Adult Swim's fun house on tour

Adult Swim is taking its message on tour with an eye-catching 40ft inflatable castle designed to engage its key demographic.

In this week’s Talking Points, Joss Davidge, managing partner of brand experience agency BEcause, looks at how Adult Swim is speaking to the right people with experiential marketing.

Cartoon Network’s sister channel, ‘edgy’ Adult Swim has just launched a 12-week experiential tour of 10 stateside universities, designed to entertain and engage a key viewer demographic. 

The idea is to cultivate relationships with 18-34 year old viewers and let everyone know that the channel is broadcasting earlier in the evenings from March – starting at 8pm, rather than 9pm – giving it even more of a chance to dominate primetime viewing figures.
 
But the channel, famous for airing off beat comedies and risqué adult cartoons, isn’t just handing out leaflets, oh no no. The channel is touring a huge pink and black inflatable castle, where students will be encouraged to crawl, squeeze and slide around in order to experience a range of sponsored zones – such as the KFC rotating mirror tunnel and ‘Hershey Ice Breakers’ cage, which acts as a trap that people have to sing their way out of.


 
The activation is strictly 18+ and will stay open until midnight at many of the locations, a unique experience that is going to be the talk of every campus it arrives at.

 
What has really stuck me about this campaign is that the channel has packaged up its wit, irreverent humour and standout branding and created a live experience that stays completely true to the brand. 

At the same time it is offering students a chance to step into its world and come face to face with the brand’s personality. 

I have little doubt that this will prove immensely popular on tour and that the channel will capture the attention of a huge proportion of the 18-34 demographic when it starts airing at 8pm.

Read more from Joss Davidge.