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August 30 2010
Engaging Your Audience
This is a two-part blog post with this being the first part. The second part is here. And you can get a PDF of the full piece, including my earlier associated work on Content Strategy.
When creative people get in the zone they generate a ton of ideas for content and experiences that could all work with their transmedia world. However, with resources always limited, these ideas have to be whittled down to essentials, nice-to-haves and stuff-for-later. One approach is to optimize the mix of content such that it (a) maximizes audience engagement and (b) the longevity (or likelihood of traction) of the experience. In this context I’m using “content” to mean all the things and tools that the audience has at their disposal – from videos, images and text to forums, chat rooms, leaderboards and so on.
If we are to design transmedia projects that engage audiences then we need to understand what it means to be engaged. Most would agree that it’s more than just “a view” and that there are probably degrees of engagement ranging from “doing something” (like a click) to “creating something” (like remixing a video).
Audience engagement is explained in the next section.
1.1.1 Measuring engagement
In 2006, Ross Mayfield stated in his blog:
“The vast majority of users will not have a high level of engagement with a given group, and most tend to be free riders upon community value. But patterns have emerged where low threshold participation amounts to collective intelligence and high engagement provides a different form of collaborative intelligence”.
He coined the term “The Power Law of Participation” which is shown in his diagram below (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Power Law of Participation
This participation curve can also be applied to transmedia worlds and will be evident to those who’ve run an ARG. Figure 2 shows the participation law at work in Mike Dicks diagram “Rules of Engagement” in which he expects that only 20% of the audience will engage in the gaming content of a cross-platform experience compared to 75% with the “sit-back” media.
Figure 2 Audience Participation with Content
What this means is that if there’s less effort involved in participating in the storyworld (for example watching a video vs remixing a video) then more of the audience is likely to do it but you can’t say that they’re as engaged with world as those who are expending more effort. More effort on behalf of the audience implies that they must be more engaged, right? Well, yes and no.
It depends on how the individual audience member derives his or her pleasure from the world. Not everyone wants to or feels able to remix videos or contribute user-generated content yet nevertheless may be a strong advocate for the world – telling friends, family and strangers that they really ought to check out the content. Surely that’s an engaged audience too?
Forrester Research identifies four measures for engagement with media content: involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence. Developing this for our purposes of understanding engagement with a transmedia world, we should measure not only the audience’s interaction and contribution but also their affection and affinity towards the world – that is, what they say and how they feel about it.
Taking this approach, a Facebook “Like”, while taking such little time and effort, ranks pretty well on the engagement scale. It’s more than just any click. It’s a show of affection.
But to get that “Like” or to get a “Share”, you need to provide the mechanism and the content.
Figure 3 shows the three stages of engagement – Discovery, Experience & Exploration – that inform your content choices across my five levels of increasing engagement:
- Attention
- Evaluation
- Affection
- Advocacy
- Contribution.
Figure 3 Measuring Engagement
Stages of Engagement Discovery Experience Exploration Level of Engagement Attention Evaluation Affection Advocacy Contribution Content Type Teaser Trailer Target Participation Collaboration Goal for your content Find me.Fan comes to site and consumes low-involvement free “teaser content”
Try me.Fan increases engagement and consumes free “trailer content”
Love me.Fan spends money and decides that what I offer delivers on the promise, is entertaining and is worthwhile.
Talk about me.Fan tells friends.
Be me.Fan creates new content
How Be relevant Be credible Be exceptional Be spreadable Be open Measurement views, hits, time spent per view, number for content viewed (per channel & content (e.g. emails, blogs, videos, Twitter etc.) clicks, downloads, trials, registrations purchases, ratings, reviews, comments, blog posts, Twitter follows, Likes, community sign-ups, other memberships, subscriptions, repeat purchasesreferrals, reTweets, forwards, shares, embeds, satisfaction polls & questionnaires
Offline: focus groups, surveys
uploads, remixes, stories written, collaborations, fan moderators for forum, events held, other UGC
Engaging Your Audience
This is a two-part blog post with this being the first part. The second part is here. And you can get a PDF of the full piece, including my earlier associated work on Content Strategy.
When creative people get in the zone they generate a ton of ideas for content and experiences that could all work with their transmedia world. However, with resources always limited, these ideas have to be whittled down to essentials, nice-to-haves and stuff-for-later. One approach is to optimize the mix of content such that it (a) maximizes audience engagement and (b) the longevity (or likelihood of traction) of the experience. In this context I’m using “content” to mean all the things and tools that the audience has at their disposal – from videos, images and text to forums, chat rooms, leaderboards and so on.
If we are to design transmedia projects that engage audiences then we need to understand what it means to be engaged. Most would agree that it’s more than just “a view” and that there are probably degrees of engagement ranging from “doing something” (like a click) to “creating something” (like remixing a video).
Audience engagement is explained in the next section.
1.1.1 Measuring engagement
In 2006, Ross Mayfield stated in his blog:
“The vast majority of users will not have a high level of engagement with a given group, and most tend to be free riders upon community value. But patterns have emerged where low threshold participation amounts to collective intelligence and high engagement provides a different form of collaborative intelligence”.
