AT&T’s prepaid brand Cricket Wireless snagged the sole advertising spot on Adult Swim’s Monday night Family Guy episode as part of the debut of Turner’s new “Beyond the :30” ad platform, AdWeek reported.
Instead of featuring multiple advertisers throughout a program, Turner’s new pod platform grants advertisers exclusive commercial sponsorship during the broadcast and multiple opportunities to splash their brands in front of consumers. As a partner in the platform launch, Cricket was the sole advertiser for the entire two and a half minutes of commercials during the program.
According to AdWeek, Cricket’s Monday ad spot included a 10-second billboard leading into the episode, a 10-second InstaVine, a 30-second Cricket ad and a 15-second custom ad bump. The deal also replaced the Adult Swim logo with Cricket’s for half of the program. Adult Swim also created a dedicated web page to host Cricket’s content.
Turner’s new ad platform also includes sponsorship on the Adult Swim app for the first half of December, and Adult Swim mobile games for two weeks, AdWeek reported.
Following its Monday launch, the platform will air at the same time each Monday through December 21.
Cricket’s decision to snap up the inaugural ad pod for the 11:30 p.m. animated program comes as the company looks to market itself to cost-conscious millennials, Cricket CMO Janna Ducich said in a statement.
The move follows the introduction of Cricket’s new rewards program that allows customers to earn redeemable points for doing things on their devices like checking the weather, tracking fitness, or through making on-time payments.
Combined, the tactics may help Cricket continue to build growth. In the most recent quarter, the brand was a boon for AT&T, bringing in 466,000 prepaid net adds to achieve the best figures in nearly 8 years.