Transmedia: What it Means for Brands

TRANSMEDIA:
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS

INDEX
• What is Transmedia?
Getting the Most Out of a Great Story
The Channels

• Transmedia for Brands
The Restraints

• Implementing Transmedia
Three Questions Brands Must Ask
Rules of the Road
Avoiding Pitfalls

• The Cases
Star Wars
ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars
Cracker Barrel

• The Future of Transmedia

a digital connection agency ©2011 Band Digital, Inc. All Rights Reserved

What is Transmedia?
Transmedia is loosely defined as a new storytelling method that extends
elements of a primary storyline across multiple platforms to create an interactive,
multi-layered fiction greater than the sum of its parts. A little wordy, but accurate.
Transmedia is not a marketing plan or repurposing of content - it’s telling a story
appropriately and organically across all platforms.

So it’s perhaps inaccurate to call it “Transmedia,” since that name implies
emphasis on the diversity of the media components and not on the diversifica-
tion of the story elements, which is actually a crucial feature. The Producer’s
Guild of America definition underscores the emphasis on multiple storylines, and
not platforms:

“A Transmedia Narrative project or franchise must consist of three (or more)
narrative storylines existing within the same fictional universe on any of
the following platforms: Film, Television, Short Film, Broadband, Publish-
ing, Comics, Animation, Mobile, Special Venues, DVD/Blu-ray/CD-ROM,
Narrative Commercial and Marketing rollouts, and other technologies that
may or may not currently exist. These narrative extensions are NOT the
same as repurposing material from one platform to be cut or repurposed to
different platforms.”

Social
Networks

Messaging
Gaming

STORY
Mobile Real-World
Apps Events

Theatrical TV

The Transmedia ecosystem
(as illustrated with The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and JESS3 theconversationprism.com)

a digital connection agency ©2011 Band Digital, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1

The history of Transmedia will put this in a little more perspective. You could
say that Transmedia has been around as long as storytelling itself. From when 7 Myths of Transmedia
cavemen hunted, then told their story around a campfire, and then carved those by Henry Jenkins
images into a wall. But that’s a little too far back. The actual term “Transmedia”
was coined in 2003 by MIT Media Studies Professor Henry Jenkins. He used
the term in an article titled Transmedia Storytelling for the publication Technol-
ogy Review. He’s now a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and
Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California–a fitting career path for a
man that envisioned the future dynamic of storytelling in a diverse and digital age.

Transmedia in the mainstream began as a response by the entertainment
industry to diversify and monetize large investments in big movie and television
properties. For example, launching specific movie-based comic books prior to
the release so potential viewers have more back-story and increased primary
narrative excitement prior to release–like Batman. Or, like the LOST television
series with its wikis, comics, minisites and fan-driven online properties.

What both of these examples highlight is the requirement for a fictional universe Myth 1: Transmedia Storytelling refers
to any strategy involving more
large and dense enough to support multiple narratives in other mediums. Market- than one media platform.
ing has typically played an ancillary role in the growth of Transmedia primarily
as a supporting partner. Many of the sub-narrative entertainment properties are Myth 2: Transmedia is basically a
new promotional strategy.
created not only as story extensions, but also as additional advertising vehicles.
For example, the comic series that bridged the first two seasons of Heroes was Myth 3: Transmedia means games.
an exclusive Nissan Versus sponsorship.
Myth 4: Transmedia is for geeks.

Getting the Most Out of a Great Story Myth 5: Transmedia requires
a large budget.
Transmedia is getting marketing attention now because of the multitude of plat-
Myth 6: Everything should
forms that exist today in which to consume content. More distribution channels go transmedia.
mean more opportunity to reach an audience–and to discover new ones. The
flip side of so many channels is that you can get lost in the shuffle or even Myth 7: Transmedia is “so ten
minutes ago.”
overextend your reach by trying too hard. We’re definitely a society of “more,
more, more.” Constant consumption. A little like Cookie Monster, we want more See full article here:
cookies–before we even finish the first one. http://www.fastcompany.com/1745746/seven-
myths-about-transmedia-storytelling-debunked
More for the sake of more is never a good thing. So how you tell your story has
never been more important. LOST did a very good job of organically growing their
story, creating the desire for more, and turning a passive viewing experience into
a phenomenon. But copycats such as The Event on NBC failed when it tried to
mimic the LOST format. Maybe they got marketing confused with storytelling.