He coined the term “The Power Law of Participation” which is shown in his diagram below (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Power Law of Participation
This participation curve can also be applied to transmedia worlds and will be evident to those who’ve run an ARG. Figure 2 shows the participation law at work in Mike Dicks diagram “Rules of Engagement” in which he expects that only 20% of the audience will engage in the gaming content of a cross-platform experience compared to 75% with the “sit-back” media.
Figure 2 Audience Participation with Content
What this means is that if there’s less effort involved in participating in the storyworld (for example watching a video vs remixing a video) then more of the audience is likely to do it but you can’t say that they’re as engaged with world as those who are expending more effort. More effort on behalf of the audience implies that they must be more engaged, right? Well, yes and no.
It depends on how the individual audience member derives his or her pleasure from the world. Not everyone wants to or feels able to remix videos or contribute user-generated content yet nevertheless may be a strong advocate for the world – telling friends, family and strangers that they really ought to check out the content. Surely that’s an engaged audience too?
Forrester Research identifies four measures for engagement with media content: involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence. Developing this for our purposes of understanding engagement with a transmedia world, we should measure not only the audience’s interaction and contribution but also their affection and affinity towards the world – that is, what they say and how they feel about it.
Taking this approach, a Facebook “Like”, while taking such little time and effort, ranks pretty well on the engagement scale. It’s more than just any click. It’s a show of affection.
But to get that “Like” or to get a “Share”, you need to provide the mechanism and the content.
Figure 3 shows the three stages of engagement – Discovery, Experience & Exploration – that inform your content choices across my five levels of increasing engagement:
- Attention
- Evaluation
- Affection
- Advocacy
- Contribution.
Figure 3 Measuring Engagement
Stages of Engagement Discovery Experience Exploration Level of Engagement Attention Evaluation Affection Advocacy Contribution Content Type Teaser Trailer Target Participation Collaboration Goal for your content Find me.Fan comes to site and consumes low-involvement free “teaser content”
Try me.Fan increases engagement and consumes free “trailer content”
Love me.Fan spends money and decides that what I offer delivers on the promise, is entertaining and is worthwhile.
Talk about me.Fan tells friends.
Be me.Fan creates new content
How Be relevant Be credible Be exceptional Be spreadable Be open Measurement views, hits, time spent per view, number for content viewed (per channel & content (e.g. emails, blogs, videos, Twitter etc.) clicks, downloads, trials, registrations purchases, ratings, reviews, comments, blog posts, Twitter follows, Likes, community sign-ups, other memberships, subscriptions, repeat purchasesreferrals, reTweets, forwards, shares, embeds, satisfaction polls & questionnaires
Offline: focus groups, surveys
uploads, remixes, stories written, collaborations, fan moderators for forum, events held, other UGC
August 29 2010
Let’s Make a Web Series
In my opinion, web series are one of the best ways discover talent and incubate projects. In this post you will be introduced to individuals who are doing interesting things on the web:
Mike Rotman is an Emmy nominated writer for his work on “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher”-now he is taking over the interweb with such shows as “Stupid for Movies”.
Michael Ferrell, with only a tiny budget and a local coffee company sponsor he co-created/co-produced the hilarious web series “Stoop Sale” with his girlfriend Devin Sanchez.
Describe your background and what inspired you to make a web series?
I’m Italian/Irish by way of Northern New Jersey and Devin thought that she was Mexican up until she was a young woman, when she found out she was actually of Spanish descent. True story. Doesn’t stop her from loving Mexican food, however. She puts jalapenos on everything. To be fair, I put garlic on everything and cook it in beer. We have amazing burritos.
We were inspired to make a web series while still in college, in the late 90’s, right after people started “e-mailing” each other. I found this “e-mail” that I sent Devin with my POP mail account:
“Dear Devin,
This e-mail thing is crazy, huh? Do you get this right away or does it take awhile? Call me when you get this and let me know. Anyhoo-I hear you’re studying theatre in Wyoming. We should get together one day and work on a play that I wrote. Or even a film. Who knows, with the way technology seems to be going, we could even get some friends together and use somebody’s small digital camera, film a few episodes of a show, put it in our computers to edit, then put it on the World Wide Web. Maybe I’m thinking crazy. But not half as crazy as my ideas for “websites” I want to create, such as Mybook,Facepage, Ourtube, and Twiddle. I’ll e-mail you about those things in a letter to follow. I’m gonna go smoke outta this dope new bong my boy got!!! Hope you get this soon!
Sincerely,
Michael”
How did you get the word out about your show?
Our show is not yet released, so the fact that we’re being interviewed is a great step in getting the word out. We submitted to festivals and got into an awesome one – the Independent Television Festival in L.A. I think submitting to festivals is the way to go if you’re an independent web series producer. We had one informal screening for the cast at a bar, which went horribly because the manager of the bar was an idiot and assured us the DVD player would work fine, but instead, it worked the opposite of fine. We will also screen “Stoop Sale” on AUGUST 24th AT “THE CREEK” IN QUEENS AS PART OF THE “WATCHDOWN” SERIES http://www.watchdown.com/ and we screened the episodes in Brooklyn for a group of filmmakers. So we definitely believe in doing some fun, live, actual-real-people-talking-to-each-other promotional events, as long as you take pictures and videos so that you can post them on facepage, mybook, and twiddle.
What have been your most interesting interactions with fans?
