Marketing the 'Lost' TV Drama Series: ABC's Integrated Marketing Strategy

'Lost' was produced for ABC by Touchstone Television . The creators of the TV series were Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams (Abrams) & Damon Lindelof (Lindelof). Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, and Carlton Cuse (Cuse) served as executive producers for 'Lost'. The story is about a plane crash, after which the survivors find themselves stranded on a remote Pacific island. The island is apparently populated by supernatural forces. The show was filmed entirely in Hawaii (Refer to Exhibit I for 'Lost' promos and Exhibit II for 'Lost' season 3 poster). Before the launch of the series, in mid-2004, ABC debuted 'Lost' before 3,000 people, comprising mostly "young techies", at the popular annual comics convention Comic-Con in San Diego, USA...

The centerpiece of the integrated marketing campaign for 'Lost' before the third season that was scheduled to debut on October 4, 2006, was 'The Lost Experience' (TLE). On April 25, 2006, ABC along with Channel 4 and Seven Network announced the launch of TLE. TLE was launched in co-operation with over 20 broadcasters around the world, making it the largest global ARG based on a television series. TLE was a web-based interactive game based on 'Lost'. Lost's storyline, which had a lot of scope for speculation, provided the platform for ABC to launch the ARG...