In April I wrote this post on the negative perception of the Promotion for Bridgerton, and questioned if Netflix and Bridgerton would be able to overcome it with the promotion for season 3. For this follow up post I asked for views on the perception from those on Tumblr and X, and if their perception of the promotion for Bridgerton had changed during the last 6 weeks. I received some great responses that went beyond just the perception of the promotion for season 2 and season 3, including one comment that astutely indicated that there are a lot of issues with the promotion, however, it comes from Shondaland and the storylines, and this is something that I think deserves a longer post, so will park this response, (along with a couple of others), to delve into a bit more into. I will also do a separate post looking at the reasons that others provided defending the lack of promotion for the season 2 leads, in comparison to others that were promoted well for season 2 - including Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton receiving a partial lead couple promotion that Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey didn't get.
Image Credit: Jason Bell
The most common perception that I have received, is the same as the one I raised in my previous post, that Netflix and the Bridgerton production failed to promote Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey well as the leads of season 2, instead focussing on side characters and for a lot of it, Nicola Coughlan.
The promotion for part 1 of season 3 has been focused primarily on the leads, which makes sense in a show that changes the leads every season, but it should allow all the leads to have their time at the centre of the promotion as a leading couple in a romance show. The issue that many fans have is that this was not done for the season 2 leads, however, it has been done very well for the season 3 leads. This disparity that viewers and fans are seeing in terms of the promotion of the leads in the two seasons led many to interpret it as Bridgerton and Netflix not wanting to promote Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey as romantic leads in their season. This was further compounded with the early season 3 promotion and the failure to include them - but mostly Simone Ashley - in the promotion.
Following comments of what fans and viewers have been saying on social media regarding the promotion during season 3 I noted that those who had the negative perception going into the season 3 promotional period still maintained that perception.What has changed is that some who did not view the season 2 promotion negatively initially are now shifting their perspective to a more negative view of how season 2 was promoted. They are now questioning why a dark skinned South Asian woman and Gay man were not promoted as intensely and prolifically as the straight white pairing of season 3. Remembering this is about the perceptions of the promotion not the promotional strategy itself, but in the world of marketing it is the promotion that sends the message to those you wish to purchase your products.
For many they see that the promotion has been focused entirely on Penelope, which is frustrating for those that are interested in the Bridgerton family and like to see those actors in promotion, but also for those that were brought into the Bridgerton world through the diversity that was heavily marketed in season 1. Many think that this idea of diversity has been lost for the marketing of season 2, and worse for the Netflix and Bridgerton marketing teams some believe that the black actors that are being promoted for season 3 are being used by the marketing teams to still be able to claim the show is diverse. This is not a good perception for a show that continues to market itself on its diversity when the primary promotion for the season are white actors. This is where many feel the promotion would have benefitted in promoting Simone Ashley as the new Viscountess more, however, if they had given her promotion equal to that of Nicola Coughlan in season 2 it would create another problem in the perception of the fans - one of baiting.
Netflix and the Bridgerton production have promoted Kate and Anthony as characters a little for season 3, but the actors themselves have barely been included in press interviews or other short videos with the cast. It is worth noting that Jonathan Bailey has been included more than Simone Ashley in additional promotion, though this further embeds the idea that it is Simone Ashley whom the production do not wish to promote. But this promotion has led to the perception that the production is baiting the fans of season 2 with an implication that Kate and Anthony have a storyline, though they were only in one episode of part 1.
The perception by many over the Kate and Anthony promotion for season 3 is that they are being used to prop up the straight white couple, and to bait the season 2 fans into watching season 3. Whilst this sounds as if it is heading into conspiracy theory territory, there is possibly some truth in this perception. Kate and Anthony are popular (at the time of writing their 'moving portrait' style promotion is the most viewed and most liked post on the official Bridgerton Instagram page), and many fans had expressed publicly that they would not watch season 3 without them. A good marketing team would be monitoring the social media activity and be aware of what it is that will increase engagement and the possibility of people tuning it, thus a good marketing team would use them in promotion. Kate and Anthony as a part of the Bridgerton brand are popular, and they have a loyal following. The issue with this tactic is that the show never backed up the promotion with the content in the season, a number of fans openly expressed anger at finding out Kate and Anthony leave in episode 1, noting that they believed that they would have a reasonably sized subplot. The result of this is that some fans tuned in for episode 1 only, and others abandoned it completely, but also many have declared that they won't be watching part 2 as a result, however, I don't see this impacting the numbers too significantly.
So how has Netflix and Bridgerton done with turning around the negative perception of the promotion that is held by some fans? Based on information I have received I would say they have failed and that the negative perception has in fact increased with the season 3 promotion.
Their attempts at including Kate and Anthony in early promotion has been seen as baiting, and the inclusion of Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey in promotion in the final week before release has been seen as a desperate last minute attempt to ensure the fans from season 2 tune in to season 3.
Between Jess Brownell's fumbling of interviews during the season 3 promotion (I will be doing another post on that) and the marketing team's seeming underestimation of the popularity of Kate and Anthony, neither Netflix nor Bridgerton have managed to change the perceptions or views of some in the fandom.
