Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

What is the popularity of shows like "Lost" doing to change the way entertainment is viewed? I don't mean viewed as in watching, but viewed as in how we look at it and what we want out of it. What does it mean to marketers and advertisers?

First of all, what is happening in the entertainment world is a move toward "engagement" by fans. This is nothing new, think of the X-files as one of those shows that engaged people for years. 

What is different now is that a show like "Lost" is able to take itself and change it into a brand that speaks to legions of true believers and offers it over a true multimedia platform. What this does is to smash through the endless clutter that is involved with all of our lives and gets the customer involved at a very indepth level.

It goes so far beyond the show to everywhere the fan is involved in. What advertisers must learn to do is to find all the engagement points of the fans and meet them there in an unobtrusive way, across all the mediums they use.
 
Another quickly changing aspect of all of this is that it is no longer a type of experience that engages an individual who sits and thinks about the show on their own. It is a corporate or community experience that drives what is happening.

It is the ability to go online immediately in their favorite places to discuss the show's unwritten, but implied plots and twists and attempt to figure them out together. The whole idea behind all of it is to take a plot that is deep and complicated and discuss, talk and offer input to figure out its simple explanation.

Why is this important for branding? It actually eliminates the curiosity seekers and amd discovers those that want to go along for the ride; they must commit to keep up on what's happening. It works! The complexity of the plot forces viewers to focus on what's happening. They can't be passive. That's one of the keys.
 
From the financial side it provides passionate fans that trust in the brand and will respond to advertising that is done right and doesn't interfere with the viewers experience.