Well, Devin made the mistake of saying “Stoop Sale” was more popular than “Jesus: The Web Series,” and then people started uploading videos of them deleting their subscription to our youtube page and unfollowing us on twitter. It was hard to swallow, but we’re artists, so fuck it.
No, really, when we do launch the series, hopefully we will get some fans. And then we’ll have some interesting interactions with them, for instance, them sending me bottles of Macallan 12.
What mistakes did you learn from when you started creating your first web series?
I did a web series called “Hard Times,” which I’m very proud of. Through that process though, I learned that the amount of time in pre-production and post-production should far outweigh the time actually shooting and doing all the fun stuff, unfortunately. We shot “Stoop Sale” in one weekend, maybe 16 hours total. And we’ve been working on the project for almost a year. It’s not ideal for actors and writers like us, but its paid off so far. You do all the other work so that one day you won’t have to. It’s kinda like when you form a club, someone’s gotta be the secretary and someone’s gotta be the treasurer, not everyone can be the prostitute.
What is your prediction for the future of creating a web series?
I am wondering when someone is going to pull their dick out in a web series. I know it sounds like I’m joking, but the thing about the internet is that there’s no censorship. So how come some crazy college kid hasn’t made a web series where he’s doing a scene in a coffee shop or something and then he just says, “You know what?” and pulls his dick out and lays it on the table. I mean, it couldn’t be on youtube, but it can be online. The show could be called “This Guy’s Gonna Pull His Dick Out.” You’re welcome, for the idea.
Besides that, I think that the problem with most web series is the writing. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer but I’m saying this objectively, most web series are comedy and most comedy web series don’t have good writing. Some funny bits, for sure, but even if it’s sketch, I mean, real, deep, sketch writing – I feel like it’s missing in a lot of cases. And that’s one thing I’d like to see, more good writing. In the acting world, we say “theatre is an actor’s medium, film is a director’s medium, and TV is a writer’s medium.” It seems like the internet is most like TV, so it’d be nice to see better writing in the future. Of course, I may be wrong and the internet might be the kind of medium where a guy pulls his dick out in a coffee shop and it’s the most viewed web series ever.
Describe your background and what is ITV Fest?
After graduating from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Speech and a Theatre major, AJ stayed in Chicago, forming the small web production company Goldingeye Productions. After producing hours of content for a number of now defunct websites, AJ relocated to New York City where he worked as a New Media Analyst for d2 Capital. By day AJ would pour over notes and records in search of new entertainment channels, while at night AJ was a hilariously mediocre stand up comedian. Anxious for more, Tesler moved again, this time to Los Angeles where he immediately found success as an actor, appearing on television shows such as It’s All Relative and The Gilmore Girls. As much as he enjoys acting, AJ has always been drawn to produce and in the summer of 2002, he produced the first of almost 50 installations of the New and Improv-Ed Stand Up Show, an official selection of the Chicago Improv Festival as well as the 2004 and 2005 Los Angeles Improv Festivals. In 2004, AJ began producing television , independently, on spec, and with production company support. In 2005, AJ formed what is now widely recognized as the premier festival in the world for TV and New Media, The Independent Television Festival Corporation, a non profit, public benefit corporation. In 2008, AJ was hired to be the Manager of Development for Lion Television, a UK based development and production company. Since leaving Lion in 2009, AJ has produced shows for MTV, Babelgum, Atom.com, and Fox TV Studios. He is currently freelance producing under his recently set up production company, Apostrophy Productions.
What are your favorite success stories from your fest?
I just love the stories of people getting jumpstarts to heir careers. People getting represented, people making connections, those are the types of success stories that make me proud. On top of that, however, are shows like Urban Wolf which got licensed by Sony, Johnny B Homeless which got licensed by Atom.com, the script deal at NBC for This is My Friend and the development deal at Starz for a show called Partners…those are great stories that we can hang our hat on as well.
Are there any trends you see when it comes to submissions?
Every year we see different trends in submissions. This year over 70% of all of our submissions came in as webseries which would certainly be a trend…the rise of the webseries. In terms of the specific content, though, we got a lot of ghost hunters parodies and a lot of lesbian content as well this year. I’d say we got too many submissions shot in the mockumentary/Office style. We’re looking for innovation so it becomes very difficult to program things when we see so many people trying the same concept.
Do you have any advice for new web series creators?
Know that you don’t know it all. The one man band is the path of least resistance, but people specialize in cinematography, editing, directing, writing for a reason. Use people who are good at their jobs and your project will be significantly better for it. Other than that, make sure you have a plan for what you want to do with your show. Making something and hoping it attracts the attention of the professional world is not the smartest endeavor, but if you go in with a plan, you can deliberately attract the audience you’re seeking.
August 28 2010
Let’s Make a Web Series
Remember waiting forever to watch a video on your computer, with a 56k modem? Those days sucked. Now you can instantly view a cornucopia of high quality Internet content on a massive television. Inside your living room, a web series made for less than a $100 can compete for your eyeballs against a TV show produced for over 10,000 x the budget (Lost). Think about this: years ago independent producers could only use a cable access channel to get their shows on TV to reach a local audience. Now a small crew can shoot a comedy series for fans living everywhere from Texas to Turkey.
