Turner presented at Upfront last week with one underlying message evidently clear—the television network is aiming to attract a slew of cord-cutting binge-watchers in the ether with a slate of programming that is highlighted with comedies for TBS, and dramas for TNT.

One series in particular that has struck a chord with consumers is Animal Kingdom, a drama that dives into a Southern California family whose excessive lifestyle is fueled by their criminal activities.

The show’s second season comprises 13 episodes and continues May 30. The serialized nature of the series is a huge segment of a Turner roster—one that is expected to churn out nearly 17,000 hours of original content this season.

Turner prepped Animal Kingdom fans with a bingable crash course by partnering with Amazon Prime in March for an exclusive VOD streaming deal of its 10-episode first season.

That same month, they doubled down on their marketing with an experiential, gritty SoCal-beach installation at SXSW that featured a surf simulator and wave pool, a custom sneaker bar with Vans, an Eater-curated beer garden and a live graffiti wall.

Telmo Tabuas, vice president of marketing for TNT and TBS, joined AListDaily to share their marketing methods for Animal Kingdom.

What are the learnings from season one of Animal Kingdom that you’re applying to your marketing strategy now?

Our talent has gotten so much traction across social platforms. The women viewers in particular love the Cody boys because they’re charismatic and passionate about the show, and their characters. We want to bring consumers more interaction with the talent. So for us, it’s about bringing them to the forefront. The show has intense action elements of crime and family. These are drivers for consumers. We want to play up everything so they can interact with the elements.

What was the strategy behind that Amazon Prime partnership?

We’re excited now that we partnered with Amazon Prime because it’s a great opportunity to get new fans hooked on the show. The first season of Animal Kingdom was a huge success for us. What we learned was that as the season progressed, people were catching up by binging on the show, and ratings grew. Another thing we saw was large consumptions when we were marathoning the series. They weren’t necessarily waiting week-after-week to catch up; they were watching in bulk, as most consumers do with shows that lend themselves to that.

Can you take us through your SXSW activation?

We wanted to bring the Southern California vibe from the show to consumers in a very experiential way. We looked at our opportunities to where we could launch a large-scale activation, and we thought SXSW was the perfect place and time because it kicked off our marketing campaign. It was a way for us to reach both consumers, press and influencers all in the same space. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t just about what was happening on the ground.

How are you approaching influencer marketing?

It’s really about creating advocates for our brands and shows. We look for people who organically love the programming and can talk about it in a very genuine way. They end up becoming our megaphones to get new consumers interested in the programs. At SXSW, we worked with a lot of media partners like Eater and Complex. It was the right place for us to be. As we made our way into the launch of the series, we ramped up our work with social influencers to get the word out.

Animal Kingdom is an adaptation of a 2010 Australian original film. Is recreating shows from original movies a trend you see networks moving toward?

With TNT, our big brand push is for storytelling. Good storytelling can come from a variety of places. We’re about to head into a big summer on the network in terms of launching new programming. The first one is the launch of the second season of Animal Kingdom, which is based on a movie. But we’re also launching Claws, which is an original idea. It’s Florida-noir with an all-female cast. Will is the original story of William Shakespeare. We’re also adapting The New York Times bestselling book The Alienist. TNT is embracing storytelling—and different storytellers—to bring their vision to life in a compelling way.

How would you classify the pecking order of your programming marketing?

Animal Kingdom is a big priority for us. We saw in season one that it was gaining a lot of traction. The fan community was growing; the audience was growing. You typically don’t see that with a lot of shows. Oftentimes shows launch big and then sort of peter out. Now, we see Animal Kingdom as a huge opportunity for us to bolster the show even further while making sure that the fans we recruited along the way stay with us, too. . . . We’re charged with everything with the media plans, to experiential marketing activations like the one at SXSW. We’re really charged with bringing the campaigns to life. Anything that reaches consumers falls into our wheelhouse. There is the bulk of your media, which are promos, key art, print ads and radio, but then there is the fun stuff like our one-to-one activation in Austin. That’s where they can have experiences with us in an organic way in unexpected environments.

What are some new verticals and platforms you plan on experimenting with?

The next thing that we’re dipping our toes into and embracing is the notion of virtual reality. That’s the new buzz. We’re trying VR in ways that are true to the shows. That’s where we see the next iteration of experiences heading into. It’s different. We’re filming 360-degree content on set to then bring that to viewers in their own homes in a new and compelling way. We’re interested in exploring 360 video and VR because it’s bringing a world that our storytellers are creating for consumers in a fresh way. There are some big ideas coming down the pike.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan