Whether you're rooting for Marshall or supporting Irina, you know the intense mix of frustration and anticipation that fans of Netflix's Love is Blind experienced this past Sunday night.

While the drama of the "I do's" and "I don’t's" at the altar is always captivating, it’s the Love is Blind Reunion where the real tea is spilled.

Sunday night at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST, fans watched as couples and exes returned to the stage to reveal all the details of their marriages, breakups, and what happened after the cameras stopped rolling—one year after the show began filming.

The Love is Blind Reunion has always been a highly anticipated event, with Netflix building excitement by advertising the reunion weeks in advance to generate buzz among fans, ensuring they were ready to clear their schedules for the live show.

But let’s hit PAUSE for a moment and take a closer look at Netflix’s marketing strategy for the Love is Blind Reunion.

Content and Curation

Netflix has become one of the most recognizable streaming services around the world and currently has acquired 230.7 million memberships thus far.

With so many people to cater to and tastes to satisfy, Netflix provides a variety of high-quality documentaries, TV shows, and movies to engage current members and market to potential subscribers. 

Social Media and Influencer Marketing

Like most companies, Netflix uses its social media presence to advertise new and popular shows as well as engage with users online.

They also partner with influencers and celebrities to generate excitement around a show and entice users to watch their content. In some cases, Netflix will create individual pages on Instagram and Tiktok for shows, so that they can dedicate their content to that specific fan base, Love is Blind being one.

Here, the marketing team post memes, updates, and highlights of the show.

*PLAY*

With such an amplified run-up to the Love is Blind Reunion, you would think that we would all get what we wanted as viewers: drama, love, and the questions we wanted answers to. Well, we did….after an hour of waiting. 

That’s right, Netflix’s Love is Blind Reunion was delayed by over an hour due to ‘technical issues’. 

Apart from “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” which was live-streamed on March 4 without any problems, this was Netflix’s only other live event thus far. 

Social Media Leverage 

So how did Netflix leverage its social media presence to communicate with the public during this period of time?

Well, before the show, Netflix took to their Instagram stories engaging fans with trivia surrounding Love is Blind’s previous seasons.

Throughout the day, Netflix retweeted fans' tweets regarding the upcoming Love is Blind Reunion before relaying a reminder just 5 minutes before its airing time.

At 5 pm PST/8 pm EST, when millions of fans sat down with their bowls of popcorn and glasses of wine, their screens were met with constant error messages, while some members were temporarily booted out of the streaming service altogether.

Twitter quickly became the most valuable resource for viewers to read live comments and questions from other Love is Blind Reunion fans regarding the unexpected delay and to ultimately find reassurance that they weren't missing out on any of the show’s nail-biting drama. 

Just minutes after its scheduled time, Netflix tweeted “Love is … late. #LoveIsBlindLIVE will be on in 15 minutes!”. This helped calm the crowd for the time being.

Netflix then followed up by tweeting “Promise #LoveisBlindLIVE will be worth the wait…..” attached with a picture of this season’s villain, Irina.

While under pressure, this was a smart idea from the marketing team at Netflix who saw an opportunity to re-engage fans with a major spoiler appearance from the show and ultimately thank them for their patience.

With 11.3 million views, 716 retweets, and 11.4k likes, this tweet got the attention that Netflix needed. 

With the Love is Blind Reunion live event still unresponsive 30 minutes on, Netflix’s social media front also became very quiet.

No updates were given for quite some time from the streaming service, but that's not to say that Twitter users and competitors weren't taking advantage of this time.

Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) weighed in on the drama. Netflix retweeted Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, which went viral: She garnered nearly 100,000 likes and 13,000 retweets, with plenty of fellow fans sharing jokes and frustration in the replies.

Although Hulu didn’t directly mention or tag Netflix, their tweet still went viral. They shared a still from their show “Little Fires Everywhere” featuring Kerry Washington smirking with the caption “Hmm,” which received more than 44,000 likes and 7,000 retweets.

Paramount+ expressed their condolences to the Netflix social team, tweeting “Pouring one out for your mentions tonight,” which received attention.

In another viral tweet, video rental services Blockbuster and Redbox joined forces to criticize Netflix. Blockbuster tweeted, “Remember renting VHS from us?

You could start it on time no problem….this is what we get.” Redbox showed their support by responding “Solidarity bro.”

After an hour of waiting, Netflix released a pre-recorded version of the Love is Blind Reunion after their attempt to live stream the event failed.

This delay caused many viewers to lose interest, with many shifting their focus to other popular shows like Succession and Yellowjackets, which were streaming right after the Love is Blind Reunion was supposed to air.

Surprisingly, Co-Chief Executive Officer Greg Peters revealed that 6.5 million viewers eventually tuned in to watch the Love is Blind Reunion special on Netflix.

That’s a loyal fan base! Peters also commented, "We hate it when these things happen, but we’ll learn from it and we’ll get better. We do have the fundamental infrastructure that we need."

Netflix’s marketing team primarily used their Twitter account to interact with fans during this stressful time, focusing on one platform rather than others like Instagram or TikTok. This raises the question: Could Netflix’s social media marketing team have done more to manage the situation?

As a viewer, what did you expect from Netflix during the Love is Blind Reunion event? Aside from an on-time live stream, how could they have improved your experience? #TEAMMARSHALL

✍️ Written by Hannah Cersell