05/11/2006 07:08:00 PM 
ABC has hired over 20 broadcasters across 5 continents to release clues with new information about the show from now until the beginning of season 3, next fall. One week in, and so far a success. As you can see from this Flappr map, viewers are connecting all over the world.
Many viewers jumped down the rabbit hole of this intense and complicated marketing-driven ARG (alternate reality game) during the first season of Lost when they visited the fake Oceanic Air site that was full of juicy, hidden, easter-egg clues about the show. This site was built by ABC; although, you'd never know it because they have intentionally kept their name off to make people think it is "real." Oceanic Air is the airline that the characters in Lost were traveling on when their plane went down on to the mysterious island they have been stranded on ever since.
The airline website, however, is only the tip of an iceberg. Last week's episode of Lost launched The Lost Experience. Since then hundreds of thousands of people have been playing detective. It all started with a network implanted commercial for The Hanso Foundation (Alvar Hanso is a character on Lost) cluing viewers to call an 800 number. The 800 number, gave 5 options and some scary sound bytes, that revealed a password, which was to be used on an eerie website that is dedicated to a 105 year old monkey named Joot, which introduced a woman named Persephone, who hinted an address in Denmark and a job posting on Monster.com (nice product placement). They have even gone so far as to publish a book by one of the fake characters, that was put on bookstore shelves this week. The most recent clue is on the Hanso site and at certain times the clock turns from numbers to a link named OB:EY. Obey what? Your Thirst. Of course.
All of this is tracked by extremely dedicated viewers' blogs such as www.thelostexperience.com and thelostexperienceclues.blogspot.com.
Although ABC claims that The Lost Experience has been designed by Lost writers it has been doing a good job of accomplishing several marketing goals:
1. Generate hype
2. Force people to watch commercials
3. Keep people interested and talking about Lost during the off-season
4. Attain new viewers and engage non-viewers
5. Boost ratings during the May "sweeps" to increase ad rate for next season
However, this is not the first ARG to capture people's attention. You may remember back in 2001 when Microsoft created The Beast to promote A.I. There was also Ilovebees lured people deep into the internet to discover that they were actually being used as "hype" for the release of Halo 2.
A friend of Influx describes the experience as:
A lot of rumors. A lot of misinformation. A lot of furious digging. And no treasure to speak of. X-files never really concluded satisfactorily. Ilovebees just petered out. I bet Lost follows suit. I'd compare the experience to Oak Island.
It's important to keep in mind that he is a non-viewer and is not under the Lost spell.
Regardless, of the existence or lack there-of of a grand finale or answers to all of our questions The Lost Experience is providing an experience that many brands can learn from. The interactivity, the passion, the energy are speaking to the viewers and capturing their attention, time and blogs. Additionally, it is connecting people all over the world under a single mission founded in curiousity.
Has ABC completely lost it? Could this be a waste of time for the audience and the puppetmasters? Or are they revolutionizing TV with an "unprecedented," interactive experience?
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