A few words about Netflix's success: lively. Quick. Labels.

“Grey's Anatomy” is “soapy” and “emotional.” 'Emily in Paris' is 'campy' and 'quirky'. 'Our Planet II' is 'relaxing' and 'captivating', while 'Gravity' is 'thrilling' and 'visually striking'.

Words like these – displayed next to the synopsis and movie poster-style tile for each of the thousands of titles on Netflix – appear to have been pulled from a grab bag.

In fact, they're a crucial tool in getting viewers to click play, and a key to Netflix's dominance.

The two- or three-word tags, intended to convey the format of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service's nearly endless library, the company says. The words are selected by about thirty employees – so-called taggers.

“Imagine if magazines had no cover lines and just had photos on them,” says Allan Donald, director of product at Netflix. “Tags make as big a difference as a coverline in that quick 'this is for me' decision.”

As Netflix extends its Secretariat-like lead in the so-called streaming wars, its descriptive, if sometimes banal, tags stand out as an example of how the company remains ahead of the curve. Most competing streaming services can't be bothered to display tags, or don't have the same financial resources to support a group of employees doing all the work behind them.

Netflix made about $4.5 billion in profits over the past four quarters, while most competitors continued to lose money on streaming. It has 247 million subscribers worldwide, more than double many other streaming services. According to Nielsen, it accounted for 7.4 percent of total television usage in the United States in November, far ahead of Amazon Prime Video (3.4 percent), Hulu (2.7 percent) and Disney+ (1.9 percent).

One of the reasons Netflix's engagement rate is so high is that it deploys numerous tools to entice a viewer to watch. And that is no small thing. There are over 10,000 titles on Netflix and thousands more on other streaming services. Choosing a program or movie is often annoying and frustrating.

Through years of testing, Netflix executives know that the tools – what they call “promotional assets” – essentially take less than a minute to work. “If you don't get someone to click play within 53 seconds, the likelihood, on average, of that person watching something drops dramatically,” said Eunice Kim, Netflix's chief product officer.

The assets include movie poster style tiles, as well as trailers and synopses. Tags are another, which provide a mini preview to a viewer. Netflix also uses them to populate theme rows of titles on the service, such as “Goofy TV Shows” and “Girls Night In.” Like the image tiles, the three tags a subscriber sees (out of the handful attributed to each show) are based on the person's viewing history.

Each time the company has removed tags altogether as an experiment, engagement has plummeted, executives say.

“People would take a lot longer to choose,” Mr Donald said. “They stopped with a title because they didn't like it that much or they didn't know what they were getting.”

Julia Alexander, strategy director at research firm Parrot Analytics, said the tags likely worked at a subtle level. As potential viewers, “when we see the term 'gritty' or 'cerebral,' we intrinsically understand what that means,” she said.

Not all of Netflix's efforts to help subscribers find content have worked. In 2021, the company introduced a 'Surprise Me' button, similar to the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' search button on Google. By clicking on it, viewers got something that Netflix's algorithm was pretty sure they would like.

Although executives had “incredible confidence” in the accuracy of the algorithm, viewers rejected it. Apparently they wanted more choice, and the button was abandoned early last year.

The company now features a “Match” button, which tells subscribers, down to a percentage, how much they would like a show. This tool is apparently a bit confusing for most members, and is probably on its way out.

But tags have persisted since Netflix's DVD days. Ms. Kim said diplomatically that competitors often opted instead for a more “minimalist” approach that weighed heavily on the artworks.

“We've been around longer, so we've probably just experimented more to find what works for our members,” she said.

There are more than 3,000 tags, and their selection and creation are the subject of intense debate. The most commonly used tags are 'romantic', 'exciting' and 'exciting'. Least used? “Occupation: farmhand.”

At a recent meeting with fourteen of the taggers—some with backgrounds as librarians or in information science—there was a discussion about whether they should try to eliminate a few tags that seemed to have overlapping definitions.

“Let's start with something that came up with the analysts who do all of our tagging,” said a senior tagger, Sherrie Gulmahamad, during the meeting on the 10th floor of one of Netflix's Sunset Boulevard offices in Hollywood. “We have 'falling in love' versus 'finding love', and we also have 'looking for love'. Do we think we should compress these into one tag? Or do we think they are nuanced and that there is a difference between them?”

That started a debate, including how the change would affect scripted series, reality shows and international markets. After a ten minute discussion it was decided that all three tags were clear enough and should be left alone.

Similarly, there were discussions about whether to introduce tags like 'fun' and 'mean crush'. Some taggers thought “fun” was too subjective, and worried that describing a villain as a crush was a bit of an exaggeration. A final decision was referred to a subsequent meeting.

Mr Donald said that when he interviewed potential taggers, he gave them the “cocktail party test”. How would they describe a movie to someone they just met at a cocktail party? He made a suggestion: “Oh God, I saw this movie, you absolutely have to watch this, this kind of slick cyberpunk thriller that you're going to love.”

According to Mr. Donald, that brief — a slick, cyberpunk thriller — could provide the make-it-or-break-it moment for a viewer at home.

“If you're on the fence about a title and you think, 'Okay, the box art looks catchy and it's popular, so everyone's looking at it — but is it for me?'” he said. 'And then you think: 'Okay, it's exciting, yes, this is for me.' That created a click.”