tell me a (transmedia) story

Transmedia Storytelling

KNOWLEDGE

We are storytellers…

But can we be storymakers?

And empower consumers to be the storytellers?

“Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like is largely a search for a plot and a pattern in the development of his life story -- a story that craves meaning and pattern.” Eric Hoffer, American social writer & philosopher

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.” — Robert McKee

Stories are so important to us.

They teach us.

Provide motivation.

Validate our lives.

Provide a compass.

Help us connect.

Hyper social, newly participative, ‘living’ transmedia…

…armed with ideas

We live in an ever expanding & crowded media space

We’re functioning in an amazing multi-platformed world

We are storytellers…and our environment is now offering more

x What if we could create a story more powerful than traditional advertising?

x What if we we were able to go beyond the limits of what our media budgets allowed us to do?

x What if we could create a movement whereour audience helps to build & shape the story further?

The girl

The girl meHer friends Random people

My friends

Brand ConsumerCommunities

Transmedia story experience

Multi-platform touch points

A rich story that lives & breathes through different channels & platforms.

Transmedia storytelling, in its simplest form, integrates (entertainment) experiences across a range of different media platforms…….

…It immerses an audience in a story through a number of different entry points, providing a comprehensive & coordinated experience of the entire story.

Rather than spread one big idea across different media types, you utilise different functions and communities to allow you to tell different parts of the story

Success relies on fragmenting the

narrative and making

each media space do

what it does best

Each channel should be strong and self-contained

enough to live on its own, but can then be pulled together

into a greater brand narrative

Each media type should

provide compelling reason

to engage at that point,

clearly integrated to

provide ease of access and

high involvement

Where it started…

The unicorn

From the boardroom to the bedroom

The Matrix Trilogy - An early example of Transmedia Storytelling.

What the general public saw

What die hard communities found (and talked about)

TV / Film Gaming Brands

Natural storytelling inherent in categories

Opportunity for brands to adopt these

story ‘habits’ from entertainment and

gaming

Expansion of Transmedia Storytelling is powered by 3 key drivers:

In society

In Entertainment In Marketing

A move to Hypersociability

An explosion in cross platform

usage

Paid for vs Open source/free

What makes it different from a traditional multimedia campaign?

But isn’t this Cross Media or just plain integrated marketing?

The most significant difference with Transmedia

The creation of knowledge communities around a deep, rich powerful story which fuels the passion of

these communities to add to & spread the story further

It’s about exciting these communities…

“Produce something that pulls people together and gives them something to do.”-Henry Jenkins

Transmedia targets the more active

Targets these guys

To feed them all

Forrester participation ladder

Media Neutral Planning Transmedia Planning

Due to its differences it requires different media planning considerations.

Simple / single-layered may not always be best…

Advertising Transmedia

Simple Richer / more complex

Get message across Get message across, fuel thought,spur action, spark community, encourage discussion & spread further

• Consumers’ lack of attention

• Media choices, i.e watching TV while using the computer, multi screen usage

• Spectator to participator culture,

• Consumers comfort & impatience with media technology, they want content to come with them.

Why are brands doing it?

Consumers want stories but now have a lot more of a role in affecting

those stories.

The best storytelling brands win.

INSPIRATION

Three stories

TV / Film Gaming Brands

Audi A3The Art of the Heist

The brand new Audi A3 goes missing. Audi are clueless, a mysterious retrieval company is hired, but it falls upon eagle eyed members of the public to follow

the clues and solve the crime.

Players are directed to the mysterious lastretrieval.com, no mention of Audi, yet…

A break in filmed on CCTV, an Audi A3 stolen.

The following day, a simple sign replaces the car at the NY Auto Show. Blogs pick up on it asap.

StolenA3.com, the place to go for information launches, recording every little clue.

Eight short films provide the back story, an Audi ‘official’ pleads for information.

Campaign goes mainstream, TV ads and billboards direct players back to lastretrieval.com.

Players are recruited as retrievers after solving codes in classified ads, one character reveals some clues on live TV.

Those who have made it this far are rewarded with a live event playing out the final stages of the campaign.

