Transmedia: Storytelling In Tubes

Today, I met with Darien Hill of "Social Media Hitmen", a social media marketing company located here in Orlando, FL. It's great when you meet people that understand the landscape but want to learn from every conversation. The man that brought us together was none other than my dear friend Millo Aldea, a former colleague at IDEAS Orlando (formerly Disney i.d.e.a.s.). I appreciate the most when engaging people like this is the energy that comes from our conversations. The passion, I get to feed on that. One of the many things that was discussed over lunch fare was the fact that social media is still not the magic bullet. There's no one thing that leads to riches. I told him of the days when I was first designing and developing websites and how, after it finally took off in, say, 1997 or so, everyone "had to have a website" as if the digital gold rush had begun. But alas, there's no free lunch and you still need to work for what you want.

Social Media is still "social" and I have to remind myself time and time again that it can never replace the moments that you have as a professional to communicate with your customer. You still need to "press flesh" or call at the very least, but most of all, you must vary the way that you reach your audience/customer/client.

There's an active term that is growing in popularity right now called "transmedia" or transmedia storytelling . In short, it's simply using multiple platforms, both digital and traditional, to act as delivery vehicles and, in some instances, specific parts of the story might be defined by the delivery vehicle. Transmedia creates many "entry points" (what ARG'ers call "Rabbit Holes," ad guys might say "integrated components" and, blurrier still, social media strategists might refer to as "touch-points") for the users to interact, understand and take part within a story at any given time. This idea is the foundation to great and memorable work. No matter where you pick up the messaging, you digest it and expect it as something unique and, ideally, of value.

The primary fact is this: you, as an advertiser, need to remodel your thinking -- not to that of "call to action," but that of "doors to options." Think of campaigns more as "Choose Your Own Adventure" books of the 80's -- a user would read into the story and be given an opportunity to choose what to do and thereby change the course of story. And with people demanding more customization in not only the products that they buy but they will look to play a bigger part of brands that they wish to be loyal to. Therefore, those brands cannot simply stand in one spot and declare supremacy without being seen as dated and lacking thought leadership. If transmedia (which I wished was called TransAm-Media) teaches us anything, it's the simple truth that a story has great power in the moment it is told, but has an opportunity of becoming greater in the retelling. That being said, we must allow for that story to make its way across as many platforms as possible. This is called "transmediation" (say it again). Drop that at your next hipster art-school kegger' and you're getting laid -- count on it.

In my last post, I talked about the power of "Safety In Numbers" when it comes to your social network. When you take into account the power that transmedia has with multiple delivery device(s) you can understand it can make one story (while possibly fragmented) a much larger phenomenon.

What are you thoughts on this? Have you ever taken your integrated marketing approach and pushed it into the arena of a story? If you like this post, please share it with your own network by pushing it to your Facebook or Twitter accounts. Thanks, I look forward to talking with you.

Top 10 Reasons I Prefer "Dive Bars"

1. A dive bar doesn't become a dive bar without being around for sometime. It's a cultural spot for the transient and locals. It has character and serves characters.
2. A dive bar doesn't care what I wear, what brands I'm loyal to or what music I like. It's agnostic.
3. You never leave a dive bar without a story (or two) of who you met, what you talked about or some interesting thing that happened during your stay. It's a haven for storytelling.
4. Dive bar have juke-boxes. Really good juke-boxes. Filled with songs to get drunk to and say "OMG, I remember this song!"
5. They pour stiff, cheap drinks. No further clarification need be said.
6. A dive bar doesn't care that you haven't been there for a week or a year.
7. A dive bar doesn't require fancy interiors to be cool. It's lack of caring to it's interior makes it cooler than most.
8. Like all great things no dive bar is ever the same. They have a pulse and a vibe all their own.
9. Dive bar patrons are like bees. You leave them alone, they (typically) leave you alone.
10. Dive bars will gladly toss your on the street if you're being an ass.

No Good Deed Ever Goes Unpunished

Having been on the all-star crew of advertising minds that put together Audi's "The Art of the Heist" it's interesting to see not only bigger stars and more money being thrown at a "story based campaign" but that it's also for the same car company! This month Audi unfolded a dreamy spy-like thriller trailer to launch their new A1 model, we'll have to wait and see just where they take us next. Stay tuned...

Choose Your Own Adventure – YouTube Style!

