Transmedia storytelling = engagement

September 11th, 2009

Reading Henry Jenkins latest post I was drawn towards a number of points he raises,

I would argue that the contemporary moment of transmedia has heightened our awareness of these earlier moments of authors unfolding stories across media, much as the rise of digital media more generally has led to a revitalization of the study of “old media when they were new” or the history of the book. We certainly want to understand what is new about our current push for transmedia entertainment, which to me has to do with the particular configuration of media systems and the push towards a more participatory culture.

Tolkien, Lewis, Baum, and Smith all sought to model contemporary fictions on the dispersed, episodic, yet interlocking structures of classic mythology — creating a folklore for a post-folkloric society. And so, yes, there are going to be many resemblances to be drawn between transmedia stories, informed by these creative figures, and traditional religious or mythological works.

And perhaps what resonates with my argument that all businesses and organisations including governments must “engage or die”.

I’ve long ago given up trying to separate the creative and commercial motivations of transmedia entertainment, but then, all popular culture, no, all art depends on a complex balance between the two. From the start, most transmedia has been funded through the promotional budget rather than being understood as part of the creative costs of a particular franchise, even where it has been understood as performing key world building or story expanding functions. This was a central issue in the Writer’s Strike a few years ago. Indeed, in so far as Hollywood has grasped transmedia, it has been in the context of a growing awareness of the urgency of creating “consumer engagement” that has been a buzz word across the entertainment industry in recent years. This is why the transmedia chapter in CC follows so closely after the discussion of “affective economics” and American Idol.

The chapter called “Engagement” in Communities Dominate Brands begins,

I hear you knockin’ but you can’t come in, is something as customers we say to brands on a daily basis, consciously or unconsciously. Yet businesses need to grow, revenues and profits increased. And this book is ultimately about how you do that in a changing world. This is not the time for nostalgia or for the board to sing just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. So the question we presented ourselves with is how do you overcome the problems caused by technological change in society and in business? We have explored how customers change and how a new Generation-C is emerging. We explained how communities act as a counterbalancing force to branding and advertising power. Now it remains for us to expose the way to capitalise on the dramatic change in business. We call it engagement. Now some people may say that yes but all communications is about engagement. We don’t think it is.

The important bit in Henry’s quote is this,

Indeed, in so far as Hollywood has grasped transmedia, it has been in the context of a growing awareness of the urgency of creating “consumer engagement” that has been a buzz word across the entertainment industry in recent years. This is why the transmedia chapter in CC follows so closely after the discussion of “affective economics” and American Idol.

SMLXL produced its own paper on Pop Idol which you can download here In which we made several important points.

[1] Pop Idol was an incredible economic success – globally. Why? Because of its ability to “engage” its audience

[2] It inspired 30% of people in the US to send their first ever text message in the 2nd US Pop Idol

Its no accident that the X Factor is a derivative of Pop Idol.

Out of this we deduced that by engaging an audience, using multiple communication technologies, Pop Idol uncovered an important insight into participation (I+We and the placing of both within a space in which we can all create and participate), and more critically the economic need for engagement. Something that many brands have consistently overlooked, because they are still is unable to integrate properly all communication / media channels into a compelling idea. Beholden to media companies that are gate keepers to brand spending all $3 trillion of it. Its why SMLXL is more interested in “engagement” per se, preferring that approach which is more in keeping with aspects of transmedia storytelling than social media, with some of our initiatives. Sociability is a core component of engagement – but we believe there is a much bigger prize to be had. The hot media of; co-creation, networked distribution, participation, and the economics of attraction and attention are important issues to address, understand and to apply. The short hand is the 4C’s: Commerce+Culture+community+Connectivity. The origin of wealth in the networked society is contextualised by the idea of networked economics – this is different to mass media economics – and as Henry says we are in a period of transition from a world of analogue economics to a world defined by what we call blended reality. There is no offline and online, digital vs. analogue there is only blended reality. This is the age of engagement. Where through storytelling (think compare the Meerkat) across media platforms we create deeper context, deeper context creates greater meaning, which this correlates with the economics of attention and how brands, business etc., that have a commercial agenda can survive and thrive in the networked society.

Henry finishes up

On another level, I’d say we are still at a moment of transition where transmedia practices are concerned. Each new experiment — even the failed ones — teach us things about how to shape a compelling transmedia experience or what kinds of tools are needed to allow consumers to manage information as it is dispersed across multiple platforms. In some ways, the transmedia stories may need to be conservative on other levels — adopting relatively familiar genre formulas — so that the reader learns how to put together the pieces into a meaningful whole, much as the first jigsaw puzzles we are given as children take shape into familiar characters and do not have the challenges found in those designed for hardcore puzzlers.

Bookmarks: