Our new friends at io9 have pointed out this new billboard advertising Oceanic Airlines. Last week the fictional airpline company featured in JJ Abrams hit tv show Lost issued a press release announcing their return to the air (the company had shut down after the infamous Flight 815 tragedy). It’s interesting to see the network investing some real money into real world advertisements for a vial campaign. I’d be interested to see how much brand recognition Oceanic has with commuters driving by. And I seriously wonder what the conversion rate is for such a campaign.
As a fan of the show, it’s certainly exciting to see their fictional world blend into ours, but I just wonder what the practical financial concerns of such an idea. I’m not sure Paramount would get a big return by running Slusho! commercials on television to promote Cloverfield. But then again, Cloverfield doesn’t have the long term invested viewership that Lost has built.
January 4th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Now, someone get a police to go on a “man-hunt” for the Joker via Whysoserious.com
January 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Hats off to Paramount, well said Peter! conversion rate may be small (read: non-existent) but its a veritable orgasm for the Lost viewer. This is like geek candy and Paramount obviously see the value of stuffing our faces with it - smart move if you ask me, they know they’ve reached ‘cult’ status in that new viewers are going to be hard to attract to a show that relies so much on previous threads, so why not focus your efforts on those loyal viewers and make sure they stay hooked…works for me. I LOVE IT!
January 4th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Really the billboards are meant to lead people into the Find815.com game which started Monday. Some elements of the game lead people back to ABC.com which is where I think Disney/ABC thinks they’re recouping the cost of the billboards and such.
January 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Oh the financial implications for ABC are like a drop in the ocean. I mean Lost is huge cash machine for ABC. A 30 second advertisement spot during Lost gets ABC between $250000 - $320000. Even if these billboards end up costing ABC a million dollars (which I think is very exaggerated estimate) still ABC is going to recoup the cost within 2 minutes of advertising during Lost.
Apparently these billboards are in many cities. They also have them up in Sydney. This site has compiled pictures of billboards from different cities. http://find815.blogspot.com/2008/01/oceanic-air-billboards-recap.html
January 4th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I think the ramifications of a viral campaign such as this are even stranger. I agree that 99.5% of commuters in Iowa (where one is placed) do not know the deal with Oceania. I rarely pay attention to billboards unless it’s L.A. or Times Square. I think the studio is creating a real-world viral campaign simply to get noticed on the Internet…..so, which realm has the most power now [shivers]?
In fact, wouldn’t be cheaper to just Photoshop billboards onto highways and send the same press release out? I doubt the Net’s fact checkers would catch on.
January 5th, 2008 at 1:20 am
We have one of these in Knoxville, TN. Select cities (i’m told) based o the characters have them.
http://daveandthomas.blogspot.com/2008/01/lost-viral-marketing-invades-our.html
January 5th, 2008 at 7:00 am
They’re actually airing these commercials on TV now too.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
It’s a lame and stupid idea. Bad enough to be bombarded by real ads for real products and services, and these brainiacs think posting fake ads for a fictional airlines is smart. Maybe the story will gets picked up on a slow day by mass media outlets. BY the by - it’s hardly an inside joke - millions of people watch this TV show. Hardly an exclusive cadre community.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 am
thats for sure, brother