Meghan Markle was criticised for missing a “golden opportunity” to advertise her As Ever products in the latest season of her Netflix show, in what’s been described as a “headache” for the streaming giant, which is also a partner for her lifestyle brand. The Duchess of Sussex saw the second season of With Love, Meghan get released on August 26, but it flopped in rankings and reviews.
With Love, Meghan did not manage to climb into the streamer’s global Top 10 most-watched shows list during its debut week. And now, according to a brand expert, this could cause Meghan to be faced with a Netflix headache, as the streaming giant could be worried about the actual profit from its partnership with the Duchess’s brand.
The first season of With Love, Meghan was released around a month before As Ever’s first launch and did promote some of its products, including the brand’s flower sprinkles, which proved to be a customer favourite.
Nick Ede, a brand and culture expert based in the UK, told Newsweek: “The viewership is down, people don’t really care about With Love, there’s some fans who will always be appreciative of it. For Netflix, the headache here is that, is this going to convert into sales for their product, are they actually going to make money from this?
“If you think about it, they haven’t really made any money just yet. Their investment must have been huge into actually creating the product and building the brand, rebranding it and putting it out there and this Season 2 is a missed opportunity which could have been a glorified infomercial if they’d got it right.”
The expert described the timing of the latest launch as a “massive problem” because the two seasons were filmed back-to-back, leaving little space to promote As Ever’s future launches.
He explained: “If they had done two separate seasons they could have done a lot product placement with her As Ever brand but obviously when the show first started they didn’t have any products.
“So you would see her using some flower sprinkles or you would see her drinking a glass of rosé, but you wouldn’t actually attribute that to As Ever, so there isn’t a crossover here. That’s why there is a massive problem.”
While the second season of Meghan’s Netflix show was announced shortly after the release of the first season, no confirmation about a third season has been made since August 26.
However, Meghan’s fans will have something to look forward to as the show will air a Christmas special later this year.
Mr Ede said: “Obviously, she’s got a Christmas special and hopefully she’ll be able to include some of her actual products in there too.”