That one time when the engine burst into flames at 20,000 feet…
My story of how the Netflix Latin American launch tour started off very badly.
Suddenly, there was a tremendous bang. The twin-engine 777 jerked violently to the left. It was immediately clear that it wasn’t turbulence, though what had happened wasn’t clear either. As the plane listed to the left, sour smoke — that smell that comes from burning plastic — poured into the cabin. Every warning light that could flash, did. Then the dispassionate soundtrack kicked in, advocating that we “exit the plane immediately” without regard for the fact that we were 19,000 feet above the planet.
It was fall 2012, and Netflix was set to launch throughout Latin America. Having already launched in Canada, it was the company’s first foray into non-English speaking markets. Keep in mind, this was before Netflix Originals launched, so the tack we were taking at the time was to do research in different markets and launch one by one.
We had spent the better part of the past year traveling back and forth to cities like São Paulo, Mexico City, and Santiago to conduct pre-launch consumer research. By now, the trek to South America had become almost routine. Travel from San Francisco to Houston, Miami, or Washington, D.C., then get on another plane to the final…
