The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022
Netflix turns its Tudum start sound into a tribute to devoted viewers
Netflix's 'Tudum' tells viewers a great story is starting — Publicis Italy built a whole campaign on that shared recognition.
Netflix
What it had to solve
Netflix wanted to celebrate the passionate, sensitive viewers who share the brand's love of great stories. Publicis Italy built the idea on Netflix's most iconic trademark: the 'Tudum' people hear every time they start a show — the unmistakable sound that a great new story is about to begin.
How it works
Every Netflix show starts the same way: the 'Tudum' — two soft notes that tell millions of viewers a great story is about to begin. Netflix wanted to celebrate the passionate, sensitive viewers who share the brand's love of stories.
Publicis Italy made that trademark the whole campaign. Instead of showing footage or logos, the film staged everyday moments in which someone is about to tell a story — a glance, a pause, a conversation — and left the audience to supply the Tudum they hear in their own heads.
Netflix Italia launched the campaign during the Sanremo Music Festival in February 2022, Italy's most-watched pop-cultural event, and reported more than 22 million social interactions around it. The work is kept in the D&AD awards archive, which records no separate view figures.
Why it lands
- The Tudum is pre-installed in every viewer: no exposition was needed because the sound already means a great story is starting.
- The film made the audience the star — devoted viewers recognise themselves as the people who hear stories coming.
- The payoff happens in the viewer's head, so the recognition feels like their own cleverness rather than a delivered punchline.
- Launching at Sanremo matched the message with the moment: Italy's biggest story-loving audience was already gathered.
What it did
The spot turned an interface sound into a shared cultural cue, letting devoted viewers recognise themselves as the audience that hears stories coming. Launched at Sanremo, the campaign drew more than 22 million reported social interactions, and the work is kept in the D&AD awards archive, which records no separate view figures.
What you can take
A brand's most functional assets — a sound, a gesture, a UI moment — can carry an entire idea when you treat them as shared culture rather than utility.
Since then
The Sound of Stories gave Netflix's sonic identity a life beyond the app, reframing a functional start-up sound as the shared vocabulary of storytelling itself. The campaign is kept in the D&AD awards archive, whose page records no separate reach figures; its documented significance is showing how a brand's most ordinary asset — a sound users hear thousands of times — can become the emotional core of an entire campaign.
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