In my opinion, web series are one of the best ways discover talent and incubate projects. In this post you will be introduced to individuals who are doing interesting things on the web:
Mike Rotman is an Emmy nominated writer for his work on “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher”-now he is taking over the interweb with such shows as “Stupid for Movies”.
Michael Ferrell, with only a tiny budget and a local coffee company sponsor he co-created/co-produced the hilarious web series “Stoop Sale” with his girlfriend Devin Sanchez.
Describe your background and what inspired you to make a web series?
I’m Italian/Irish by way of Northern New Jersey and Devin thought that she was Mexican up until she was a young woman, when she found out she was actually of Spanish descent. True story. Doesn’t stop her from loving Mexican food, however. She puts jalapenos on everything. To be fair, I put garlic on everything and cook it in beer. We have amazing burritos.
We were inspired to make a web series while still in college, in the late 90’s, right after people started “e-mailing” each other. I found this “e-mail” that I sent Devin with my POP mail account:
“Dear Devin,
This e-mail thing is crazy, huh? Do you get this right away or does it take awhile? Call me when you get this and let me know. Anyhoo-I hear you’re studying theatre in Wyoming. We should get together one day and work on a play that I wrote. Or even a film. Who knows, with the way technology seems to be going, we could even get some friends together and use somebody’s small digital camera, film a few episodes of a show, put it in our computers to edit, then put it on the World Wide Web. Maybe I’m thinking crazy. But not half as crazy as my ideas for “websites” I want to create, such as Mybook,Facepage, Ourtube, and Twiddle. I’ll e-mail you about those things in a letter to follow. I’m gonna go smoke outta this dope new bong my boy got!!! Hope you get this soon!
Sincerely,
Michael”
How did you get the word out about your show?
Our show is not yet released, so the fact that we’re being interviewed is a great step in getting the word out. We submitted to festivals and got into an awesome one – the Independent Television Festival in L.A. I think submitting to festivals is the way to go if you’re an independent web series producer. We had one informal screening for the cast at a bar, which went horribly because the manager of the bar was an idiot and assured us the DVD player would work fine, but instead, it worked the opposite of fine. We will also screen “Stoop Sale” on AUGUST 24th AT “THE CREEK” IN QUEENS AS PART OF THE “WATCHDOWN” SERIES http://www.watchdown.com/ and we screened the episodes in Brooklyn for a group of filmmakers. So we definitely believe in doing some fun, live, actual-real-people-talking-to-each-other promotional events, as long as you take pictures and videos so that you can post them on facepage, mybook, and twiddle.
What have been your most interesting interactions with fans?
Well, Devin made the mistake of saying “Stoop Sale” was more popular than “Jesus: The Web Series,” and then people started uploading videos of them deleting their subscription to our youtube page and unfollowing us on twitter. It was hard to swallow, but we’re artists, so fuck it.
No, really, when we do launch the series, hopefully we will get some fans. And then we’ll have some interesting interactions with them, for instance, them sending me bottles of Macallan 12.
What mistakes did you learn from when you started creating your first web series?
I did a web series called “Hard Times,” which I’m very proud of. Through that process though, I learned that the amount of time in pre-production and post-production should far outweigh the time actually shooting and doing all the fun stuff, unfortunately. We shot “Stoop Sale” in one weekend, maybe 16 hours total. And we’ve been working on the project for almost a year. It’s not ideal for actors and writers like us, but its paid off so far. You do all the other work so that one day you won’t have to. It’s kinda like when you form a club, someone’s gotta be the secretary and someone’s gotta be the treasurer, not everyone can be the prostitute.
What is your prediction for the future of creating a web series?
I am wondering when someone is going to pull their dick out in a web series. I know it sounds like I’m joking, but the thing about the internet is that there’s no censorship. So how come some crazy college kid hasn’t made a web series where he’s doing a scene in a coffee shop or something and then he just says, “You know what?” and pulls his dick out and lays it on the table. I mean, it couldn’t be on youtube, but it can be online. The show could be called “This Guy’s Gonna Pull His Dick Out.” You’re welcome, for the idea.
Besides that, I think that the problem with most web series is the writing. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer but I’m saying this objectively, most web series are comedy and most comedy web series don’t have good writing. Some funny bits, for sure, but even if it’s sketch, I mean, real, deep, sketch writing – I feel like it’s missing in a lot of cases. And that’s one thing I’d like to see, more good writing. In the acting world, we say “theatre is an actor’s medium, film is a director’s medium, and TV is a writer’s medium.” It seems like the internet is most like TV, so it’d be nice to see better writing in the future. Of course, I may be wrong and the internet might be the kind of medium where a guy pulls his dick out in a coffee shop and it’s the most viewed web series ever.
Describe your background and what is ITV Fest?
