'Stranger Things' Brand Collabs: Key Findings
- The final season drew 59.6 million views in five days, sparking campaigns from McDonald's, KFC, Gatorade, Doritos, and more than 75 brands.
- Hawkins went from a fictional town to a marketing platform through AR experiences, pop-up restaurants, retro product revivals, and experiential activations.
- IP-driven campaigns succeeded by treating the show's 1980s world as authentic, instead of borrowing aesthetics.
Netflix's "Stranger Things" prepares to air its final episode tonight on New Year's Eve.
To mark the occasion, we're rounding up the best advertising campaigns that turned the show's last season into one of the biggest marketing moments of 2025.
The first four episodes drew 59.6 million views in just five days, marking the largest premiere week for any English-language Netflix series.
The finale's cultural impact stems from the show's ability to blend 1980s nostalgia with modern storytelling.
Audiences who lived through the decade have reconnected with the show's authentic period details, while younger viewers have also been able to discover the era through its lens.
This cross-generational appeal has given way to marketing opportunities across fast food, beverages, retail, gaming, and experiential activations spanning more than 75 brand partnerships.
Our top campaigns are ones that treated Hawkins like a real place with its own logic, instead of using it as a backdrop for product placement.
1. Kinder Joy x UNIT9
Kinder Joy and innovation production studio UNIT9 created one of the most viral "Stranger Things" campaigns of 2025. It
involved hiding AR puzzles inside QR codes in eggs to unlock Vecna-inspired challenges.
The campaign went global, with giant FOOH films transforming landmarks in London, Hollywood, Pisa, Berlin, and Madrid into Upside Down portals.
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2. KFC UK x Mother London
KFC UK temporarily became "Hawkins Fried Chicken," with Mother London creating a retro spot showing HFC crew members biking through a rift-torn town to deliver chicken.
The chain also introduced the "Stranger Things Burger" with a rift-red bun and "Stranger Wings."
KFC completely transformed its identity across packaging, props, and store visuals to feel like a real extension of the show's universe.
3. Gatorade x TBWA\Chiat\Day
Gatorade reinvented its 1987 "No Ordinary Thirst Quencher" campaign through TBWA\Chiat\Day, with NFL star Myles Garrett narrating.
The brand also revived glass bottles after nearly 30 years and launched limited-edition capsules, including a Lemon-Lime bottle, vintage T-shirt, and collectible shipper box.
The campaign's nostalgia marketing showed how reviving heritage products validates brand history while attracting new collectors.
4. McDonald's Brazil x GALERIA.ag
McDonald's Brazil and independent agency GALERIA.ag turned restaurants across the country with flickering signs, retro arcade machines, and flipped-bun burgers.
The São Paulo flagship location also received a complete Upside Down redesign.
The app analyzed user behavior to assign adventurer profiles inside the series' universe, making every interaction feel like part of Hawkins.
5. Doritos x Absolute Post
Doritos built a "Telethon for Hawkins" hotline, where fans could call 1-855-4-HAWKINS to hear voices from celebrities, including Paula Abdul, David Hasselhoff, and ALF.
The number first appeared on its 80s-styled "Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch" bags to spark organic buzz before the official launch.
The brand also released a VHS-style UK spot with broadcaster Anneka Rice in a de-aged 1980s talk show that collapses into the Upside Down.
Production company Absolute Post transferred the final cut onto actual VHS tape to create authentic period-specific visual artifacts.
Honorable Mentions
These additional brand collaborations show how "Stranger Things" continues to travel across retail, entertainment, and culture in different forms.
Target used physical nostalgia by recreating a 1987 Hawkins-era store and rolling out exclusive product drops timed to Netflix’s release schedule, giving fans reasons to return in person.
Dr. Squatch brought Brett Gelman back as Murray Bauman to frame its Stranger Things soap line around ingredient transparency with humor.
Chips Ahoy introduced its first fruit-filled cookie, using glow-in-the-dark packaging and AR games tied to Eddie Munson’s guitar replica.
Microsoft Flight Simulator and Boo Agency expanded the universe digitally by turning Hawkins into a fully navigable world with voice-led missions.
Meanwhile, Spotify and Netflix pushed the soundtrack into the real world through large-scale OOH in Milan that culminated in a live concert moment.
Coleman rounds out the mix by translating the show’s retro aesthetic into a functional camping collection, proving the IP could live beyond screens without losing coherence.
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Three patterns define the most successful "Stranger Things" campaigns:
- Timing releases to episode drops maximized repeat engagement: Target and Chips Ahoy aligned launches with Netflix's staggered schedule to keep fans coming back.
- The right cultural figures amplified authenticity: Myles Garrett and Paula Abdul matched their audiences, while Brett Gelman's character felt native to Hawkins.
- Interactive elements made fans active participants: Hotlines, AR puzzles, and vending machines gave fans agency inside the story.
These collabs succeeded because they gave fans something to explore and not just something to watch.
Gabriel Shaoolian, founder and CEO at full-service agency Digital Silk, believes the metrics need to evolve beyond traditional campaign KPIs.
"The brands that win stop measuring impressions and start tracking time spent inside the experience," he says.
"It's about how long fans stayed in Hawkins, how many times they returned, and whether they brought friends."
"As someone who's watched the show since the beginning, I can tell you fans know when brands are just slapping logos on things versus actually building something worth exploring."
Our Pick: Kinder Joy x UNIT9
If I had to choose one collab that best understood how "Stranger Things" actually lives in culture, it’s Kinder Joy’s global campaign with UNIT9.
The AR puzzles hidden inside the product gave fans something to solve, pulling them deeper into the hit series' world.
UNIT9 carried that idea through every execution, from QR-driven gameplay to large-scale FOOH films that transformed global landmarks into Upside Down moments.
The consistency made the campaign feel intentional at every scale, showing how a strong design system can travel without losing its core idea.
Beverage and snack brands navigating IP partnerships need agencies that understand how to build worlds rather than campaigns.
Take a look at the top food and beverage marketing agencies in our directory.
