This was a presentation that I gave back in April. Since then we have done more advanced Transmedia work and I hope to share that case study soon when we get the full results. Sorry it took so long to upload this.
2. WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY FROM TODAY
An understanding of who I am and where I work
How I define Transmedia Planning
2 Case Studies from the Entertainment Sector
An AXE Cross Media Case Study
An AXE Trans Media Case Study
A deeper understanding of choreographing the narrative of a campaign
3. WHO I AM AND WHERE I WORK
So you can decide if I am complete bullshit or not.
4. GRIFFIN FARLEY
Title: Strategy Director, Engagement Planning Lead
Work: Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York City
Twitter: @griffinfarley
Blog: propagationplanning.com
5. BBH NORTH AMERICA CLIENTS
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To understand who I am you need to understand where I work and what I work on. We typically get two types of fees from clients. One fee is to pay for the concepting and production of
creative ideas that are reactive to business challenges. The other fee is to lead an inter-agency team that might include Public Relations, Experiential, Activation, Digital, Social, Hispanic,
African American, Media, etc. To do transmedia planning you need the ability to impact multiple aspects of the campaign.
6. SOME RECENT ACCOLADES
2012 Agency of the Year.
2012 Webby’s Agency of the Year.
Time Magazine: Top TV ad for 2011.
2011 A-List.
2011 Most Awarded Digital Agency of the Year.
2011 #1 Interactive Agency in the U.S.
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We are excited and humbled that we have been recognized by our peers. For transmedia planning to thrive you also need to work inside an agency that values interactive and integrated
marketing. Filming beautiful television spots isn’t enough.
8. WHY TRANSMEDIA?
Account Planning
inspire creative
thinking (JWT, BMP)
Connection Planning
inspire media thinking Pre-1964
(Fallon, Chiat/Day) 1965
Field Services
1999
Propagation Planning 2006
inspire WOM thinking
(Naked)
Transmedia Planning
inspire storytelling 2008
(MIT)
In 2009 Connection Planning had been around for more than 10 years. I was working for a mid-size agency in Tampa Bay and wanted to be on the cutting edge of the next theory in planning.
I started digging for things and found one post on the Tokyo Naked Blog about Propagation Planning by Ivan Pollard. It was the only thing I could find on the idea and so I dedicated my time
and energy to cultivate the theory and make it a true discipline.
9. WHAT IS TRANSMEDIA?
The definition of Transmedia is one of the biggest debates around Transmedia. Until that becomes agreed upon we are all stumbling through this theory together. So I turned to the founder of
Transmedia: Henry Jenkins
10. HENRY JENKINS: THE GOD FATHER
http://youtu.be/bhGBfuyN5gg
I’m going to let Henry do the talking here.
11. HOW DO I SELL THIS IDEA TO MY CLIENT?
(spoiler alert... it’s hard)
I’m going to role play a scene between me and a fictional client. I will play the role of the Strategist and my co-star, the Client will be the Screen behind me.
Transmedia planning is a communication model, derived from the ideas found in the book “Convergence Culture” that former MIT professor, now current Provost at USC, Henry Jenkins
coined.
12. (voice of a fictional client)
THAT GUY SOUNDS SMART,
I’M LISTENING.
In this model, there will be an evolving non-linear brand narrative.
13. (voice of a fictional client)
I SAW THE SHOW ‘LOST’
IT WAS HARD TO FOLLOW
Different channels will be used to communicate different, self-contained elements of the brand narrative that build to create a larger brand world.
14. (voice of a fictional client)
WORLD BUILDING SOUNDS EXPENSIVE...
Consumers then pull different parts of the story together themselves.
15. (voice of a fictional client)
COPY TESTING SHOWS CONSUMERS
HATE COMPLEX STORY LINES...
Since there would be more elements to the narrative than any single person could consume, people come together to share elements of the narrative – driving word of mouth and creating
communities.
16. (voice of a fictional client)
GIVE CONTROL TO CONSUMERS...
I’M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS
END SCENE. You can see how easy it is to say no to Transmedia, but the clients that are saying yes are coming from the Entertainment sectors and what we have seen over the years is
that movie marketing has a way of changing how everyone does marketing over time.
20. BUILDING BRAND WORLDS TOGETHER
The fan base has a role to help make the world big. You as the client don’t have to do everything but you need to embrace consumer interpretation of the idea. I think consumers can handle
more than a single core idea. In fact, I think we are in an age where increasingly consumers control the media they consume, and we can no longer simply interrupt, entertain for 30 seconds
and then sell them something, we have to offer them more than a core idea well told.
22. A ‘MATCHING LUGGAGE’ CAMPAIGN
PAID
PAID PAID
PAID Cross Media PAID
OWNED PAID
OWNED
What most clients do is reproduce the same idea in different ways to match the specs of different channels. This makes it easy to test, it makes it easy to manage the brand and the comms
because you know when it’s on campaign and off campaign.
23. AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnBHHcdHJQ
Agencies typically start with a strong TV spot and then extend that narrative idea into other media spaces. This is a great example of this model.
24. AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFuUFeQIdpk
Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.
25. AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY
http://youtu.be/3C7-v_R-r94
Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.
26. AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY
http://youtu.be/uc5yTo4viwQ
Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.
27. MEDIA NEUTRAL PLANNING
Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.
29. HOW IS TRANSMEDIA DIFFERENT
PAID
UGC UGC
PAID TransMedia OWNED
UGC OWNED
PAID
Building complexity into a range of communications, using channels to cultivate different ideas that build into a larger brand world, rather than reproducing the same idea in different ways. For
me its about building a world of references and images, held together by a value system and a narrative, communicating it in ways that respects that content and the fluidity of channels.
30. AXE ANARCHY: TEASER AD
Teaser Ad was seeded with Bloggers. We have a more simple narrative to set up what is to come.
31. AXE ANARCHY: HERO SPOT
This ad was released in Cinema and television. We have a new epic narrative here that shows the sheer extent of this proposition.
32. AXE ANARCHY: ACTIVATION
Razorfish introduced new characters allowing real people to be written into the ongoing narrative. This was a better and richer storyline for digital and mobile.
33. AXE ANARCHY: ACTIVATION
The Facebook App and YouTube Brand Page became portals into the story. As you engaged with the story you had a chance to be written into the final one.
34. HOW THIS GETS CLOSER TO TRANSMEDIA
1. Teaser Campaign around Cops and Robbers
2. Girls and Guys with the power of AXE create Anarchy
3. Comic book narrative where consumers co-create the world
However, it’s not so complex that they needed a community.
This is an entry into transmedia but it didn’t fully embrace it.
35. EMBRACE COMPLEXITY
There is a book by Steven Johnson that explains How Today’s Popular Culture is actually making us Smarter. This was published in 2005, it is based upon Johnson’s theory that popular
culture - in particular television shows and video games - have grown more complex and demanding over time and is improving the society within terms of intelligence and idea. He argues
that the structure of video games uniquely invite exploration and stimulates the reward centers of the brain. He asserts that television is a “brilliant medium” for determining how skilled people
are at understanding interpersonal connections, and that reality shows realistically display the complexity of “social network maps” in human relations, where a group of people have complex
and intertwined engagement.
36. HOW TO START?
To take advantage of
To sell a campaign,
To sell an ad, everything todays media
you need a
you need a story landscape has to offer
character
you need a world
38. KNOW HOW TO START A MOVEMENT
The basis for Propagation Planning
The best way to kick this off is with a TED talk about “how to start a movement.” They quickly frame up many key principles of Propagation Planning.
So how do you do Propagation Planning, you start a movement. You act like a lone nut (why do you think viral videos go viral?) or you find a lone nut (Bloggers, Gamers, Fanboys) and work
with them to tell your story.
39. MARKETING MODELS OF PROPAGATION
Awareness Funnel Propagation Megaphone
(Paid Media) (Earned Media)
Before I explain the Propagation models you need to know how media is typically viewed. Media agencies cast a wide net with lots of waste and trickle down to those that will consider and
purchase your product. This is typically called the Awareness Funnel. What we want to do is introduce a new shape into your media planning, this is the Propagation Megaphone. This starts
small and grows big over time.
40. ADOPTION CURVE WITHOUT PROPAGATION
BROADCAST
MEDIA
Early Majority > < Late Majority
(Most creative targets the mass majority)
Early Adopters > < Laggards
Innovators >
TIME AND SALES
In this model the Innovators and Early Adopters don’t have a chance to break the news. They see communications the same time the majority can see them, which makes it less cool to talk
about because it’s not special or exclusive. Plus this creative has been copy tested against the majority. It has been watered down to be liked and revered by the greatest amount of people
possible. If you were a Blogger or a Journalist you would want to break the story, you wouldn’t want to just add your POV to it.
41. ADOPTION CURVE WITH PROPAGATION
BROADCAST
MEDIA
Early Majority > < Late Majority
Early Adopters > < Laggards
Innovators >
(This creative targets the influencers)
PROPAGATION TIME AND SALES
STIMULUS
So... what if we targeted influencers? This creative wouldn’t look like the creative we put into Broadcast Media, that’s too safe. This creative needs to be raw, perhaps unfinished so the
influencers have a chance to affect and shape the creative. Perhaps they have a chance to become part of the story themselves? Perhaps they have a chance to invite their followers to become a
part of the story? This happens a lot in good Movie campaigns.
42. ADOPTION CURVE WITH TRANSMEDIA
BROADCAST
MEDIA
Early Majority > < Late Majority
Early Adopters > < Laggards
Innovators >
(This creative targets the influencers)
PROPAGATION TIME AND SALES
STIMULUS
Now that we layer Transmedia onto the Propagation Model you see multiple strands of activity that all have a chance to go big. The brand made a call to start the movement but now the
community has added their own interpretation to the narrative.
44. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PLANNERS
Understand the relationship between creative and media
45. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR STORYTELLING?
Think about the myth that is the brand you are charged with building. Find the brand’s point of view, create the brand’s world. Don’t treat consumers like idiots. John talks about expected
endings. If we can predict the ending from the first chapter of the book it isn’t going to be an interesting read.
46. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
Can we create a Brand World?
What are the mythology, challenges, rewards in this world?
Who are the heroes and the villains?