Originally posted here (Spanish) in 2017.

With the release of its third season, ‘Los Caballeros de Cali,’ we realize that Narcos is here to stay and that its construction in the first two seasons did what everyone wants for their brand: evoke love in people. Yes. Love.

Who didn’t feel empathy for Pablo and his family? Who didn’t ironically wish that he wouldn’t die in the end?

Narcos began by focusing on Pablo and the world that revolved around him. We got to know, on the Netflix storyline level, his human, ruthless, loyal, and above all, respected side. It’s enough to recall the end of the first season to understand that he was a respected man.

Over two years of construction, the series sparked empathy towards the protagonist. His story, his friends, and especially his enemies. The series allowed us to delve into all the characters without neglecting the main one, and that’s why many of us had a marathon of the second season. This point is important: the series was constructed so well that despite everyone knowing he dies in the end, we wanted to know how that moment would unfold.

What happens in the third season?

Now, the focus isn’t on “Los Caballeros”. It’s on Narcos as a series. While we identified with them in a certain way due to their problems, their handling of situations, or loss of control, there isn’t enough time to fall in love with all four characters. Of course, there are four stories in a few episodes. There’s a connection with the series, but not with the main characters as we had with Pablo.

I feel that this was a prelude to moving on to Mexico: a country with a very large ‘market’ to explore in this context. If something was clear at the end of Pablo’s story, it’s without a doubt that we’re going to have Narcos stories for a good while. That’s the challenge. To live in the moment and not be forgotten, and this is where we can apply the strategy of this series to marketing, to the life of a brand.

In this time we live in where the rules of the marketing game have changed, numbers aren’t as easy to manage as before, finding results is harder when advertising agencies haven’t transitioned to the new business model. Now is when we must tell stories. Stories planned to achieve what Narcos has done today: create brand love that everyone eagerly awaits the next season of.

The first thing is to consider how the brand will be launched. In the case of the series, we see that the Narcos brand launches its first product: Pablo Escobar. In the first season, they manage to make people love him, accompany him in making decisions, see what happens with his family, how his story unfolds. Netflix identifies the enemies of its product (the DEA agents and others) to give the story more life and strength, and at the same time, to make everyone love Pablo even more. Do you already know the enemies of your brand that can strengthen empathy towards your product?

The second part is what confirms its success: people anticipate the conclusion of the story even though they already know the ending. A new friend of the product appears: Limón. He helps you love Narcos and Pablo even more. Seeing someone loyal by his side, fighting against his enemies, and dying for and with him adds value to the product that goes beyond reason. The loyalty he demonstrates towards his boss is every marketer’s dream: to find that figure out of thin air that can become the ambassador for your brand and product. Does your brand already have that loyal ambassador, or is it just an ‘influencer’ with many followers?

The third part is the brand’s moment of maturity: they killed off their star product and tell people, ‘Don’t worry, the Pablo inventory is gone, but in a few months, we have something new.’ During the launch, they tell you upfront, ‘It’s not just one product anymore, it’s now four!’

Here, it’s confirmed that the brand will be around for a while. The product’s quality drops a bit, as now they have to produce four, but they continue to satisfy consumers by giving them what they want: a story to follow. We see the enemies of the products, the loyal friends, and the twist is seeing someone important to the star products switch sides to create a new conflict.

Has your brand’s story changed to give strength to a line extension? Do you have what’s coming for your new launch prepared? What’s the conflict that will make the story change, continue, and entertain people more?

If anything is clear, and what we must consider, is that Narcos didn’t develop overnight but over months. It has a good brief and has been given enough time to mature the brand and its products, as well as to create a story that can last a long time.