“Close Enough” was HBO Max’s first adult animation original, developed with a unique tone that would appeal to a specific niche audience: Adult Stoners.

To build hype among this audience, the trailer release had to make a strong first impression, particularly as the title was not developed from pre-existing intellectual property. In other words: there was no built-in audience for “Close Enough,” so the trailer premiere had to introduce the show’s themes, characters, and emotional hooks on a mass scale with a precise audience.

Success would be measured in total views, but given the niche interests of the show’s target audience, it was also important to prove those views were motivated by precise behavioural preferences. The initial campaign goal was 3.92M impressions among the Adult Stoner segment

Given that “Close Enough” tells the stories of stoner parents trying their best in a difficult world. Like the show’s target audience, the stoners use cannabis, but are adjusting to “adulting” responsibilities.

The team put together a precise media strategy, discovering Twitch, Reddit, and a handful of niche-interest publications that featured high usage among Adult Stoners.

Partnerships with popular streamers on Twitch offered a vessel for attaining mass viewership of the “Close Enough” trailer, while targeted promotions on Reddit, paid search support, and ad placements in digital publications like IGN, would support additional outreach to potential fans.

“Close Enough” creator J.G. Quintel came up with the show’s concept to relate to an aging generation who wants to maintain their youth, despite the added responsibilities that come with growing up. His perspective also stood out as an intriguing hook for the show’s intended audience.

HBO Max kicked their media plan into action in early May, the month when the trailer would debut, and approximately one month ahead of the show’s release.

The media spend was split effectively across site direct buys on stoner-friendly gamer websites, digital video, social, social media channels, and more supplemental channels the week of the trailer premiere, heaving up saturation to ensure audience interest.

The audience assembly culminated in the trailer debut on Twitch livestreams with J.G. Quintel, leveraging the audiences of three popular streamers identifying with the “Adult Stoner” audience across three different subsets.

On the day of the livestreams, partners and famous twitchers Dr. Lupo and Cloakzy activated their followings by Tweeting out the upcoming event, while Jordan Fisher posted on his Instagram. All three preview posts drove organic fans to the Twitch livestreams, offering a powerful supplement to the media placements.

The “Close Enough” trailer debut on Twitch was cost-effective, overdelivering on contracted impressions with a blend of organic and paid Adult Stoner.

Spending $125,000 for the Twitch partnerships gave the campaign only an 8-day window to fulfill its contracted 3.92M impressions. At the close of the campaign, the streams had racked up 4.19M impressions, a 7+% boost to initial forecasts.

Most importantly, the niche audience of “adult stoner” streamers clearly felt a connection to the conversation occurring in the livestreams, with over 1.42M minutes total watch time devoted to the activation.

The Dr. Lupo Twitch integration racked up significant engagement beyond Twitch, with over 100k organic views on a repost to Dr. Lupo’s YouTube channel.

Especially compared to the average return on investment to other trailer debuts, particularly for new shows/titles, the Twitch integration allowed “Close Enough” to make a strong, cost-effective impression among a dedicated following.