You may very well not care for Adult Swim’s form of irreverent humor, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore their marketing success. They’ve taken the concept of personality to a whole new level, creating a Grand Canyon scale chasm between those who love them and don’t—those that do love it pretty fanatically.
Since Adult Swim’s debut in 2001, they’ve been eccentric, to say the least. The difference is that they saw that this was working, charged forward, and never looked back. Once their personality was cemented, they were able to market in ways that seemed completely natural.
For instance, in a case of what recent college graduates would probably call “guerrilla marketing”, Adult Swim placed LED Mooninite characters from their show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in various major cities in promotion of their upcoming movie based on it. Not only was this a great idea in general, but it led to an event eventually dubbed the “2007 Boston bomb scare”, after the city thought that they were explosives. Though this would normally be an embarrassing scenario for a company, in Adult Swim’s case, the publicity was fantastic—even if Turner Broadcasting had to pay over a million dollars in damages. Even disasters can work in your favor if your marketing already resembles your established personality.
They also find other ways to keep fans engaged: they’ve got a plethora of native mobile games (featuring titles like Robot Unicorn Attack 2) and music releases. Going even further, a fictional band from their show Metalocalypse has actually gone out on tour multiple times, headlining with respectable bands in the metal genre.
Adult Swim’s level of quirk is not for every (read: almost any) business, but their commitment to personality is admirable. Even if your ‘personality’ is more like a mid-level professional in a suit and tie, working from a place of identity allows your customers to be comfortable with you and know what to expect.
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