I initially sat down to write a post about how ABC is offering 815 (of course) fans the opportunity for a sneak peek at the Lost season premiere. But what I ended up with was something much more: A realization that no network has ever done as brilliant a job marketing one of its shows as ABC has done with Lost.
One could argue that the marketing of Lost has been the first to fully take advantage of all the tools available to keep fans interested and amped up in the off-season.
We had the Missing Pieces webisodes, which were devoured by fans, even as they disparaged them. The Hanso Foundation commercials and website, which had people calling 800 numbers and furiously trying to figure out where everything all fit in.
Remember the Oceanic Air website where you could click on a seating chart and occasionally get glimpses into who sat where and other tidbits?
Lost University accompanies the Season 5 Blu-Ray.
And, all along, there’s been full recognition that fan blogs were important to keeping the buzz going and ABC’s brought those bloggers to Hawaii for full-access trips.
Now, ABC has offered fans the chance to be among 815 who will get an advance peek at the Season 6 (otherwise known as the Last Season) premiere. There’s a short quiz to enter and I got five of the six answers right without blinking. I was allowed to change the final answer – heck, I couldn’t enter unless I had all six right, it waited until you got all six before giving you a “submit” button.
ABC rewards fans for knowing the minutae. They never came down on all the sites that used screen shots of the show to point out Easter eggs or even just illustrate blog posts. They knew that by letting fans use the show as they wanted, the fans would keep coming back.