The Channels
As technology advances so do the avenues for telling stories. The Internet Some select samples from the LOST
alone has opened up the floodgates for distribution. It’s like the Wild West again. fanverse that ultimately contributed
People are constantly inventing new ways to get their story out into the world. to the show’s long-term success.
Not only are the storytellers continually evolving, the audience is too. They don’t
want to sit back and watch, they want to participate. Interactive, gaming and An unofficial LOST fan site:
http://www.LOST-tv.com/
mobile platforms have given storytellers the ability to dive deeper and further
immerse audiences. Wiki–LOST Encyclopedia:
http://LOSTpedia.wikia.
The channels that can be used include just about every medium that exists in com/wiki/Main_Page
the marketing catalog. But because Transmedia lends itself so well to digital, it LOST fan site:
affords the opportunity to embrace new trends in marketing–and more emerging http://LOST-media.com/
technologies. This includes custom gaming, social networks, interactive video,
virtual worlds and location-based services.


Transmedia for Brands
What makes Transmedia possible, and lucrative at this particular moment, is the
digital connectivity between media–the collective attention that rapidly gathers
around topics and the speed at which ideas can be shared within a fan group. Digital storytelling is a staple
By the time the last season of LOST aired, there were hundreds of websites, of Transmedia campaigns. The
following are examples of excel-
fan-fiction stories and live tweet-ups dedicated to discussing the clues parsed
lence in narrative interaction.
out in the various narratives. The only place one could assemble a cohesive
understanding of the extended story was in the fan universe (although one didn’t
need to know all this understand and enjoy the main show storyline). The Fantastic Flying Books
of Mr. Morris Lessmore
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664419/
Transmedia offers tremendous opportunity for brands to engage on an unprec- all-star-pixar-animator-creates-
edented level, given the amount of passion, time and sharing involved. Most astounding-kids-book-on-ipad
marketing involvement–at least early on–will rely on sponsoring extensions of
An interactive app for the iPad that lets people
large non-commercial fictional universes, since that is where the deepest fan experience the book the way they choose.
bases exist.
Motion Picture Inside
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/
The Restraints jul/13/horror-social-media-inside

The way marketing is established right now, creating their own Transmedia A new “social film experience”
universes will be a challenge for brands. Not because of lack of resources, directed invites Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube users to participate in an
but because of the requirement for the depth of the fictional universe. This in-production movie in real time.
commitment could prove to be too long-term and beyond the scope of a typical
year’s plan. JK Rowling’s Pottermore
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/
jun/23/harry-potter-website-pottermore
Brands that have taken a stab at this (though it was likely not intentional) include
Old Spice, with their well-known and highly publicized “Old Spice Guy” campaign. An interactive website that extends the Harry
Also, Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World.” In both cases, the charac- Potter series without adding a new book.
ters are extended into other media. What’s problematic is that the fictional worlds MoMA Talk to Me exhibition
they occupy are not large enough for true narrative, but really only for more http://www.moma.org/visit/
advertising messages. So, while these are successful as integrated campaigns, calendar/exhibitions/1080
they do not translate into Transmedia narratives. A digital collection of artwork that explores the
communication between people and things.
The Transmedia opportunity represents a tremendous degree of consumer
passion and interaction if it can be architected. The narrative extensions and TRON Graphic Novel
disneydigitalbooks.go.com/tron
the ability for fans to co-create stories are what transform entertainment into
Transmedia engagement and participation. The current digital environment An interactive website that tells a story using
enables this participation with tools for the audience to create and share. For HTML5 (a collaboration between Disney
Publishing Worldwide and Internet Explorer 9).
the marketer adept enough to harness this energy, the rewards are substantial
brand love and that coveted thing called engagement.

Old Spice: A great multimedia campaign
but not Transmedia. There is a strong
character but no story arc to extend.


Implementing Transmedia
The primary benefits of implementing a Transmedia project are the attractive-
ness of the primary story, the intensity of the user experience, the diversity of
execution and opportunity to reach diverse audiences and the ability to extend
premier content for much smaller costs.

The decision to implement is then based on the presence of an anchor storyline
and whether leveraging ancillary storylines and content will attract and engage
the appropriate audience–particularly if this is a “sponsoring brand” scenario.

Three Questions Brands Must Ask
If the opportunity to engage the primary story audience is appropriate, brands
have three key questions that must be addressed for the program to take shape.

