Rick Mathieson interviews Mike Benson, the Senior Vice President of Marketing for ABC Entertainment, on “multi-platform branded entertainment”. It is an audio interview about The Lost Experience from a branding perspective (which extends an earlier article on the topic too). I’ve popped some notes about each one here:
- Part 1: Benson spoke about how The Lost Experience helped to engage people further to the point of strengthing the relationship between the TV show and other entertainment so they hopefully become fans. He also spoke about the latitude The Lost Experience provided by having a variety of platforms for a variety of products. Which means targeting for advertisers etc.
- Part 2: The Lost Experience emerged out of audiences that were hungry to be more engaged than just watching the TV show. They experimented at the beginning by burying web addresses in the TV episodes. Within the first few days they had over 1 million hits on a website (is he referring to Oceanic Air?). The Experience was about marketing as content. They looked for advertisers who were willing to experiment with them.
- Part 3: He didn’t know what an ARG is!! Sees his marketing as a 3D chess game. The reason why Mark Burnett is doing this (with AOL GoldRush) is because it is a great way to engage an audience and integrate an advertiser. Benson warns that the advertiser integration has to be organic to what you’re promoting or it will damage the TV show. I wonder if Benson has read the player comments about The Lost Experience?
- Part 4: Benson thinks The Lost Experience went on too long. He seemed to believe that people stopped playing TLE because it went for too long but I wonder if he has read the player complaints about the work having a heck of alot of repetition. He thinks a break between seasons is good too, but also mentions the idea of having a ramp rather than a bridge…
Have a listen now!