Anatomy of a Highly Successful TransMedia StoryWorld – “Conspiracy for Good”

What makes a successful cross-platform or transmedia project? Are there key ingredients? What’s the secret sauce?

THE AUTHORS REPORT:  “With the Conspiracy For Good, our definition of a successful transmedia project is one that utilizes technology to deliver story content and engage an audience in original and novel ways.  We intentionally created a story that lived all around consumers all the time, and incentivized the audience to move from one device to another in pursuit of the story, solutions to problems, and answers to mysteries.

A transmedia story is the opposite of traditional television, which lives in one place at one time, such as NBC on Monday nights at 8pm, and you sit on your couch and let the story come at you. After our writers created the Conspiracy For Good narrative, we then chopped it into 1,000 pieces and distributed those pieces across many platforms, such as characters’ Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, text messages, and updates on various websites, some of which were hard to find.  The audience then went and found the pieces.  So, when a cell phone buzzed in the pocket of one of our audience members in the middle of the day, they got to live in the story again for a few minutes and went to a particular website to learn something new about a character or a development, much like you do with your friends in your regular, everyday life.  We even distributed songs that had hidden clues. When a participant found a clue on a character’s Facebook page, for example, they were often motivated to search deeper and crowdsource, with other participants, solutions to the character¹s journey.

The Conspiracy For Good actually had a character who traveled from Zambia all the way to London and she often ran into obstacles along the way. Her dream was to build a library for school kids in Zambia, and our audience actually helped the character fund and built a real library there. The audience communicated with her and used Nokia’s Ovi Maps to guide her through northern Africa and Europe. We actually had an actor (songwriter/poet Nadirah X) and a camera crew on the road for months of travel, being guided by fans.”

“So, to the many writers and producers involved in the Conspiracy For Good, the challenge was to create a puzzle with 1,000 pieces. Everyday the audience received one or two puzzle pieces from different sources (mobile device, song, etc). Over time, the fans begin to see the bigger story that emerged as they put the pieces together, and it soon became obvious that some very big actions were about to go down in London at a particular time and place. The Conspiracy For Good really pushed the limits of transmedia storytelling‹and also old-fashion street theater – and our audience loved it.

What are the most exciting emerging technologies that filmmakers should be aware of?

It’s incredible how new technologies have democratized filmmaking. You can make a great piece of art with a cell phone camera. I know because some of our fans did just that. We used a lot of mobile technology and mobile applications because we were aligned with Nokia on the CFG pilot. The future is clearly in social media and crowdsourced experiences, and also GPS technologies. The funnest part of our 4 month long event was the scavenger hunt in the streets of London that used image recognition software and location-based gaming to uncover mysteries, move through the streets guided by your cell phones, and find underground concerts.

What can filmmakers do to encourage real engagement and participation from “the people formerly known as the audience”?

When people come across an experience that they love, they want to share it with their friends. Art is powerful when it expresses an emotion, it taps into something that bypasses our intellect and makes us feel rather than think. That is moving. And when we experience that, we want to share it with others. This is true when you hear a great song or see a video or read a poem or play a game. Transmedia is best when you tap into this.”

“A story is more powerful if the storytellers create a story architecture that invites and even necessitates that you invite your friends to participate with you. If the story involves doing real good in the real world, then it is even more exciting to invite your friends to join your cause. The Conspiracy For Good wants to inspire you to invite your friends to experience new art and music and story, and by doing so also support a real world cause. So, I would have to say that transmedia storytelling is most effective when you interact with others and actually share and create art with them. The best example of this that I’ve seen recently is this pretty incredible Johnny Cash video that needs actual fans to sketch every single frame in the video.”

TransMedia Strategies with Multi-Screen Delivery – Now In High Demand in 2011

SOURCE HEADLINE (May 4, 2011):  The explosion in syndicated content, easily embeddable code, and the torrents of clips coming to the Web are paying off in streaming media pretty much everywhere. According to the third annual survey of web media companies by D S Simon, 85% of them now carry video, representing an increase of a third from last year. Television media was already at peak penetration, with 96% of venues carrying clips, but the 2011 Web Influencers Study found that virtually every other category of news, especially newspapers and radio, now make video de rigueur.  According to Doug Simon of D S Simon, the meaning here is clear. “The big news is that online media has now officially become a video programming network.” All of which goes to show how much users bring an expectation of streaming media experiences to a site. In order to feed the need for full motion, 84% of site users says they use third party providers along with in-house media. While traditionally non-video media are embracing the trend, it doesn’t mean that all of them are going full-bore into production. Understandably, 93% of radio stations say they rely in some measure on external sources of media, with 86% of newspapers and 80% of web media. TV entities tend to rely much more on their own assets, but still 63% user third parties.  We have said it before in these pages; video is the new text, and the Web is a primary accelerant of that trend.”