After graduating from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Speech and a Theatre major, AJ stayed in Chicago, forming the small web production company Goldingeye Productions. After producing hours of content for a number of now defunct websites, AJ relocated to New York City where he worked as a New Media Analyst for d2 Capital. By day AJ would pour over notes and records in search of new entertainment channels, while at night AJ was a hilariously mediocre stand up comedian. Anxious for more, Tesler moved again, this time to Los Angeles where he immediately found success as an actor, appearing on television shows such as It’s All Relative and The Gilmore Girls. As much as he enjoys acting, AJ has always been drawn to produce and in the summer of 2002, he produced the first of almost 50 installations of the New and Improv-Ed Stand Up Show, an official selection of the Chicago Improv Festival as well as the 2004 and 2005 Los Angeles Improv Festivals. In 2004, AJ began producing television , independently, on spec, and with production company support. In 2005, AJ formed what is now widely recognized as the premier festival in the world for TV and New Media, The Independent Television Festival Corporation, a non profit, public benefit corporation. In 2008, AJ was hired to be the Manager of Development for Lion Television, a UK based development and production company. Since leaving Lion in 2009, AJ has produced shows for MTV, Babelgum, Atom.com, and Fox TV Studios. He is currently freelance producing under his recently set up production company, Apostrophy Productions.
What are your favorite success stories from your fest?
I just love the stories of people getting jumpstarts to heir careers. People getting represented, people making connections, those are the types of success stories that make me proud. On top of that, however, are shows like Urban Wolf which got licensed by Sony, Johnny B Homeless which got licensed by Atom.com, the script deal at NBC for This is My Friend and the development deal at Starz for a show called Partners…those are great stories that we can hang our hat on as well.
Are there any trends you see when it comes to submissions?
Every year we see different trends in submissions. This year over 70% of all of our submissions came in as webseries which would certainly be a trend…the rise of the webseries. In terms of the specific content, though, we got a lot of ghost hunters parodies and a lot of lesbian content as well this year. I’d say we got too many submissions shot in the mockumentary/Office style. We’re looking for innovation so it becomes very difficult to program things when we see so many people trying the same concept.
Do you have any advice for new web series creators?
Know that you don’t know it all. The one man band is the path of least resistance, but people specialize in cinematography, editing, directing, writing for a reason. Use people who are good at their jobs and your project will be significantly better for it. Other than that, make sure you have a plan for what you want to do with your show. Making something and hoping it attracts the attention of the professional world is not the smartest endeavor, but if you go in with a plan, you can deliberately attract the audience you’re seeking.
August 25 2010
What a Filmmaker Learned From Farmville And Other Social Games
Social games are rapidly becoming one of the most successful forms of entertainment:
Disney purchased Playdom for up to $763.2 million and Club Penguin for $700 million.
EA purchased Playfish for $400 million.
The research form Next Up for pre-IPO trading service SharesPost estimates Zynga is worth three billion dollars.
Why are they thriving (even in a recession):
Social games are accessible throughout the day over multiple platforms.
You are rewarded with digital prizes the more you play.
Players act as evangelists marketing the game all over social networks to recruit new users.
Creators of TV shows and movies can now use similar techniques to have a stronger relationship with their fans. Emerging web start ups are making that possible. Miso injects interactivity into the TV and film viewing experience by utilizing a smart phone, laptop, or tablet as a duel screen with supplemental content. SCVNGR is an user generated location based scavenger hunt for your smart phone.
SCVNGR can create challenges based on a elements from a story e.g. a player is asked trivia from True Blood and if they get the answer correct they are given a clue to find their next location in their city. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D and Dexter made SCVNGR a part of their marketing campaign by creating scavenger hunts around the San Diego Comic Con. To reach fans where they shop, scavenger hunts can be sponsored e.g. visit Best Buy and purchase a product marked with QR code to get your next clue. People can expand the experience to new locations by creating scavenger hunts revolving around fan fiction.
This keeps fans connected to a story no matter where they are located.
Players receive points and badges in Miso for checking into their favorite shows and movies like Four Square for content. Miso has a list of their highest ranking watchers; this competition keeps an audience coming back to a program to be number 1. By rewarding their engagement over time, I think this can transform casual viewers into hardcore fans.
Users on Miso can share what they are watching on Facebook and Twitter, their friends can now start following that show and converting more fans. They can also recruit them directly on Miso. This sustains and builds a fanbase.
Many games have been inspired by films/TV shows to create more compelling narratives e.g. Grand Theft Auto. Now Hollywood can learn from social games to keep fans connected to their stories.
What else can filmmakers and TV show creators learn from social games?
What a Filmmaker Learned From Farmville And Other Social Games
Social games are rapidly becoming one of the most successful forms of entertainment:
Disney purchased Playdom for up to $763.2 million and Club Penguin for $700 million.
EA purchased Playfish for $400 million.
The research form Next Up for pre-IPO trading service SharesPost estimates Zynga is worth three billion dollars.
Why are they thriving (even in a recession):
Social games are accessible throughout the day over multiple platforms.
You are rewarded with digital prizes the more you play.
Players act as evangelists marketing the game all over social networks to recruit new users.
Creators of TV shows and movies can now use similar techniques to have a stronger relationship with their fans. Emerging web start ups are making that possible. Miso injects interactivity into the TV and film viewing experience by utilizing a smart phone, laptop, or tablet as a duel screen with supplemental content. SCVNGR is an user generated location based scavenger hunt for your smart phone.
SCVNGR can create challenges based on a elements from a story e.g. a player is asked trivia from True Blood and if they get the answer correct they are given a clue to find their next location in their city. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D and Dexter made SCVNGR a part of their marketing campaign by creating scavenger hunts around the San Diego Comic Con. To reach fans where they shop, scavenger hunts can be sponsored e.g. visit Best Buy and purchase a product marked with QR code to get your next clue. People can expand the experience to new locations by creating scavenger hunts revolving around fan fiction.