OasisCactus Kid

Began with a TV ad

Character’s full stories come to life through other channels (22 in fact)

A call to action goes out encouraging everyone to get involved

More ads are released, drawing more consumers in and adding new layers to the story

Even more channels are introduced, and PR really begins to take off

Another call to action, this time to decide the fate and choose the ending

The story concludes with a final TV ad, once again pulling in new people to experience the whole story

Batman: Dark KnightWhy so Serious?

Why So Serious invited players to become part of Gotham City, to choose their allegiance in the run up to the release of the film.

The story began with Harvey Dent and the launch of his political campaign.

One person remained unimpressed. The joker created his own site and provided hidden messages in an attempt to sway supporters.

The Joker began his recruitment drive, sowing the seeds of anarchy and inviting players to become part of the chaos.

Hundreds heeded the call and began a scavenger hunt to uncover the mysteries to become part of Gotham City.

A ransom note was uncovered by players, their next challenge, appear at 49 famous landmarks dressed as The Joker.

Those who took part received copies of The Gotham Times with fictitious websites. Gotham city had come alive.

Gotham City PD soon got involved, the corruption of Gotham was revealed. The Joker wasn’t done. Baked within cakes lay mobile phones, a constant connection

to the Joker.

After Heath Ledger’s death, the focus went to Harvey Dent and his efforts were doubled. New recruits and old spread the message of Harvey Dent,

here to clean up Gotham.

Men on the street wasn’t enough, the campaign trail went nationwide.

The Joker was far from done. Packages placed around the country revealed his plan.

The puzzles and clues continued. The latest Dark Knight trailer cruelly defaced.

The campaign was a huge success, over 10m took part across 75 countries. The Dark Knight ARG is regarded as the most immersive campaign ever.

Community Results

YouTube7 Videos

700,652 views

Google Results2,870,000Blogs

792,104

Flickr16,102

Those who believe in change believe in Batman. Hundreds gathered, only to be once again beaten by the Joker. He had finally had the last laugh.

Based on the Halo storyline, a campaign is launched to build excitement and interest in the run up to the launch of Halo 2.

Other brands are doing it too......

Most Interesting Man scavenger hunt

Reebok Secret Lewis

Microsoft The Vanishing Point

McDonald’s The Secret Ring

Burger King Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar ad

Darius Rucker/Hootie & the Blowfish

Big Rock Candy Moutain

Brooke BurkeDavid La Chapelle

And heaped with loads of other cultural references

Encouraging community & conversation in all audiences

This is not something new to AMV

TOOLS

Advertisers ConsumersRedefining their relationships

The role for agencies is to facilitate and nurture these relationships.

Becoming better transmedia storytellers

x Moving from campaigns to conversations x Thinking for communityx Encouraging conversation & content creationx Understanding some key principlesx Learning to build a Transmedia worldx Partners who can help

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From campaigns to conversations

Look through the lens of community

Think like a community organiser. Are we helping a community to form?

The 4C’s of Community

x Comment – the initial start of involvement

x Conversation – comment explodes into exchange

x Content - conversations spawns creation

x Commitment – communities make shit happen

Some key principles

1. Spreadability vs Drillability2. Immersion vs Extractability3. Worldbuilding4. Seriality5. Blur the line between reality and fiction6. Performance

1. Spreadability vs Drillability

Singular shareable conceptMulti-faceted, multi-platformed content

that encourages further exploration & subsequent sharing

2. Immersion vs. Extractability

3. World building

Fans want to map out as much of this ‘world’ as possible.

4. Seriality

Significant moments & meaning may not be linear but across multiple media systems.

5. Blur the line between reality and fiction

Indirect content & experiences (mock websites) are part of the illusion of reality.

6. Performance

Fans’ actions can be integral and should be woven in as ‘performance.’

Learning to build transmedia worlds

Partners who can help

“Because there is a natural storytelling urge and ability in all human beings, even just a little nurturing of this impulse can bring about astonishing and delightful results.” —Nancy Mellon, The Art of Storytelling

Remember…

The girl me

Remember…

You are a storymaker.Brand consumer

Thank you. Any questions?