1. How cooperative is the primary Intellectual Property (IP) holder in
terms of sharing licensed material? The answer to this question is typi-
cally the one that determines eventual success or failure. The primary IP
holder should be enthusiastic about the success of ancillary content without
a debilitative clearance process. Obviously, if there is very little access or
agreement about licensed material then the program will lack authentic
hallmarks and not be attractive to a fan base.
2. How collaborative will the creative process be between the primary IP
holder and the marketer? The relationships vary and the marketer needs
to understand that access to content does not a Transmedia project make.
Also, since the program is based on a story, it is critical to have quality
writing and concepting talent to manufacture a successful extension to a
popular narrative.
3. What level of investment? One of the virtues of Transmedia is that there is
a wide range of content extensions available. It can be as elaborate as a live
action Web series or as simple as a gaming app. The point is to understand
what is essential to produce in order to generate the fan response. Brands
must strive to be clever and to leverage innate qualities in the primary narra-
tive. This doesn’t necessarily require huge production and media budgets.


Rules of the Road
There are some basic rules of the road that should be followed when executing
a Transmedia project.

1. Focus on telling a good story: This may sound obvious, but it is harder
than it sounds. There’s a reason the anchor story is popular and if the ancil-
lary content rings hollow or false, the fan interest will quickly turn from inter-
est to disdain.
2. Make it interactive: Digital tools like “choose your own adventure” engines
and user-directed 360˚ video allow the user to drive the story and make
choices, increasing engagement.
3. Give fans the reins to create: Letting fans create new and original content
out of IP material is probably the most attractive and engaging experience.
It is difficult for most licensors to feel comfortable setting the boundaries for
this type of interaction.
4. Make it easily shared: Since the audience shares a passion for the original
story, word of mouth will be the primary driver of the ancillary content. Make
it easy to get the word out.
5. Make it easy to find relative to the anchor story: The audience knows
where to find the anchor story, so make sure that the ancillary content is right
there with it. Either on the same Web page, in search, or with tags.

Avoiding Pitfalls
Be careful of fooling an audience. Most Transmedia projects will behave like
real news articles or other Web properties. When done right, they can be highly
attractive mysteries for the right fan base to solve. If done wrong, they can be
misleading. Even worse, they can appear unethical. It’s important to remember
this is fiction.

Transmedia campaigns tap into the feverish passion of a fan base and engage
them around supplementary storylines. These campaigns require time and
focused attention from an audience. Therefore, Transmedia campaigns are typi-
cally measured against the size of an audience, the amount of time spent on the
material and the ultimate action taken (e.g., whether viewers created their own
video, whether they played a game).


The Cases

Star Wars
The best way to tell a Transmedia case is by highlighting an example everyone From toys to alternative animation, the
knows–like the Star Wars franchise. Now, this is at an extreme level, but it’s for Star Wars universe goes on forever.
this reason–its notoriety and depth of channel extensions make it easy to follow
along.

Star Wars was released in 1977. What’s interesting is that what is arguably the
most storied franchise in cinematic history–and an extremely relevant example
of Transmedia–was initially intended to be just one film. But that’s because the
story was just the beginning...

“It wasn’t long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was
more than a single film could hold.” - George Lucas

While developing the next two films, Lucas created such an elaborate back-
story that he decided these first three films would be episodes 4,5, and 6 in
what would be a six-film saga and the back-story would serve as the prequels
to the films that he would make at a later date. The success of the first three
films led Lucas to create The Expanded Star Wars Universe (ESWU) which
encompasses all of the officially licensed, fictional background of the Star Wars
universe. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, video games,
spin-off films, television series, toys, and other media. Each distribution platform
reached a different audience, yet stayed true to the Star Wars story. The creation
of the Expanded Star Wars Universe not only increased the audience for the
franchise–it likely saved it.

To date, the Star Wars films alone have grossed over $4B worldwide. More
importantly, the story continues and remains culturally relevant after more than
40 years. The Clone Wars animated television series has secured the next
generation of fans as it has aired since 2003 and produced an animated feature
film. Not surprisingly, the Clone Wars franchise has become a very successful
video game franchise as well.