This keeps fans connected to a story no matter where they are located.
Players receive points and badges in Miso for checking into their favorite shows and movies like Four Square for content. Miso has a list of their highest ranking watchers; this competition keeps an audience coming back to a program to be number 1. By rewarding their engagement over time, I think this can transform casual viewers into hardcore fans.
Users on Miso can share what they are watching on Facebook and Twitter, their friends can now start following that show and converting more fans. They can also recruit them directly on Miso. This sustains and builds a fanbase.
Many games have been inspired by films/TV shows to create more compelling narratives e.g. Grand Theft Auto. Now Hollywood can learn from social games to keep fans connected to their stories.
What else can filmmakers and TV show creators learn from social games?
August 18 2010
TCIBR: Ted Hope and Katie Holly on creative producing [audio]
TCIBR returns with a special podcast featuring Ted Hope (21 Grams, Adventureland) and Katie Holly (producer of One Hundred Mornings ). Topics covered include creative producing, community curation, making films you’re passionate about as well as what it takes to sustain as a filmmaker in today’s changing landscape.
The WorkBook Project is proud to present One Hundred Mornings the winner of the WBP Discovery and Distribution Award. One Hundred Mornings opens Sept 16th at the Downtown Independent Theater in LA and will run for a week. Special thanks to our partners IndieFlix, Slamdance, The Downtown Independent Theater, Cinema Speakeasy, and CineFist.
August 05 2010
A Content Strategy For Audience Engagement
When audiences connect well to your content, they go through three stages of engagement: Discovery, Experience and Exploration as shown in below.
The key to a successful content strategy is understanding (a) that there are these stages of engagement (b) what content is required for each stage and (c) what the goals are for each stage.
Failure to appreciate or acknowledge that there are these stages of engagement typically results in audiences being expected to do too much work too soon – which most won’t do – and hence the content fails at the Discovery stage and the real experience never begins. Or, expositional-type content that belongs in Exploration is offered as Experience content and hence fails to engage because it doesn’t tell a story.
Ignoring these stages is like expecting a kiss from a stranger before flirting with them or expecting to run off and get married after only the first date. Maybe in Vegas, but usually not anywhere else.
With transmedia, one media may act as Discovery content for another. For example, the comic book serving as Discovery content for a movie or, in the example of the Xbox game Alan Wake, six webisodes act as Discovery content for the game. However, it’s important to remember that each media also has its own Discovery>Experience>Exploration stages as shown in below.
This is particularly important for indies who may think that creating a comic book for their movie will result automatically in an audience for their movie. It won’t. The comic book first has to be discovered and experienced and it’s only if the content is good enough will the reader begin exploring and “discover” the movie.
Note that I’m fond of encouraging an iterative approach to creating transmedia projects but here I’m also proposing a recursive approach: each and every piece of content should attempt to lure, convince and deliver.
Engaging the Five Senses
The next illustration uses the metaphor of sensory engagement to illustrate how audiences connect to your content. The concept is that audiences are at first suspicious of new content and that if we are to draw them in and lead them to the highest level of engagement – contributing to the canon – then we must resolves their reservations and satisfy their needs at each stage.
Smell and teasers
The first sensory stage is smell. The audience approaches tentatively and sniffs: is there a whiff of the familiar?
We are creatures of habit because evolution has shown it serves us well. Repeating past satisfying experiences is a successful strategy for survival in the wild and with entertainment it’s a good indicator too.
The audience needs to be reassured that your content is worth its time and attention. You need to reduce the perceived risk by communicating “trustworthyness”, “coolness”, “quality”, ”appropriateness” – whatever values are sought by the audience for this type of project.
To communicate the correct values, I’ve created a content class called “Teasers”. Of course the “teaser” is familiar to indie filmmakers – a 30 second or less video intended to bait the trap; not to explain or reveal too much but only to temp further engagement. In this model however, I’ve broadened the teaser into a full content category to include all content that can be digested with the minimal amount of attention.
The figure shows the five content classes I’ve defined for each stage of engagement: Teaser, Trailer, Target, Participation and Collaboration.
Note that I had to create a name for the “target content” to avoid confusion with all the other content! Because of the recursive nature of this approach, any content might be at one time the target content and another time Discovery content.
Note too that because of the need to communicate quickly, visual clues from pictures, photos and web design are going to dominate the Teaser content class. But it’s also the headlines you communicate: well-known cast or crew, one-line quotes from reviewers and so on.
Taste and trailers
If your project smells familiar then the audience can progress to a more specific, personal question: will I like it?
The teaser has convinced the audience your project is something they might like, but what can you tell them to reassure them it’s worth their additional time and (possibly) money?
The movie trailer is a commercial. Its intention is to convince the audience that this movie is for them. In this model I’ve expanded the trailer to a class for all content that persuades. By which I mean content that removes the barrier between Discovery and Experience: it’s the barrier between the known – the Teaser and Trailer content – and the unknown – the target content.
This barrier is represented by toll gate 2 – TG2.
Tollgates
In this model, tollgates are barriers between one stage and another.
TG1 is tollgate 1. It’s the barrier that prevents audiences knowing that your project exists. TG1 can be breached by search engine optimization (SEO), recommendations, links and anything that puts your content on the map. But the first audience encounter should be with your Teaser content.
