5 Marketing Lessons I learned from La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)

After absorbing all the hype surrounding this Spanish Netflix show, I decided to give it a try and watch it.

‘La Casa de Papel’ or ‘House of Paper’ features two parts (part 1 - season 1 and 2) and (part 2 - seasons 3, 4, and impending 5). The first part shows the planning, execution and escape from the Royal Mint of Spain, with part two featuring the Bank of Spain.

The show is highly regarded with an IMDB rating of 8.5/10.

I have watched some great shows down the years with Breaking Bad, Mindhunter, Ozark, The Crown and Black Mirror being my ‘top 5’ favourite web series’.

I finished watching Money Heist last week and couldn’t help wonder what marketing lessons we can learn from it.

Please note, SPOILERS abound in the following lessons. These are my personal views and subjective to what you may think is good or bad about the show.

I felt that some aspects of the show are superbly shot. The pacing is good, with each actor doing justice to his/her character.

I did find Part 1 stretched, with too much screen time being devoted to on-screen romances. Spain is the real hero of the show, with its culture, language and beauty all portrayed positively.

Love is the central theme – The Professor falls in love with Det. Murillo (his adversary from Part 1), Denver with Monica, Toyko with Rio, Berlin with Ariadna and Tatiana, etc.

So, the marketing lessons I discovered while watching Money Heist are,

Lesson #1 – If You are the Professor, find your Det. Murillo

No surprises there.

When it comes to competitor research, you have to look at who is on the other side. If you are orchestrating your client’s marketing campaigns, look at who is the best in the relevant industry.

Start snooping on what your competitors are doing. What platforms are they active on? What type of content are they sharing? Are they doing paid ads? Use tools to check their best keywords. Check their top-performing content pages.

Don’t copy their style, just look at where they get their inspiration from to become no.1.

We don’t know if the Professor meets Det. Murillo in the bar on purpose or he was aware of her espresso-drinking-patterns. You need to keep track of your competitor’s social media sharing patterns. How many blog posts go out each week etc?

Lesson #2 – Making Money and Appease the Public Simultaneously

The robbers in the show use public sentiment to their advantage. Their public image slowly shifts from heist masters to Robin Hood.

Vanity metrics such as reach, engagement and massive website traffic mean nothing without conversions. Despite this, branding cannot be ignored.

Make sure that each branding activity has a purpose, target audience, relevant content types, and measurable metrics.

Just like each of the 8 robbers has an objective of their own to enter the heist, branding without objective will be void.

Lesson #3 – Get Influencers from The Outside

The Professor isn’t alone. He hires Serbs and later Benjamin to dig holes through the prison and courthouse. He hires the world’s best goldsmiths to melt the ingots.

His core team of 8, city-named robbers remain the same in number. But he does add-in personnel who influence some of their biggest success-garnering tasks.

Influencer marketing has now moved from ‘top marketing trends’ to ‘absolute must-haves’. Contact such influential people to spread the word about your product. Choose influencers who are relevant to your industry.

Organize podcasts, webinars or Facebook Live with them discussing issues about your industry. Do branding for them in return.

Lesson #4 – Improve Your Skillset

I noticed that all capital-city-named robbers are leaders. Berlin, Tokyo, Nairobi, and to some extent Bogota; all show potential as leaders of the heist.

This means that even if you work with a team of talented marketers, you need to add more skills to your arsenal.

Try to take an interest in business development. Improve your presentation skills. Learn PPT animation or start working on your animation skills.

The more you learn, the better it is for your personal growth. Don’t rely on your superiors to spoon-feed every detail. Just like how Palermo decides to take decisions in the absence of the Professor (ignore the outcome), you need to make things easier for your superiors to take decisions.

Lesson #5 – Keep a Plan B ready

COVID-19 pandemic achieved record job losses in a month, something which the inflation of 2008 took 4 years to achieve.

This has affected all industries and markets collectively. Do you have enough skills to be able to rise again once things get better? Use this downtime to keep a plan B ready.

Gain new skills during this downtime and identify success points in your product or business. Can a different perspective work? Do you have the resources to make the new perspective successful?

The Professor always has a plan B. No plan involving real people can be 100% foolproof. Emotions and passion ruin the plan numerous times. The Professor spends more time tying up loose ends than monitoring the progress.