My two biggest passions, 1) Advertising/Media and 2) ABC's TV show LOST, have collided in an extremely creative way. Using mysterious ads on Television and in major Newspapers across the US, the producers of LOST have brought aspects of the show (including advertisers) out of the television and into our everyday lives.
It all started with a fake TV ad that ran around the world during last weeks' episode.
The phone number and website in the ad kicked off an Alternate Reality Game that is a huge craze on the web right now. The producers had leaked that an ad was going to launch the game, so for the first time in months I actually watched the ads instead of TiVo'ing past them!
Note to broadcasters: Giving the viewers a REASON to watch the ads is a great way to prevent ad skipping.
Here is the advertising I have seen so far:
1. Monster.com - The 877-HANSORG phone number is a voicemail system for the fake company and selecting Option 2 gives you an ad for Monster mixed in with all of the weird clues for the game. Listen Here.
2. Verizon - Verizon's Voice messaging system is constantly plugged as you surf the voice mail system.
3. Sprite - Last night, the same Hanso Foundation Ad from the previous week ran, but with one minor change. Small text in the lower left of the ad mentioned that the ad was sponsored by Sprite and the website promoted is www.subLYMONal.com. I was really expecting some blatant Sprite promotion when I got there, but didn't find it. Sprite ads in the past have taught us that LYMON is what gives Sprite its taste. The middle of the site has only the word 'OBEY', as in 'obey your thirst.' It is very subtle, or should I say subliminal?
4. The most ingenious promotions are the newspaper ads for a book called, 'Bad Twin' that is somehow related to the show. According to The Lost Experience Clues Blog, print ads were placed in the major papers of Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, LA, NYC and Dallas.
I imagine that people all over the country are going to the Hanso Foundation website and then going on to Amazon to investigate what this is. BTW, the book is currently #18 on the Amazon top books list. Not too shabby.
All of this is also a great example of Unbundled Advertising. The Shotgun approach to advertising is breaking down and media properties are going to have to innovate and reinvent themselves if they want to continue delivering value to advertisers. Obviously ABC is doing this.
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