 Yeah, this is unexpected. Hi, I'm Matt, YouTube content producer for DigitalNomad.com I'm filling in for Christian on today's video which is fitting because we're talking about breaking conventions and marketing through the lens of the most provocative Programming block in today's television and how this can help you as a digital marketer But before we do you've probably heard this your whole life, right? cartoons are for kids and Maybe they were right 30 years ago, but as more cartoons focus on more adult themed situations like the Simpsons I am an utter failure and you'll be better off without me working in the hill Give me your purse now Don't be afraid to shout it. That's my purse. Try it again Cartoonist and TV executives kept pushing the boundaries even further for adults enter adult swim a programming block on the kid-friendly cartoon network That was anything but starting up on September 2nd 2001 at 10 p.m. During the channels after hours the block was devoted to more mature shows featuring strong languages Suggestive situations now you have to get in the bed And violence wrapped around surrealist and by surrealist I mean one of its flagship shows involves a meatball a milkshake in a large fry Solving crimes and living together as the block boom popularity there approached advertising did as well They initially started with grainy deadpan bumpers using footage of old people swimming in a pool get it Adult swim, haha, but as their biggest commercial block success was the simple text bump This is the thing that made him really popular those white letters against a solid black background usually featuring jazz It's a bit techno hip-hop. What have you now this shouldn't work This actually goes against convention no supplemental imagery no true call to action nothing really to sell on the surface They're just jokes. I mean funny jokes, but jokes yet at the end of each bumper shows their now iconic logo Which is Helvetica font protected by two brackets. I'll be damned if it's not effective brand recognition Now we covered a bit of post-modern advertising a few other videos which you can check out here But essentially we're going to go against convention, you know adult swim They risked it and it worked because it's ironic. I mean would you really expect something like this? With a logo like this Yet it works and soon adults one was taking over that coveted 18 to 34 demographic I mean that demographic helped shape the wave of the new shows I mean if you thought aqua teen hunger force was surreal check this shit out Eventually their advertising had to match that same programming attitude or it would have been too contrasting They adopted this almost avant-garde approach with grotesque imagery serene images has nothing to do with the show Or even taking their shows Currently and morphing it into something even more absurd if you can believe it Fun fact if it seems like the adult swim commercials look a lot like the old spice commercials It's because old spice actually recruited Tim Heidecker and Eric warheim from adult swims Tim and Eric awesome show great job To write their commercials and revitalized the branding But how does all this fit into you as a digital marketer? Well for one thing adult swim knows their audience Extremely remember that key 18 to 34 demographic I mentioned what type of TV consumer would be up late at night on a weekday from 8 p.m. To 6 a.m. To watch gory and weird cartoons Stoners and college kids right? I mean that isn't to say that you have to be a college student to watch robot chicken But if you're within that age range, there's a good chance you spent at least one night falling asleep to adult swim With some Cheeto dust smeared all over your shirt adult swim knew their perfect customer avatar I mean we've talked more extensively even about customer avatars and one of our other videos called woke advertising I recommend checking out that video if you're curious how big brands Build their avatar and their demographic as well as their psychographics. So with adult swim, they didn't just advertise for their audience They advertised with their audience. They knew the audience. They understood the audience How some showrunners were their audience many of the creators fit right alongside that same demographic group And so as their viewers grew so do they as long as you mark it in a way that seems genuine with your consumer yet Not trying to pander to them. You'll succeed Of course What good is discussing adult swim without talking about their social media with so much emphasis on getting things trending or shared on Sites like Facebook reddit Twitter or even Instagram How does a brand like this with a persona wrapped around the obscured and nonsensical and at times graphic reach a brand Audience and convert people to watch TV late at night on a weekday. Well to answer that we need to talk about what not to do On January 31st 2007 adult swims marketing team tried something bold to promote aqua teen hunger forces upcoming movie They placed LED placards with one of their more outspoken characters called the moon and nights all around the city of Boston and Surrounding Massachusetts area with the characters flipping people off in a simple Design the idea was to show newcomers exactly what type of content adult swim had with its In-your-face attitude towards animation and for fans of the show. It was a nice in-joke that they could be proud to be a part of Did it succeed did it go viral? Yeah, just not in the way they intended cable news viewers in this country were treated to Hours of live coverage this afternoon as suspicious packages were discovered all over Boston Roads were closed the Charles River was closed and questions were asked about terrorism Boston PD mistakenly thought the placards were Explosive devices and the two people responsible for hanging them up were arrested the moon and night characters were eventually recognized But not by the police or by investigators. It was by young staffer in the mayor's office Now remember this was back in 2007 and my space and Facebook were only a few years old at the time Like I haven't even reached drinking age true story So a marketing campaign like this was only shared by word-of-mouth and news segments covering