Tollgate 2 requires a little more explanation.
Think of TG2 as a wall that the audience must climb. The first tollgate image below shows how the project and business model will unavoidably create barriers to your content – some unintentional, some intentional.
Content that you provide in Discovery helps the audience scale the wall – as shown in below. In this example, price creates a barrier to entry that of course can only be scaled by the audience paying the fee. However, the tollgate is far higher than solely the price and the audience will only part with its money once the perception of the tollgate is lower than the payment. Stated simply, buyers rarely make decisions not to purchase based on price – it’s all those other barriers that have to be overcome first: value, suitability, risk, convenience, context and so on.
Touch and sight
It’s only when the audience touches the target content that it can see it for what it is. If your Discovery content has done its job then the audience’ expectations will be met or exceeded. But if you have deceived or misled them then they’ll be disappointed.
There is nothing more you can do at this point. The target content is what it is. This is what the audience came for and it has to deliver.
After – though sometimes during- the Experience comes the Exploration. The tollgate TG3 is the barrier to be climbed to have the audience increase its willing engagement. Sometimes there can be confusion and this will lead to unwilling engagement: the audience experiences the content but doesn’t quite “get it” and hence searches for an explanation or for help. In these situations of unwilling engagement, a high barrier at TG3 will lead to resentment.
Ordinarily we want the audience to engage further so reducing the height of TG3 should be a priority: make content easy to find and easy to access; signpost what content should follow the target content.
Listening and Participation
Although content in the participation stage may be available before the Experience, its goal is to aid exploration – not to tease or persuade (even though audiences might use it for reassurance to lower TG2).
Having experienced the target content – either in part or in full – the audience now listens for affirmation. They ask questions to themselves and to others and seek content that answers their questions or fulfils their desire for more.
Good content stimulates debate. Audiences want to discuss and share their experiences with others. They’ll also want to extend the experience and will search for add-ons or new target content.
Some audience members will want to show their affiliation to the content by buying merchandise or embedding widgets; they’ll want to encourage their friends to try the target content.
Content in this Exploration category is intended to reward and empower the advocate and to educate: it provides additional understanding and value to the target content. In this regard it may be acceptable to have “expositional” content such as character biographies, backstories and so on.
Collaboration
In this engagement model the ultimate audience engagement is collaboration or contribution. Not everyone in the audience will progress to this stage and some authors may think this undesirable.
Collaboration is not that same as participation. Participation might be passive (reading additional content and exploring the world) or active – voting, sharing, commenting, discussing, Tweeting and so on. Collaboration is adding to the storyworld: writing fan fiction, creating videos or illustrations. It’s providing new content that you, as author, are free to embrace or reject.
Between participation and collaboration is tollgate 4 – it’s a barrier created by the audience’ perceived lack of time and skills, fear of ridicule and lack of information about how to contribute to the world. You can lower this barrier by providing tools, methods, encouragement and a supportive environment.
How To Use The 5-Senese Engagement Model
The premise with this approach is that a transmedia storyworld maybe too vast to expect an audience to jump right in. They have to be teased and led like Hansel and Gretel by a trail of breadcrumbs. Imagine your world to be a huge cavern – if you blindfold your audience and then first open their eyes once they’re inside, the vastness is overwhelming – it’s a new and scary place. Your audience needs orientation. They have to be guided through an entrance tunnel and see the cavern open up before their eyes and at their own pace. The more complex the world, the more handholding you need to do.
There’s also the issue of the time, energy and cost required to digest a whole storyworld. Far better to give the audience smaller snacks at first until their appetite grows for larger, more time-consuming content.
Note that this content strategy is for audience engagement. When combined with the platform selection methodology, start first with revenue-generating target content and see how it might be prioritized by platform. Then use this engagement model to understand the relationship between the platforms and to identify additional content to aid Discovery and Exploration.
July 23 2010
Collaborative Music Production
Launched this week is the latest innovation from Finland – the country that brought us Linux and Wreckamovie – a community-based music production service called AudioDraft.
AudioDraft allows musicians to record and upload music not necessarily as complete pieces but as tracks (or stems as would be the jargon) for each individual instrument or vocal. This means a singer in Finland can work with a guitarist in Germany and a drummer in America. They each record their part, upload to the site and then the three stems can be mixed and saved as would be done with any other digital mixing program: think of AudioDraft as a cloud-based ProTools or Adobe Audition.
What could be amazing about the service is that bands are able to allow fans to mix their own tracks. Don’t like that damn bass? Think the sax solo should be louder and the drums drop out? Mix it yourself. It could be a fantastic way to build community around music artists with each fan able to tweek the original work to suit their taste.
There’s little reason why AudioDraft could not be used for film production with sound effects designers and composers uploading their work from different parts of the world. Right now this isn’t possible because there’s no picture sync but it doesn’t take much imagination to see it working in the future.
Of particular interest to indie filmmakers and others is the other service offered by AudioDraft – the work-for-hire competition model that allows musicians to submit work for payment: think 99Designs for audio work. Three competitions are running at the time of writing with prize money between $1000 and $400. One of which is a competition to create the theme music for webseries part of my Lowlifes transmedia project 
Definitely worth checking out.
