Feeling Lost?

In order to get people talking about its fourth season, ABC implemented a viral marketing campaign for the prime time show Lost. This campaign includes billboards in several cities nationwide and two websites. The billboards are featured in: Los Angeles, CA, Tustin, CA, Ames, IA, Miami, FL, New York, NY, Portland, OR, Knoxville, TN, Seoul, South Korea, and Sydney, Australia. The whole show is based on an incident where an airplane carrying passengers (flight 815) disappeared. The billboards are ads for the fictional airline on the show, "Oceanic Air." The billboards "appear" to have been vandalized with the message "Find815.com" written across in paint.






The website for the Oceanic Air features a video which appears to be an ad. However, the ad is interrupted by a man, Sam Thomas, pleading for help to find his girlfriend who was on flight 815. The website also allows you to download a press release from Oceanic Air about the incident. The other website, find815.com, appears to be the work of the fictional character, Sam Thomas. Users of this website can view video and learn clues that may lead to more information about the disappearance. It also features an interactive narrative that is connected to season 4. The bottom of the narrative page has links to register, invite friends, their flickr page, and a fan forum. The screen shot to the left shows a video of Sam explaining what happened with the disappearance of flight 815.




I give this campaign a HUGE thumbs up! I think the billboards are attention grabbing. Fans of Lost would recognize the fictional airline on the billboards. People who have never seen Lost might still be likely to go find815.com because it looks like the board had been vandalized. Find815.com is a great website. The narrative allows you to look for clues, and then incorporates those clues into the videos. I don't know much about Lost, but I still enjoyed this website. I think it is a great way for fans to feel like they are a part of the show. Either way, I think this campaign is fabulous!

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