If you have to ask, you’ll never know – This is Williams Street’s approach to marketing their niche late night line-up infamously known as Adult Swim. What started as a collection of strange and often provocative cartoons for a “mature” audience has turned into a feverish cult phenomenon of obscurity.

As the program has evolved over the last 9 years, Williams Street has done a smashing job of keeping it largely out of the limelight (and for good reason). As the program block began gaining mainstream traction, their shows quickly became more bizarre, the lineup more erratic, and the marketing more inaccessible. With control over both the program block and majority of the shows, WS was able to make the bizarre even more-so with ease.

Some saw their constant retraction from the mainstream as marketing suicide, however deeper reflection reveals that it’s quite the opposite. WS understands that their success in part is due to their audiences’ alternative, nuanced sense-of-humor. By it’s very nature, when the obscure becomes mainstream, it’s definition ceases to exist. Adult Swim has not significantly grown with any given marketing push, however they have retained their loyal following for nearly a decade. This in itself can be seen as a big success, especially when selling out to the fickle, trend-switching mainstream could have happened with ease.

Adult Swim is one of my favorite examples of a brand that understands its customers and has stuck to its guns through thick and thin.