that Boston PD overreaction So as a pro tip if you're going to think outside the box for marketing You need to think about how people outside your demographic will react to it Granted with the age of targeted marketing situations like these become less common But do keep in mind if your marketing strategy includes reaching a broader audience Consider ad creatives that do not alienate or in this case raise criminal suspicions that can put you to jail Now compare that bit of viral marketing present day with one of adults on his most popular shows Rick and Morty the show about an alcoholic mad scientist is often unwilling assistant or his grandson Let's start off as a cult following grew immense over the years The show did attempt a quirky social media marketing stunt back in 2014 by premiering one of the episodes on Instagram's story feature and if you know about the feature, you know it only holds 15 seconds per video So the show the entire episode They uploaded 109 individual clips that ended up getting a lot of attention online What's genius about this approach is how absurd and out of the box it is I can't imagine another brand or business attempting to copy this exact marketing stunt Thankfully most businesses do not require this type of marketing strategy Which is considered a form of brand awareness like imagine if Panera bread tried marketing the paninis by posting 109 Instagram stories about it Now most businesses are either looking for new clients to serve or to sell more of the product We actually teach several marketing tactics on our website So if you're planning on becoming a freelance digital marketer or you're thinking of building your own agency But before I get into that, let me tell you about one of the best of adult swims marketing stunts that actually started a movement Later on down the road anticipations for the third season of rick and morty was huge And had swarmed social media with posts and memes in anticipation for its season premiere Yet nobody knew when it would premiere Show creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon continued to tell fans that the release was being delayed and fans were left Speculating and admittedly impatient fast forward to April Fool's Day in 2017 Adult swim had already made a name for itself with its April Fool's Day tradition on the champ So they either repeated shawls of the cult classic the room Oh, hi mark either relaunched cartoon networks iconic tsunami anime block all the way to just general sites and soundgags That's their April Fool's fans who were left wondering what they would do this time However of all things they didn't expect rick and morty's third season premiere Unannounced and on repeat for every 30 minutes and thanks to social media words spread like wildfire by the 11 p.m Showing it nearly had a million live viewers. That's a lot It wasn't without its own controversy as the marathon bumped in an episode of the revived samurai jack to another week And fans of that show were not put bluntly happy about it. They were pissed. Okay The samurai jack subreddit was in an uproar especially since it was its last season This is what I consider a microcosm of what many people will consider outrage culture Adult swim and many other big brands like nike pepsi and even Gillette have leveraged outrage culture by profit And by creating what's called woke advertising. Yes Mad profit like six billion dollars worth with a b we did a comprehensive video if you want to know more I'll link the video in the description down below But in that show that upward actually helped bring more engagement to the adult swim brand and in yet another stroke of unintentional marketing genius rick's persistence in that same episode about getting the discontinued sesh wine sauce from mcdonald's tie-in with the movie Mulan spark petition and mass requests for the fast food chain to bring it back Siding the show as inspiration So nearly 10 years after their botched boston moony night panic adult swim pulled off a master stroke of social media marketing with Taking advantage of instagram's new story feature in a fresh and provocative way an unannounced premiere that spread like wildfire Upsetting one of their other fan bases with their move to create further discussion online And connecting their show to the most popular fast food chain as a joke being an unintentional catalyst for change So what's the takeaway to break traditions once in a while shake things up with your advertising? Unlike the boston stunt they had the foresight to know what would happen next They knew that the rick and morty fan base was loyal and hungry for content They knew that having new spread on facebook twitter and reddit would bring more viewers in later in the night And they knew that they would take criticism from the samurai jack fans because those fans were so loyal They'd come back next week for that new episode. This goes back again to knowing your customers You have to be able to adapt and grow with your fan base your customers or your followers as their expectations change But start it off as a late night alternative to culture networks kid friendly atmosphere shaped into a place where fans of mature content Could watch and enjoy adult swim is perhaps one of the best examples of how a marketing strategy can be its own Living thing always ready to grow always ready to test and learn with its creators as well as its audience In order for most digital marketers to execute creative outside of the box ads successfully They need to know the fundamentals and learn how to get results for regular businesses first That's why we created a free training session that teaches you how to get clients Create targeted social media ads and bring in amazing results for them all while working The team here at digital nomad.com is a testament to that actually I'm currently in Saigon vietnam and christian is out in bali indonesia We don't just teach what we know, but we also eat our own caviar too So click the link down below to get your first lesson absolutely free Also, hit that like and subscribe button for more amazing content just like this We always have a blast making these types of videos. So hope you do too. I'm matt from digital nomad.com And i'll see you guys next time