Disney's (NYSE:DIS) ABC network will broadcast Lost's two-hour season finale on May 24, which means time's running out for the second season of one of my favorite TV shows. I can only imagine the finale will leave Lost loyalists with more questions than answers. However, ABC is hoping to keep its viewer base engaged, despite rerun fatigue, with a new game called "The Lost Experience."
Somehow, I doubt The Lost Experience will answer some of the series' most heated questions. (Who are the Others? Why the heck can't everybody just get along? What's the deal with the Dharma Initiative? And shouldn't the castaways look just a little bit grimier?) It might be a fun game, but it's more notable for the insight it offers into the beleaguered TV advertising industry.
The Lost Experience will be an online game, debuting May 3. According to The New York Times, players will be able to join forces and find clues in a variety of different places, including emails, billboards, toll-free phone numbers, and fake Web sites. Although you might be wondering about the advertising angle I mentioned above, the game is designed by the show's writers, who apparently want to keep the game "organic to the show."
However, a Lost writer and executive producer told The New York Times that viewers should "watch the May 3 episode very carefully. You can TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) it, but don't skip the commercials."
Is this another bid to get viewers interested in TV advertising again? A recent survey revealed that marketers now consider TV advertising a less effective alternative to other means of product evangelism. As a result, there's been a whole lot of experimentation in TV advertising recently. For example, General Electric (NYSE:GE) and VivendiUniversal's (NYSE:V) NBC recently announced an experiment in speed ads. YUM! Brands' (NYSE:YUM) KFC also announced a way to get around -- or at least work with -- DVR technology.
In truth, with TiVo and other DVR products letting users skip commercials, and Internet companies like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) bringing relevancy to advertising, it goes without saying that TV advertisers need to bring relevance, interactivity, usefulness, or at the very least fun to the screen if they want viewers to pay attention.
Maybe I'm reading too much into the importance of ads to the game. I hope they won't play too big a role, lest potential players get annoyed and tune it out. More importantly, I hope that the game will be as smart, creative, and thought-provoking as the show that inspired it, full of similar twists, turns, and symbology. Many of us might be tempted to get lost in The Lost Experience. Let's just hope we don't end up stranded amid an ocean of ads.
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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
