Starting this July, the English entertainment channel Zee Café will introduce LOST, the iconic American TV series, to Indian viewers. Beginning on July 23rd, seasons 1 to 6 of LOST will be broadcast at 9 PM on weekdays, featuring Hollywood stars such as Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Evangeline Lilly, and Naveen Andrews, among others.
In a bid to create hype and pull viewers to the new show, Zee Café has launched a rather exciting social media campaign, with a microsite at its center. The contest will award an all expenses paid trip for two to an exotic island!
The Island
Drawing inspiration from the show, the channel has created a microsite themed as a mysterious Island with magical powers. People have been invited to the island to try their luck to vacation on a real island.
Once you enter the island, you need to generate a boarding pass by submitting your name and email id. Interestingly, the boarding pass created for each email id, is from Oceanic Airlines flight 815 – the same flight that crashed on a Pacific island, leaving 48 stranded passengers, which is the theme of the show. This boarding pass will have a unique ticket number, just like a lottery ticket number. Pray to Lady Luck as you are at her mercy now.
The winning ticket number that could set you up on the island trip for two will be randomly selected. And, how would one know whether they have the lucky number? One has to tune in to the first episode of LOST as the lucky number will not be announced on the microsite, nor will the winner be contacted, but it will be flashed on the television screen during the first episode of LOST!
The very basic microsite also displays information about the show and a little about what some of the lost ones have to say.
How cool is it?
Despite not having an engaging app or a microsite, the campaign manages to lure viewers to the first episode, which is what is the end objective of any launch campaign for a television show – to bring in as many viewers as can be. All participants are informed on the microsite as well as via email that they will have to tune in to Zee Café on 23rd July at 9 pm , the launch date for the first episode of LOST to watch out for the winning number, ensuring maximum viewership.
Apparently, the microsite has been designed with that purpose in mind. Its only functionality is to generate boarding passes and get participants to tune in to the show. Besides, the show and the microsite contest have also been promoted through a series of interesting updates on the Zee Café Facebook page as well as the channel’s Twitter handle under the hashtag #TheIsland.
Compared to new show launches with quizzes and hashtag contests, this one comes across as a simple yet smart idea to increase viewership. Do get your boarding passes and let us know your views on the launch campaign.