The 10 Commandments of Transmedia Marketing
How careful planning can create incredible narrative experiences across viewports and bridge the digital physical divide.
In the first article of this series, linked here, I discussed what transmedia is and how it differs from multi-channel marketing. Although the two share many characteristics there are several key distinctions. The best way to understand the difference is to layout the 8 traits needed for a good transmedia campaign. Overlooking even one sees the campaign’s strength dwindle.
Spreadability & Drillability
Virality is at the heart of a transmedia campaign. Spreadability seeks to capitalize on the viral spreading nature of popular culture. By crafting components to be shareable and spreadable, a campaign can capitalize on more than just paid or earned media. In recent years the concept of shared media has been created to encapsulate peer to peer transfer of content. Creating content that consumers will find interesting enough to share with friends is critical for this activity. In addition to creating pieces that consumers will share, it is critical that such content leaves them thinking about their interaction long after it has ended. Drillability strives to keep a campaign in the mind of consumers and increases the likelihood of spreadability. Redbull, for example, excels at this aspect. Individuals who consume their awe inspiring content are likely to remember it and share with friends long after their consumption experience has ended. Creating a sense of build up to a big event can also achieve this effect.
Continuity & Multiplicity
Although simple to achieve, overlooking continuity and multiplicity can easily destroy a transmedia campaign. Multiplicity occurs when varying story lines are allowed to exist within the same realm or cannon. These lines may never interact with each other, but allowing for the plausibility of greater existence is imperative. This practice paints the narrative world as larger than the sum of its parts. Continuity is then used to maintain coherence and plausibility of story across all mediums of the campaign. Just like concise content strategy is essential for multi-channel branding, it is even more requisite for narrative storytelling. A high suspension of disbelief is often required for transmedia campaigns to thrive. Poor continuity can destroy this.
Immersion & Extraction
The coupling of immersion and extraction combine to create one of the more abstract but impactful aspects of transmedia. Immersion harnesses things from a user’s life and allows it to draw them deeper into the story. This could be something relatable between a character’s experience and a user’s world. Extraction then gives the user something they can take away.
This could be the lesson at the end of a cheesy children’s show or the empowering message that good will always prevail at the end of all superheroes stories. These traits share themselves to all forms of storytelling but benefit transmedia campaigns greatly due to its repeated nature of user interaction.
Performance
This is where the fans come in. Performance strengthens all of the other transmedia commandments. The more people that participate in externally visible aspects of the campaign, the larger the realm of participation feels to users. As this world grows it may receive earned media coverage itself, as the case with the “I Believe Harvey Dent” example from the last article. This positive feedback loop can then build upon itself becoming a spot of interaction separate from traditional means of narrative consumption. Such user interaction also strengthens immersion as people may be physically engaging with the campaign. Seen below is an example on closed performance. Although the maze provides interaction between product and user, it does not grow to world of participation.
Negative Capability
Strategically placing blanks into storytelling can build strong interaction between narrative and user. Negative capability relies on the audience to provide a semblance of meaning from background elements within a narrative. Examples of this can range from intentionally designed fan theories to hidden imagery. Creating a framework of rules for a narrative to exist in rather than a strict code of operation allows for a grander world to exist. Combining negative capability with performance can create inquiry fueled interaction between user and narrative canon. It is essential however that any question intended to be raised by users are answerable. A narrative experience can become off putting if such questions are difficult to answer or user inquiries see dead ends.
Continual Realm
Like the toys from Toy Story when Andy shuts his door, transmedia storytelling needs to seem alive even when users are not interacting with it. A continual realm suggests to users that at the end of each consumption point the narrative world continues to exist. High user performance can aid in this as user generated content can build while a particular user is away from narrative interaction. Social media platforms harness this by showing new posts every time a page is refreshed. Such allusion demonstrates to users that the world they are viewing continues on even when they are not directly interacting with it.
Migratory Cues
With all these elements in play, it is critical that migratory cues direct users to and from different viewports. Consumers need to know how the various narrative viewports fit together and how to navigate through them. Strong continuity is needed to ensure seamless movement across viewports. Cues can be either explicit or implicit. Explicit cues directly tell users that further interaction requires additional viewports or performance. Such processes make up a vast majority of transmedia cues today, but new technologies may allow for the growth of implicit transitions. The Internet of Things can allow for interaction-less connections between devices and create the next step in the evolution of transmedia storytelling.
The next writing in this series will focus on this very possibility. Although these commandments must be implemented regardless of technological advancements, the way they are used will vary greatly in years to come. Ultrasonic data transfer, machine learning, and computer vision have the power to revolutionize the way we experience narrative content.
Although not a commandment in itself, I feel an important summation is a campaign’s relation to mise en scène. Originally a stage term, it has grown to reflect the sum becoming larger than its parts. The world building of a film, for example, relies on score, lighting, set design, costumes, etc. The same can be said about a transmedia campaign. It is not simply about presenting one of these elements to consumers and calling it a day. The entire world must be crafted for each element to balance with the other.
