The neon sign placed next to the Puerta del Sol clock to congratulate the year 2026, which was part of the campaign to promote the last season of “Stranger Things”, is the advertising action that has been recognized with the Grand Prize in the JCDecaux outdoor advertising contest this 2026. In addition, it has achieved a Gold in the “Brand Experience” category.

The installation was one of more than ten that made up “From Madrid to the Upside Down”, a campaign led and executed by the agency Andtonic, to communicate the premiere of the latest installment of the popular Netflix series. It was one of the executions that generated the most conversation, both due to the visibility obtained and the intelligence that articulated it, and which has now been highlighted with separate awards.

The contest jury has valued the initiative for its innovative nature, since it represented the creation of a new advertising medium based on the clock that crowns the Royal Post Office, currently the headquarters of the Government of the Community of Madrid. With this, the Netflix series was present at a key social and cultural moment by transferring its visual identity to the usual poster. The recognizable typography was enough for millions of viewers to associate the moment with the series.

Furthermore, the presence at that time had a double meaning: on the one hand, it lit up once the twelve Chimes had concluded and congratulated the entire country on the new year; and on the other hand, it played with the concept of time and established a countdown to summon fans to the premiere of the final episode that would occur just a few hours after the Chimes, at 02:00 on January 1.

According to the results presented by the brand and the agency in their candidacy for the awards, the action accumulated an audience of more than 11 million live viewers on television, and accounted for almost 80% of the total audience across the different channels. To this impact, the thousands of people who attended the moment in person at Puerta del Sol would also be added.
In addition, it accumulated more than 67 million impressions on social networks.

From Madrid to the Upside Down

The action was one of the many that were carried out as part of “From Madrid to the Upside Down”, which turned the streets of the capital into portals to connect with the narrative and creative universe of the series and which, due to its deployment, scope and impact, has become one of the most notable outdoor advertising campaigns in recent years. It was led by Andtonic, but the well-known “CyW” was also part of the project and several of the activations were managed by WPP Media.

With the motivation of generating Inspiration and Criterion, from reason.Why We created an interactive editorial piece about the campaign, which includes analysis, curiosities, anecdotes and unpublished material. You can explore the different activations and expand all the information about this case below:

The strategy deployed more than a dozen different and unique activations in the center of Madrid, which worked independently, but which together shaped a geographical and sensory journey with storytelling. It also included other Netflix brands and partners, such as Movistar, McDonald’s or El Corte Inglés, who took advantage of the occasion to join in an event full of emotion and memories.

The Andtonic agency’s strategy was able to captivate the fandom and demonstrated the value of local activations and the interpretation of the context and the moment to establish a genuine connection and create experiences that, in addition to being meaningful and relevant, provoke participation, involvement and make the brand feel close.