MUMBAI: Star World, The English general enetertainment channel from the Star stable, is set to kick off the fifth season of Lost from 18 January onwards. The show will air from Monday to Thursday at 10 pm.
Star World India GM Keertan Adhyanthaya says that the broadcaster is doing a host of marketing activties to promote the show. Online is an important component. A full blown Lost microsite will be created where season 1-4 synopsis (catch up for previous four seasons), character sketches, interactive games and episodic updates will be available. There will also be discussion forums created on the site.
The Star World page on the online social networking site Facebook will be populated with information from the show. Lost wallpapers will also be available on these sites for download. The broadcaster will also buy ad space on Facebook to promote the microsite.
Additionally, Lost postcards will be created online that can be sent to friends via Facebook. These postcards will also be available in Youth Hangouts like colleges and café coffee day‘s through cards4u.
Nickname Generator, an online ‘Sawyer’s nickname generator’, will be created where a fan can upload his/her name and get a nickname from the system. This is because the character of Sawyer from Lost is well known for giving nicknames to people.
As part of the on ground activation process, hoardings will be put up at prime locations in Mumbai and Delhi. Busbacks also have been created. Interesingly, the broadcaster is not using print for the Lost camapign. Adhyanthaya adds that the channel‘s marketing budget will go up by 35 per cent for the year. The fifth season marks the beginning of the end. On the show, six survivors get rescued off the mysterious island; But they all decide to go back to rescue the rest.
With only 34 original hours left until the final episode airs in 2010, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Claire‘s son Aaron - otherwise known as the Oceanic 6 - have been rescued and continue to try and pick up the pieces of the lives they knew before the crash. But Jack and Ben must convince all of them to return to the island in order to save those left behind.
This will prove quite a feat to achieve since Jack is still wrestling with his addictions, Kate won‘t speak to Jack, Hurley is in a mental institution, Sayid is an assassin and Sun blames Jack for Jin‘s death when the freighter exploded. Adding to their worries is the fact that they also have to take the body of Jeremy Bentham - aka Locke - with them in order to make things right with the island. But locating the island may prove even more difficult since Ben moved it.
