The South Korean survival drama can teach you many valuable marketing lessons that your brand or business can use to improve sales and organic publicity — but no spoilers here, I promise.

With the number of active social-media users at a historic peak, it is safe to say that the content presented to audiences is now more independent than ever before. With that comes the opportunity for small and medium brands to shine more easily — it’s now possible to achieve big impressions for a fraction of the price it used to take.

Additionally, with streaming services being the new normal for how we view content, we might never experience another appointment television viewing like the one for Game of Thrones. Nevertheless, Squid Game redefined what is possible and broke past publicity records with a show that is both gruesome and highly disturbing.

The TV show is based on the events of desperately poor people being invited to compete in children’s themed games with deadly consequences if they lose. Ironically, Squid Game had virtually no press or marketing in the U.S. before its debut compared to all the other big Netflix shows, but it still managed to become the topic of the year. The script has been written since about 2009, with years of attempts by the writer to get it picked up, but no one wanted to produce such an unrealistic and violent story. But, just like any other marketing success, the show owes its popularity to a combination of luck and perfect timing.