I own three perfectly good smoke detectors, but I wanted to buy another one during the Lost finale.
That’s how good Target’s marketing was. The finale itself? Meh (in my opinion …). But the Target advertisements? Fabulous! And I’m not the only one who thought so.
The Nielsen Company says First Alert’s “smoke monster” ad had a likeability rating almost four times higher than ads shown during other shows in the time slot. What’s more impressive, data shows that Lost viewers recall ads shown during any of the final Lost episodes at least 27% better than those shown during other primetime programs. The 13 million folks who watched the finale could recall ads 90% better than their non-Lostie friends who were watching something else.
Translated into English that means: If you saw something advertised on Lost, you were more likely to a) like it, and b) remember it. Which means, of course, you’re also more likely to buy it.
My question is, why? Because we don’t realize our hankering for barbequed pork until a boar happens to run by onscreen and we realize we need BBQ sauce? Or (and this seems more likely) do we like stuff more if it’s associated with other stuff we already like?
If the latter is true of mere television advertisements, then what else is it true of? Friendships? Strangers? Churches? Virtually everything?
Ah, the questions raised by marketing.
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