Almost every Pay TV operator has a multi-screen strategy now and many are involved in laboratory or field trials, while some plan full scale launches this year. A number of big players, such as Orange in Europe and PCCW in Hong Kong, already have well
established mobile TV services with varying levels of interaction between these and their fixed broadcast packages. The ultimate
destiny is a coherent, unified and yet flexible multi-screen service, providing customers choices over delivery, device and
method of payment, ideally served over a common infrastructure.

To Read full Report (Click Box Above)

The end game for the whole digital entertainment industry is a multi-screen world where there is no distinction made at a business level on the basis of the target platform, with all devices served via a common headend and network infrastructure. This may not be as distant as some commentators think, and so operators need to be considering now how to migrate and scale their business accordingly. Scaling will have to occur across four dimensions: delivery infrastructure, the pay business model, revenue security and content rights.

Today’s market is bourgeoning with “smart devices,” from tablets to TVs to any device that can connect you to the Internet. The industry has gone through many iterations of the smart TV and we’ve seen fluctuation in consumer adoption. In a survey conducted by RedShift Research in the UK in 20101, connectivity ranked third in importance, after resolution and screen size, in consumers considerations when purchasing a new TV set. Yet, with the turn of the year, we’re seeing increased growth and adoption of connected TV sets. According to In-Stat, Web-Enabled CE Devices will reach one billion by 2015.
Consumers are starting to understand the value that connected “Smart” devices bring to the entertainment experience. However, as we step into this new world of connected everything, we need to be cognizant of how we can continue to make the entertainment experience enjoyable for consumers. TVs are entertainment devices that should allow consumers to lean back and enjoy. The most important technology a TV can have is the ability to access a wide variety of entertainment choices and help the viewer choose the content that is best for them or their family. …

The next generation of connected TVs will bring with it aggregation of content, personalization and recommendations technology.  Along with these services, it will offer a greater way for TV manufacturers and service providers to monetize their offering – advertising capabilities outside of the traditional 30 second spot. It will use metadata pervasively to search for and connect consumers to content. It will have a lot to offer the consumer in their search for what to watch.

READ REST OF ARTICLE HERE…

TLP in Spec Development on Reality Webisode Series Integrating GigWalk

Gigwalk is a TransMedia dream.  It poses opportunities for numerous StoryWorlds and Brand Integrations.  That’s why TLP decided to develop a reality webisode series integrating this unique technology into a “stream of consciousness” StoryWorld inside a webisode reality series which integrates select National Brands.  Stay tuned for updates on the integrated webisode series, graphic novel, and gaming extensions.  The name of the series will be announced soon.

Background.  SOURCE:  “Gigwalk plans to launch Wednesday after being in private beta for six months with $1.7 million in seed funding from a handful of tech-industry heavyweights. Gigwalk connects businesses to a mobile workforce community known as Gigwalkers, who complete a variety of tasks using an iPhone to verify street names, product positions in a store or more. It gives brands insight into how their products are positioned. Ariel Seidman, CEO and co-founder at Gigwalk and a former Yahoo mobile executive, calls the service the “first on-demand mobile workforce.”

While navigation tech company TomTom participated in the test phase, other businesses, such as marketers, can tap into the technology and workforce to verify product placement and positioning of products in stores. TomTom used Gigwalk to verify real-world map data attributes. The Gigwalk community delivered up-to-date geo-tagged photographic evidence that gave TomTom an accurate means to update its database.”

THE GEOTAGGING AT POINTS OF SALE IS WHAT MAKES THE TLP REALITY WEBISODE SERIES SO INTRIGUING FOR BRAND INTEGRATIONS INTO THE STORYLINE.  WE’RE BUILDING A STORYWORLD OUT OF THE BRAND EXPERIENCE.

“Verizon or AT&T, for example, could post a gig on the Gigwalk network asking consumer reporters who have signed up for the task to visit one of their nearby stores to check where the Motorola phones get positioned on the store floor. “Do the sales reps push people into Motorola devices or iPhones?” Seidman said.Gigwalk is live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Miami, with more to come later this year. Companies can tap into a pool of Gigwalkers, who earn as much as $1,600 monthly. Gigs can range between $3 and $90, depending on the task and timing.  Seidman admits that one of the biggest issues the company faces as it expands worldwide is finding qualified Gigwalkers to do the job. “The guys who work in the Geek Squad and Apple’s Genius bar make good Gigwalkers,” he said.  AdMob investor Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal, Mint.com investor Jeff Clavier at SoftTech VC, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman of Greylock Discovery Fund put money into the pot. LiveOps co-founder Bill Trenchard of founder Collective and Alex Llyod of Accelerator Ventures, also participated in the round.”

stay tuned …

TransMedia Workshop in LA – In Attendance April 25

The global demand for producers familiar with the process of developing transmedia content (across several mediums like games, mobile, television and film) for studios and networks is on the rise.  This 4-hour event at the Beverly Hills Hotel was the first of its kind and unique in the world, delivering practical, how-to TransMedia training led by leading cross-platform producer and strategist Jeff Gomez.  He taught his signature TransMedia development process to business executives, content producers, marketers and creators which has been used for such blockbusters as Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron Legacy, James Cameron’s Avatar, Microsoft’s Halo, Hasbro’s Transformers, Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory.