The launch of the Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes video game,
like everything else Star Wars, had to successfully capture avid fan attention
and guarantee an authentic narrative extension of the Clone Wars canon. Band
Digital worked with animators, producers and writers to create a unique online
command center with a neat twist that moved the fantasy one-step closer to
reality. For the first time, fans could reproduce the holographic holocomm image,
first made famous with Princess Leia and R2D2, with augmented reality. A virtual
Yoda appeared on a marker, seemingly suspended in space, telling you your
mission that would be fulfilled first through training on the website and then in
the game.

A series of story screens from Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes video game website.
Fans received holocomm messages from Yoda through augmented reality.
http://www.lucasarts.com/games/jointheclonewars/

Now, a couple more case studies. These focus on specific channels that are
used to extend a story.


ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars
a Band Digital initiative

Pretty Little Liars is a teen mystery/drama TV series that airs on ABC Family.
Based on the popular series of novels written by Sara Shepard, the show follows
the lives of four girls whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of one of
the girls. A year later, they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure
who threatens to expose their secrets. It’s this basis on mystery, and the nuances
of each character, that lend it so well to the idea of Transmedia.

ABC Family wanted to create an experience for viewers that would feed on their
intense fanship. So with little money or time, Band Digital built a “Choose Your
Own Adventure” (CYOA) experience based on unique footage filmed around
one of the series subplots–totaling five episodes. These special episodes ran
exclusively on the series website with a headline sponsorship from Microsoft
Bing. This Web feature received millions of views with minutes of playing time.

What was required to make this happen? First, a story fans were interested
A teen drama that endlessly cycles
in enough to pursue further. Second, a story scenario supportive of the main around a central mystery: The perfect
narrative universe. Third, a vehicle that afforded fan involvement. In this case, it environment for spinning sub-stories.
was the ability to choose what the character would do in the game. And finally,
the ability to share that game experience with other fans.

Band Digital worked directly with the writers and producers of the show to
create the storylines (from concept to delivery). The fan experience needed to
be authentic and serve a purpose to the overall story–the episodes should add
depth to their series knowledge, not waste their time. Each episode provided
background information on characters and served as teasers for future episodes.
But sometimes, the episodes just served to pique interest and keep the audience
guessing–so we never gave away too much.

How it Works
Each CYOA episode has an intro. At its conclusion, two choices (prompts) appear
on-screen asking the viewer which they would like to explore (rabbit hole). Once
the viewer selects an option, another video begins to reveal the story. At the end
of that video, the viewer is once again prompted to make another choice. This

A “Choose Your Own Adventure” (CYOA) decision point.


choice takes the viewer to the conclusion of that episode. When experience
is complete, the viewer can play it again to see what the other decision points
revealed, or they can share their CYOA video with a friend.

A series of videos reveal clues about the mysterious central character.
http://abcfamily.go.com/shows/pretty-little-liars/make-as-move?cid=adsales_q4fy11_binggame_promo

Tracking Success
The CYOA campaign is tracked using Google Analytics. Over one million people
spent over three-and-a-half minutes online interacting with the content. And, the
teaser for the series was leaked onto the Pretty Little Liars Facebook page,
receiving over 2,000 likes and 500 comments within the first hour alone.


Cracker Barrel
a Band Digital initiative

The Cracker Barrel case is different because it exemplifies a fictional universe
that is both the product and the brand. At Cracker Barrel, it isn’t just the food.
Or just the store. It is a brand dedicated to delivering a consistent environmental
experience. Guests can relax in a front porch rocking chair, shop for throw-back
toys and hard-to-find candies, then dine on home style-cooking in a friendly,
comfortable, country setting. But even for a company rooted in nostalgia, it
knows digital is more important than ever to its brand-and that it was time to The folksy hallmarks of the Cracker
translate its brand story digitally. Barrel brand story: Open road signage,
rocking chairs, checkers
If you’ve been on a road trip in Cracker Barrel country, you’ve undoubtedly seen and the peg game.
its outdoor campaign. Its frequent billboards are nothing if not consistent–in
look and in message. And when it comes to its stores, Cracker Barrel takes
every care for the likeness of the experience, down to the wall décor (which they
source and store themselves).

Crackerbarrel.com: The virtual narrative story extension of the real world restaurant experience.

So when Cracker Barrel decided to revamp their website, first and foremost was
telling its brand story online. Not only did we redesign the site to be consistent
with the in-store experience–and to streamline and incite purchase–we took
great care in telling the Cracker Barrel story.