I'll be the first one to tell you that I don't have anything really all that compelling on my youtube channel. I know how to use it beneficially, but will all the tools at my disposal it probably gets pushed a little further back than most. So when I see something like Hot Wheels create a video clip, 'choose your own adventure' game with their YouTube presence I see something happening that inspires me. Could this be your next storytelling vehicle?

The key to this little campaign is using YouTube's ability to link to other video clips. While it looks like a bit of real game play what's actually happening is a simple reference link to another video clip based on what you choose. Simple, clever an effective.

The Story Is The Only Seed You Get To Give

I've preached storytelling for years. I've worked for firms that specialize in nothing but world-class storytelling. But what advertisers continue to forget is the power that comes from it. Watch TV for an hour. Of all the commercials you were berated with what compelled you to write down (or if your like a lot of us) or type in the URL? What made you laugh? What made you say "@*$&%, that ad is annoying!" and what made you talk beyond the seed that was given to you?

BMW Films, The NoLaf Institute (pure unrecognized brilliance), HBO Image and no surprise to me Honda's "Power of Dreams" campaign. Budding young mind and crotchety old bastards alike take the 10 minutes and digest the following clip:

• What do you remember?
• Would you be compelled to watch another one?
• Did it extend, enrich and grow the brand?
• What is completely self-serving?
• Would you talk, share or extend the brand?
• As a consumer did it make you trust the brand?
• Did it make the brand more or less elite?
• Besides the fact that you wish you had this budget for your current clients, did it compel you to engage in the social media extensions?
• Will it effect change in you external to its messaging?

If your not asking half of the list during the concept stage than your probably want to kill your creative director, throw a chair through a window and join a pack of wolves to kill something.

Addendum:

It's rare I add onto a post but I just found this amazing little story from the Pereira & O'Dell, Sharethrough Agency for Lego and the launch of their new website http://legoclick.com/

BRAVO!

Why storytelling isn’t going away.

I hear all kinds of statements being made with the ad industry – Are advertisers ‘pushing ‘campaigns again? Is the conversation over? Can you tell a story in 140 characters? Is micro-blogging and social media the dagger in the heart of storytelling? Nonsense. Social media and its neo-outcropping add more weight to the fabric of the story you’re trying to tell. The savvy creative understands that they need to create a ‘maze of context’ to their campaigns. Something that people cannot only read and watch, but feel a part of. ARG’s (Alternate Reality Gaming) have known this for years. The more elaborate the story, the more touch-points need to be created to sustain the deluge of audience participants. Now some will say you need to cover your bases for those who try to nitpick your campaign for errors or inconsistencies. To a certain extent this is true, look at this minority as your quality assurance team and not as trouble.

Any great story leaves enough holes, or thin areas, intentionally to build on the audiences desire to know more: LOST, The X-Files, Soap Operas, most Sci-fi (which is typically wildly open-ended) and of course The A-Team. How they got imprisoned in so many garages that had enough surplus to build an autobot I’ll never know. But I digress.

Storytelling in its purest form is ones own interpretation and delivery of compelling messaging. What makes it fun on both sides is the joy in hearing something told by someone who is dying to tell it. Here are a couple of key questions you must ask yourself: Is your story interesting enough to be retold repeatedly? What do you want the audience to add to your story without knowing it?

Four years ago the golden ticket was anything “viral” advertising. I’m going to dispel what you’ve been told viral advertising is. Viral advertising is the unintentional distribution of brand essence from one consumer to another. It started back as far a Juno putting a simply message at the bottom of their product “do you want free email too? Click here.” It’s not some video of a clown on fire that has two million hits, as appealing as the thought may be. This is where storytelling plays a primary role in your campaign fabric. Is your story so natural that you don’t feel compelled to tell someone “it’s some ad for soda but...” Does your campaign concept have a beginning, middle and an ending? If you had to sit and tell someone the whole campaign would your story surpass the fact that you’re also marketing?

Future advertisers need to understand the new caveat – the audience will change the ending. You WANT the audience to change the ending. I had a client scream on a conference call “WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE’RE CHANGING THE FINALE!?! THIS IS WHAT YOU SOLD ME!” Well Mr. Client your growing audience figured us out in couple of weeks and we have to change. Now it’s time to adapt and hope we can stay ahead of the break point.

If I learned anything from ARG’s it’s that if you feel so righteous that you have to stick to your ending, you might as well put a logo on it and charge money for entry. Chess is a great analogy to advertisers in that most agency’s have great opening moves, some have a decent middle game, but the end game is reserved for the winners that embrace change and optimization. Storytelling is the same, if I have to recite the work verbatim then I don’t care to tell it.