An excerpt of a former magazine interviews on the Success of TransMedia and Increase in Industry Demand for TransMedia Producers tells the story for 2011 to Brands and Content Outlets.  That story is TransMedia is overturning the entertainment industry and providing many new opportunities to Brands which adopt TransMedia.

Forbes:  What exactly is “transmedia”?
Gomez:  It is the art of conveying a rich message, theme or storyline to a mass audience using multiple media platforms, such as ads, books, videogames, comics and movies. Each part of the story is unique and plays to the strengths of each medium, and the audience is often invited to participate and somehow interact with the narrative. We first saw the term used in this way by M.I.T. professor Henry Jenkins in his book Convergence Culture, published in 2006.  In today’s interconnected world, young adults, teens and even kids have become so comfortable with media technology that they flow from one platform to the next. The problem is that their content is not flowing with them. As a discipline, transmedia provides us with a foundation for the development, production and rollout of entertainment properties or consumer brands across multiple media platforms. …

Transmedia creates the flow. Instead of repeating the plots over and over again for each medium,
creators can continue and expanded their storylines, generating dazzling mythologies and complex
narratives.

Forbes:  Companies have been talking about embedding products and messages into entertainment for years.  How do you distinguish transmedia from branded entertainment?
Gomez: I think it’s important to point out that transmedia storytelling is not branded entertainment. Branded entertainment drives product awareness by tacking the brand onto something else, like product placement in a TV show. On the other hand, transmedia builds brand mythology, placing the brand front and center and building narrative around it. Think of the various tie-ins we saw around The Matrix franchise several years ago. Branded entertainment comes and goes in a flash, but transmedia storylines are timeless because they are built on a foundation of classic narrative structure. They’re good stories. Finally, the owner of the brand pays for branded content, but transmedia entertainment is designed to generate revenue because, ideally, it’s content that the audience wants and will buy. You’re giving fans more of what they want from your story: more character background, more story mythology, more opportunities to interact with the story’s creators and with one another. When people hear that Samuel L. Jackson will be playing Nick Fury in the next nine Marvel super hero movies, it helps tie that whole universe together. It’s a richer and deeper entertainment experience for the fan.  The storylines of major films like The Dark Knight, Wolverine and Watchmen are being supplemented by direct-to-DVD animation releases, each of which are selling quite well. The Watchmen videogame serves as a prequel to the movie and contains important story developments that fans want to know about. New stories set in the same world are alluring, as opposed to repurposed content, so the products
become more attractive and, in many cases, more lucrative.
Forbes:  Transmedia is often used to promote TV shows and movies, entertainment properties that already have a story built into them, but how does it work for marketers?
Gomez:   Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG – news – people) has used transmedia to extend the narrative of a soap opera, which is an ad vehicle for the company. In 2007, the packaged-goods giant commissioned Guiding Light: Jonathan’s Story, a novel published by Simon & Schuster that revealed the adventures of a major character that had been mysteriously absent from the daytime drama. The book, hyped in ads on the soap and in a blog bylined by one of the novel’s protagonists, was a media sensation and became a New York Times best-seller. We’re also seeing transmedia elements in the marketing of consumer products and advertising. With “The King” campaign from Burger King (nyse: BKC – news – people), for example, audiences have been engaged with this bizarre character, watching the commercials, purchasing and playing the videogames. In 2002, my company Starlight Runner was tasked to create a storyline around 35 die-cast metal Hot Wheels cars for Mattel (nyse: MAT – news – people) for the line’s 35th anniversary.  We worked with the company to understand the essence of the brand and watched how kids played with the toys.  Then we invented an elaborate racing universe and driver characters that, over the next three years, came to life in five computer-animated movies, a videogame, a comic book series, new play sets and an elaborate Web site.  Sales across the entire line increased dramatically.

TLP TransMedia Strategies for Broadcast News Outlets

THE NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS.  “Nearly half of respondents (48 percent) said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, an increase from 40 percent who said the same a year ago. Younger adults were most likely to name the Internet as their top source —55 percent of those age 18 to 29 say they get most of their news and information online, compared to 35 percent of those age 65 and older.” (Source:  Recent Neilsen Report.)

Click Box Below for 2011 PDF from TLP.