Taking the Tour
Nothing can explain Cracker Barrel better than actually being there. The sights,
the smells, the sounds ... they all combine to create what is a signature Cracker
Barrel brand experience. So we created a live-action, 360-degree interactive
tour that allows guests to hang out on the front porch, browse and buy merchan-
dise in the country store, and learn facts about the food while navigating through
the dining room.


A user-driven 360˚ cinematic HD video first person POV virtual visit. Interactions can occur with just
about any element through digital hotspots.

This isn’t the hokey hotel 360 that leaps to mind. It’s cinematic quality, HD
video in a full 360 degrees. And it’s video the user controls.

But, what makes this video such a key element of the digital brand is its story-
telling. The video is carefully choreographed to showcase the Cracker Barrel
experience, leveraging known viewer behavior to prompt people through specific
aspects of the video that best represent the experience. The viewer’s eye is
continually drawn to a single family–a dad, mom and daughter–from enjoying the
rocking chairs on the porch to sharing a meal in the dining room.

The new website captures the Cracker Barrel brand story as exemplified in the
real world experience. It encourages conversations through blogs and reviews,
is designed to reach the unique needs and interests of a variety of target audi-
ences, and reaches these audiences through many channels…seamlessly.


The Future of Transmedia
Transmedia’s application is bound by the limitations of time and willingness of
studios, publishers and networks to extend IP into uncharted territory. But the
pressure to monetize content, extend advertising opportunities and attract an
increasingly fragmented and fickle viewing audience will only see an increase in
this activity.

The biggest obstacle, and most fundamental change to Transmedia’s future, will
be how IP is shared and managed. Currently, professional creative guilds are
drafting rules about creation, ownership and rights for these ancillary produc-
tions. Assuming that financial incentives will continue to support Transmedia
production, here are some of the evolutions we might see:

• Digital Publishing: Comics and graphic novels are popular extensions for
serialized content, especially for fictional stories that involve a certain rabid
fan base (think Buffy the Vampire Slayer). But traditional publishing can be Dark Horse Comics
expensive. All of the major comic publishers are grappling with the online An online portal of digital comics offers
distribution model and the need to move to digital to keep the format alive new publishing opportunities at
with a broader audience. Once the cost of printing and distribution is taken darkhorse.com.
out of the equation, expect to see more story extensions in this format.
• User-Driven Stories: The creative and entertainment industry has a tolerant
relationship with the fan fiction universe, which is an incredibly vibrant world
of ordinary citizens re-creating their own versions of Supernatural or Dexter.
And while we may not see outright support for this, we will see more ways
to let users interact with and determine outcomes of official content. Imagine
more intensive “Choose Your Own Adventure” digital series or technology
that actually lets the audience interact with a live broadcast (more than just
tweeting along).
• Digital Content: Content hosts like YouTube are seeing the value of creat-
DeviantART
ing custom content for their channels. YouTube is planning a redesign for deviantART.com represents one of the
January of 2012 that will allow for uncluttered content channels–called largest environments where fans write
YouTube Originals. These big-budget creations will feature well known stars and create their own (unauthorized)
versions of their favorite film, broadcast
and draw a lot of attention from viewing audiences. More importantly, the
and published stories.
nature of the channel they are “broadcast” on affords the opportunity to
extend the story in countless ways, include brands throughout, and create
intimate interaction with viewers.
• Unique Physical-Digital Experiences: With the evolution of location-based
services, augmented reality, 3D web and other physical-digital connective
technologies, expect to see narratives that can tap into the real world. Simple
examples would include scavenger hunts and check-ins for narrative puzzle
pieces. More elaborate examples could include augmented reality apps that
let you see what a character sees in the real world.
What will also evolve are fan’s expectations of fictional content. Clearly with
the advent of rabid fan-fiction sites like deviantART, fans won’t wait for content Pottermore
creators to embellish or extend a good story. They’ll do it themselves. As the Rather than write more stories, J.K.
digital world continues to make it easy to aggregate, consume and broadcast Rowling is developing a virtual Harry
about a very narrow topic, fans will expect that creators will offer more than Potter world where fans can live and
the traditional, static primary story. A perfect example is the coming Pottermore, create their own open-ended adven-
an interactive experience site created by J.K. Rowling and Sony dedicated to tures. pottermore.com/
the Harry Potter universe. Since the primary Harry Potter narrative is finished,
Pottermore offers an open-ended, fan-driven interactive gaming experience that
never ends.


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