Nickelodeon will launch a summer of slime next month as the network embarks on a multi-city tour to promote its kids-targeted brand and upcoming programming slate.
The network will kick off its interactive summer tour in Los Angeles July 2, complete with a traveling slime mobile filled with more than 1,200 gallons of the green stuff. Nickelodeon hopes to repeat the success it had with a similar 20-city spring version of its “Slime Across America” tour that helped promote the network's 20th annual Kids' Choice Awards event, according to Nickelodeon Television executive vice president and general manager Tom Ascheim. More than 12,600 kids attended the various tour stops.
“It worked enormously well for us in the spring and we got great traction in every market that we went to and we thought it helped drive [Kids' Choice Awards] ratings,” said Ascheim. “[Slime Across America] felt like a great way to bring an essential part of the brand to every part of the county to where kids really are.”
Slime Across America will include summer-themed messy games and more opportunities for participants to get splattered with the gooey, green liquid. In addition, each Friday beginning July 6, two Nick celebrities will join a kids squads in a game of SlimeBall, a messy version of dodgeball, according to Ascheim.
Several cable affiliates will team with Nickelodeon to promote the tour in their respective markets. Time Warner Cable in Cincinnati and Comcast in Seattle, for example, will run local cross-channel spots promoting the tour's arrival, according to the network. Other cities on tap include Milwaukee, Charlotte, N.C., Detroit, Atlanta, Orlando, Cleveland, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
For its part, Nick will promote the tour beginning July 6 via on-air vignettes that will air weekdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
On Nick.com, users will find the “3D Nicktoons SlimeBall” game in which they can pit Nicktoon characters against each other in an ultimate “slime throw down.”
Viewers can rack up Nick Points by playing along with the actual tour SlimeBall events at www.nick.com/slime. The player with the most points at the end of the summer will be crowned the virtual SlimeBall Champion, network officials said.
The tour will also highlight some of Nickelodeon's upcoming summer programming, which includes original movies Last Days of Summer (July 20) and Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp (Aug. 3).
