Due to the ten-year gap since the last season of Phineas and Ferb, Disney wanted to create a big social and PR splash to generate hype for the new season and remind fans why they fell in love with it in the first place. To achieve this they provided audiences with an immersive summer experience that created buzz while staying organic to the show’s unique humor.
Weaving a narrative story experience into the overall festival atmosphere, we invited guests to partake in an episode of their own creation including entering Agent P’s secret lair and receiving a top-secret mission to stop the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz before he could sabotage Warped Tour. The tie-in eventually made its way beyond the activation walls and out to the main stage where the animated step brothers introduced headliners Bowling for Soup, who are also the real life band behind the fictional Love Händel.
Providing high quality UGC opportunities throughout a story based experience helped our activation to speak to audiences and reignite (or inspire) a love for the show. The partnership with Vans Warped Tour provided us a location where our target demographic would already be gathered and where the mutual buzz from the festival and our activation could coalesce and become even more hyped through social media and word of mouth. The festival brought people to our activation & in turn we had several guests admit to buying tickets to the festival for the express purpose of experiencing our Phineas and Ferb activation.
Leaning into the narrative element of the immersive experience helped bring this activation concept to life. Everything we built was pulled from the show and its humor base bringing the animated experience into the real world for fans assembled at the festival. The activation was customized to appeal to fans of both the festival and the show while presenting this in-world show experience that would actively drive viewership of the new season.
Through the entrance our activation followed a narrative format based on the structure of an actual episode while tying it into the overall festival experience. Leaning into the narrative element of the immersive experience helped bring this activation concept to life. Everything we built was pulled from the show and its humor base bringing the animated experience into the real world.
Through every step we employed high quality tech to ensure a seamless experience that felt natural to the flow. To enter the activation guests literally had to flush the porta potty which triggered a ‘flushing’ effect aided by sound effects, swirling and infinity mirror fog that guests triggered to transition from the Portal Potty moment into the activation. As if in an episode of their own creation, guests were taken into Agent P’s lair and given a mission - keep the music going by stopping the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz before he can shut down Vans Warped Tour. Following that guests entered the backyard experience where we even recreated the show’s iconic 2D animated tree while an immersive soundscape furthered the feeling of being in the backyard with them. The narrative continued through the activation as guests got to partake in a Love Händel garage band jam session with life size cut outs of the band and Bowling for Soup’s actual instruments to use as props.
All our swag giveaways were also specifically catered to the festival crowd. Hats, shirts, bandanas, fans and popsicles - all intended to keep them cool and keep them going throughout the day.
The tie-ins weren’t restricted to the activation walls either - we brought the animated stepbrothers to the main stage as they introduced Bowling for Soup and brought the narrative to a full circle conclusion. Again drawing from the episode we wanted to invent/incorporate our own ‘inator’ as Dr. Doofenshmirtz does in the show. To put the festival spin on the concept we opted for a T-shirt-inator thereby bringing classic Phineas and Ferb to a fundamental crowd experience of having merch launched from the stage.
The activation was engineered to ensure that what you saw and heard was specific to that room only - preserving that isolation of each room helped it feel authentic and unbroken. By involving our audience in the narrative we increased the effectiveness of bringing that world to life tenfold. The inclusion of the festival itself in the narrative helped further the immersive element of the activation - guests didn’t leave the experience behind, it came out of the activation walls and into the festival with them.
Traditionally, each morning during a festival ‘rope drop’, fans line up to rush to be first in front of their favorite stage. However, when the ropes dropped at the 2025 Vans Warped Tour the rush was to the Portal Potty line. We had a constant 500-700 people in line from open to close, yet each guest only averaged a 15-20 minute wait time.
Serving around 3k guests a day with merch, popsicles and smiles, we boasted repeat visitors and saw countless guests walking day two of the festival in the merch they received from our activation on day one. Additionally, people turned up to the festival grounds in full Phineas and Ferb cosplay, rushing to our backyard meet and greet.
The activation was the true festival headliner with lines that wrapped around the grounds from open until close each day. Over the weekend, ~7,000 pieces of swag were distributed to over 5,000 guests whose social media posts garnered 623K impressions and 59K engagements with a reach over 1.3M. The activation created the ultimate immersive experience for new and existing fans that took over Vans Warped Tour, turning this festival porta-potty into a national viral story.
