The Dharma Initiative Wins an Emmy!

As most of you know, the Emmys aired live last night, and the show hogged the ratings as usual. Usually, this year included, I just skip the awards and check out the big winners later that night or the next day. However, there was one category that caught my eye this year: An award for television viral marketing/content.

The non-fiction and fiction subsets of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media seem to be a new category. The Emmys already have an Interactive Media Awards ceremony, but apparently they finally wanted to bring the fun to the main event. Here are the nominees and the winners:


Fiction:
The 30 Rock Digital Experience, NBC.com
The Dharma Initiative, ABC.com (Winner)
The Office Digital Experience, NBC.com


Non-Fiction:
Top Chef, Bravo Digital Media
The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Digital Experience, NBC.com (Winner)
The Saturday Night Live Digital Experience, NBC.com


Not many in contention, but the Emmy’s Interactive Media Peer Group is looking to have more nominees in the coming years. Even without following the others, the LOST’s win for their Dharma Initiative viral seems like an obvious choice. I didn’t even know Top Chef was doing anything online, so I thought SNL would win, but I know Jimmy Fallon’s pre-debut online presence was felt heavily in the industry.





So, the question is, what does this all mean to us in the viral community? Well, for one, it means that viral content is finally getting noticed, as it should, since many shows rely on it to appease loyal fans and enhance their story-telling. Viral content is already growing in the film industry, but these new awards could mean we’ll see it grow in the television industry as well. Networks have rarely used viral marketing because there are so many shows, and who knows how long they will last, if at all? Viral campaigns for films usually make more sense, since it’s all about the build up to that opening weekend. Hopefully this will change that trend.


Go to Emmys.tv for a full list of the Emmy winners this year. Also, for fellow Dr. Horrible fans, the evil character hacked into the Emmys, and you can watch the hilarity right here:





Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog won the Emmy in the unique category of Outstanding Special Class Programs. The TV program-length web video was a smash hit online and gained quite a cult following. A sequel is in the works.