casa de papel and, so much so, that even we can see him as an actor in one of the scenes of the series. That’s how happy he was for having been able to participate as João in his favorite series.
I was able to make my dream and do part of my favorite series. And now you can share João with all of you!
Thank you !
– Neymar Jr (@neymarjr)
And not only soccer players, other personalities like Anthony Garcia Ferreras, from Al Rojo Vivo – La Sextahave also been present.
LAST MINUTE. Inspector Sierra and Colonel Tamayo speak from the Bank of Spain: “We offered them a sanitary corridor to attend to one of the robbers.”
– The Paper House (@lacasadepapel)
Certain brands have also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to appear in the series. Estrella Galicia is one of the brands that has opted for product placement in the famous series appearing in the best celebrations.
In fact, this year it has gone further by launching a new special themed edition of their beer. The brand wears more than 32 million labels with the image of the series and launches them in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Y SEAT is another of the brands that has recently been linked to La casa de papel after responding to a tweet published by Netflix in which he recalled a scene from the last season of the series in which a Maserati is compared to a 600.
Unless “treating you like a 600” means taking care of yourself for the next 50 years and living the rest of your life’s adventures together 😉
— SEAT Spain (@tuSEAT)
Powerful and eye-catching advertising
Netflix He made sure that we were all well informed that La casa de papel was coming back, and it was doing it in a big way. The series could be seen advertised in such emblematic places as Times Square or the center of Lisbon, in the windows of Diesel stores, on the floats of important carnivals, in the train stations of Paris or Madrid, in entire buildings of Warsaw or Milan… and much more.
And the palm was taken when several red suitcases full of banknotes were sneaked into the Frankfurt airport who were circling eleven of the baggage claim belts. The names of the protagonists of the series could be seen written on the suitcases, accompanied by a video showing the offender in question.
We say goodbye with The Professor and Berlin. And with the fourth season already available on Netflix 😉
That you are reading this means that you have reached the end. Thanks for joining us! It arrives this Friday.
– The Paper House (@lacasadepapel)
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