Professor Hartman A Masters calss and more..
I taught a masters class in Transmedia for the publishing group at Portland State University.
Once story was only spoken then it colored the walls of caves. As story grew it was bound to a page and then given voice through radio and TV. As it matures even still, along with its media savvy consumer, it now springs forth story worlds across media platforms. Media is ever changing and that evolution only seems to be accelerating. Traditional media, new media, and social media these paradigms are now an amalgam of multi-platform media consumption referred to as transmedia. "Transmedia (as defined by Henry Jenkins in his 2006 book Convergence Culture) is storytelling across multiple forms of media with each element making distinctive contributions to a viewer/user/player's understanding of the story world. By using different media formats, it attempts to create entry-points through which consumers can become immersed in a story world." This class looks at how these transmedia methodologies can be applied to market and extend stories.
Transmedia Marketing for Publishing WR510-10 - Mac Lab NH 446
I also taught a #SocialMedia and and Advanced Social Media corse as part of CEPE at PSU.
Im also a prolific public speaker on the topic as well...
THE NxT MEDIA
Me with my first computer that was all mine. I coded some fun things and saved them off on cassette tape.
Tasked with building a digital collection of all human knowledge. Built 3D earth in a browser with NASA before Google purchased Keyhole.
We are hard wired from birth.
Neurochemical response
Once story was only spoken then it colored the walls of the caves. As story grew it moved from an oral tradition to a written tradition. From rocks to paper the preservation of language (and by extension human history and culture) flourished
with the advent of the printing press. Bound to a page, communication gave rise to mass communication. First through books, newspapers, and magazines,
As it matures even still, along with its media savvy consumer, it now springs forth story worlds across media platforms. Media is ever changing and that evolution only seem to be accelerating.
Traditional media, new media, social media these paradigms are now an amalgam of multi-platform media consumption referred to as Transmedia. Transmedia is: multi-platform storytelling where each channel tells a different aspect of the story and is optimized for that platform while building out a larger storyworld.
The title of this presentation is based upon a theorem: New Media x Traditional Media = NxT Media
The evolution of media is exponential and is played out over multiple platforms. Our media diet will not be one to sacrifice the other but an extension and maturation of our pallets .
NxT media is a simple equation with complex variables. The power of the content is our constant variable that must always be accounted for. The notion that traditional media is being displaced by new media is a fallacy. We are all consuming content at any time of the day or night on a multitude of devices and in various forms.
The Internet is not killing TV but enhancing it. The live event is not replaced by a virtual experience it extends it. Today’s audience has more opportunity to engage with media, both creatively and as a participant, and this is leading to a change in our consumption patterns.
This changing media landscape is not a dystopian battle ground but a land with rich soil and a fertile future.
We as the audience have much more opportunities to engage with media and this is leading to a change in our consumption patterns.
The new approach to media consumption I am calling N. I. M. B. L. E. - navigating interactive media beyond linear experiences. This new consumption pattern moves beyond the traditional linear viewing experience and into non-linear viewing. No longer do we watch 22 minutes of content and 8 minutes of commercials at 8:30 on a Thursday night. Consumers have gotten a taste of control and are not about to give it up. With DVR'S, bit torrent's, iTunes and an array of other tools that allow consumers to watch media on their own terms they now have control and they want more.
These initial changes are starting to push the habits, especially among the younger demographic, into new patterns that make the next phase of evolution of media a more interactive experience. This new consumption pattern moves beyond the traditional linear viewing experience and into non-linear viewing.
The modern consumer moves from platform to platform in search for entertainment and information. These platforms not only sit in our living rooms and offices but live and thrive in our pockets.
In fact " As of Q1 2014, for the first time, a majority of U.S. mobile subscribers of all age groups own smartphones.” - According to Nielsen Research.
These screens have become the glow that we gather around. We interact with many screens at one time. Sometimes we do this alone….
Sometimes together we focus on a single screen. These digital campfires are often at the center of our lives and crate emotional responses and connection. They draw us together in times of tragedy.
Other times these are festive or party like atmospheres where we gather for major events and share the experience with our community.
We are awash in channels and mediums for communications and messaging content. The overwhelming volume has lead to a persistent state of media interaction. The digital native has grown up in a heightened state of media engagement. This has created a culture and environment where the over the top attention grabbing media “event” has become even bigger and must now planed as a cross channel Transmedia experience to meet consumer expectations.
So with these shifts in how and where media is consumed we as content creators must reexamine how we produce and distribute content. But before we speed off let’s go back to the basics.
All brands are now media companies and your brand needs to start acting like one. If you haven’t adjusted to media planning like Warner Bros. or Disney you are losing out to your competitors. Companies are content factories and those that do it well will get the biggest box-office returns. This requires a new mindset for most companies.
Where do we start ?.
All stories follow a core structure and in western cultures we expect them to include conflict and resolution. What do these structures look like and how do we craft a story that follows these patterns is something we think about every day. We start from a basic story structure.
All stories have :
Beginning
Middle
End
Now this may sound rudimentary but I cannot tell you how often I see clients that try to start at chapter 6 or make a video of a white paper and wonder why no one watches.
We need to understand that within our story structure we have rising action a climax and falling action and within these elements we need to see conflict and resolution.
These factors play out in the ecosystem that includes your primary and secondary characters a cultural context as well as core& sub-plots.
Once we have understand the basic structures of story we need to define our core story narrative. In doing this we will create a connection with the audience. We identify story patterns that are a part of our nature. A pattern of narrative that is repeated in the under current of stories from children's books to Hollywood blockbusters.
After a core narrative is chosen we must evaluate the current landscape and understand the content that already exists. In thinking like a media company we must start thinking about efficiencies and our existing library of content is a great way to start.
We need to construct a solid plan about how we leverage these platforms and how the audience flows through our content. We build a map that defines the pathways or trajectories through our storyworlds. Through strategic planning and modeling we can understand how the big picture creates a richer and more satisfying story structure for our audience.
By crafting a complete storybible (storyworld manual) we understand where our opportunities reside for engagement with audiences and create a rich environment where our story can thrive. A story bible allows you to develop canon and enrich the audience experience while maintaining narrative continuity.
Once we have begun constructed our story world we create and opportunity for our audience to gain new perspectives in a characters nature from various media delivery mechanisms allows for a depth and richness to story that has only been imagined.
You might be saying but Johnny this seems like a lot of work. Well, it is. However you are already doing a lot of this work but more than likely you are not leveraging a transmedia methodology and acting like a media company. You might ask why should I go to the all the trouble ... because It works!
Jonathan Mildenhall VP Global Advertising Strategy for The Coca-Cola Company says “Transmedia helped us understand how the story arc and narrative of the Happiness Factory could evolve over time and how it could be used through different channels,”
The Happiness Factory transmedia campaign, which manifested the company’s corporate narrative in the form of a fantastical animated tour through a Coke factory, yielded volume results that included daily drinkers +7.3% and purchase intent +5.3%—remarkable by Coke’s standards. Coca-Cola has since become a pioneer in the transmedia approach to corporate narrative. In an act of bold transparency, they went so far as to publish it online as their Content 2020 strategy.
In 2012 & 2013, Latitude set out to understand audiences’ evolving expectations for content experiences, their unmet needs, future desires, and the most promising areas of opportunity for storytellers.
Latitude conducted in-depth interviews with pioneers in the media space.
When asked how ads with more creative elements might impact their opinions about a promoted brand or product, participants reported that they’d be:
Enrich you story with depth and development of character stay arc.
Develop media and distribute that content..mix and repeat. Assure that you maintain audience engagement throughout.