July 22 2010
Collaborative Music Production
Launched this week is the latest innovation from Finland – the country that brought us Linux and Wreckamovie – a community-based music production service called AudioDraft.
AudioDraft allows musicians to record and upload music not necessarily as complete pieces but as tracks (or stems as would be the jargon) for each individual instrument or vocal. This means a singer in Finland can work with a guitarist in Germany and a drummer in America. They each record their part, upload to the site and then the three stems can be mixed and saved as would be done with any other digital mixing program: think of AudioDraft as a cloud-based ProTools or Adobe Audition.
What could be amazing about the service is that bands are able to allow fans to mix their own tracks. Don’t like that damn bass? Think the sax solo should be louder and the drums drop out? Mix it yourself. It could be a fantastic way to build community around music artists with each fan able to tweek the original work to suit their taste.
There’s little reason why AudioDraft could not be used for film production with sound effects designers and composers uploading their work from different parts of the world. Right now this isn’t possible because there’s no picture sync but it doesn’t take much imagination to see it working in the future.
Of particular interest to indie filmmakers and others is the other service offered by AudioDraft – the work-for-hire competition model that allows musicians to submit work for payment: think 99Designs for audio work. Three competitions are running at the time of writing with prize money between $1000 and $400. One of which is a competition to create the theme music for webseries part of my Lowlifes transmedia project
Definitely worth checking out.
July 07 2010
Transmedia Storytelling: Getting Started
Having decided that you want to get into transmedia and write a transmedia story, where do you start?
Well, I’d recommend that you start with what you know and branch out from there. But knowing where and how to branch out means considering the type of experience you want to create.
There are five questions to ask yourself (shown in Figure 1):
- What is the story I want to tell?
- How will I deliver the story?
- What kind of audience participation do I want or need?
- How will audience participation affect the story over time?
- How much is based in the real world vs a fictional world?
Figure 1: Transmedia Storytelling: Getting Started
The more audience participation you want or need, the more you’ll tend towards writing the storyworld before the story. Figure 2 illustrates what I mean by story and storyworld.
Think of a “story” as one implementation of the world of the story among many potential implementations. I guess you might think of story as one plot line and associated characters from a world of many plots, subplots, and characters and so on – I’ve called this a single “narrative space”. Figure 3 illustrates how an author might take a single narrative space (one story) and develop it into additional narrative spaces (new stories).
Figure 2: Story vs Storyworld
Figure 3: Narrative Spaces
When thinking about delivering the story, put aside the specifics of particular platforms (just for now) and think about the experience in terms of:
- the narrative spaces you want to cover (location, characters, time – see above)
- the number and relative timing of the platforms (sequential, parallel, simultaneous, non-linear)
- the extent and type of audience involvement (passive, active, interactive, collaborative) .
There’s a lot to consider here so let’s tackle it as a two-stage process:
- Step 1: decide the narrative space, number of platforms and their timing
- Step 2: decide the extent of audience involvement.
Step 1: Narrative Space and Relative Timing of Platforms
Figure 4 shows a “typical” Hollywood transmedia project. It’s a series of single-platform deliverables – a book, a movie, a game. In many ways the platforms are independent except that they often cover different narrative spaces: prequel, sequel, flashback which may dictate a release order or schedule. In any case there’s no apparent audience interactivity between the platforms.
Figure 4: Transmedia Franchise
By contrast, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) might cover a single narrative space across multiple platforms – each alone insufficient to carry the complete story but like jigsaw puzzle pieces they must be assembled to complete the picture (well… you know… story).
Figure 5: Portmanteau Transmedia
These different types to transmedia can be represented by the diagram in Figure 6. Of course it’s also possible to combine different types of transmedia as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 6: Types of Transmedia
Figure 7: Mixed Transmedia Types
Step 2: Audience Involvement
Audience involvement in the story often bothers indie filmmakers. It’s not just that the indie wants to tell his story without interference; it’s also the fear that amateur involvement will sully the final result. And for those who have tried involving audiences there’s concerns about the effort of “community management” – the time and trouble to guide, motivate, appeal and appease.
It’s not only indie filmmakers that worry about how to tell their story and yet still find room for audience participation. Talk to game designers about audience (i.e. player) interaction and story and they’ll tell you that the more control you give to players (audiences), the less control is retained by the author. In fact the problem is even more pronounced in MMOs where virtual world guru Richard Bartle says “Virtual world designers can’t add story, they can only add content. Content provides experiences that can be made by those who come through or observe them into story.” So at its most open-ended, the virtual world (or transmedia experience) creates a world with lots of actionable content and choices but no plot?
This player-author struggle is tackled by games like Fallout3 and Red Dead Redemption (which are console games, not MMOs) by offering players the choice to explore (create their own stories) or tackle quests (follow the author’s story). Cut-scenes of course offer the most extreme authorial control.
It’s clear that transmedia experiences can borrow from the lessons of games and virtual worlds – creating a storyworld into which the author places a mix of story and content with opportunities for sit-forward and sit-back participation.
Looking further into audience participation I discovered the “storytelling cube” (Figure 8 ) first presented at the 2002 Game Developers Conference by Raph Koster and Rich Vogel to describe how narrative is explored in online virtual worlds. It applies particularly well to ARGs. The three axes are control, impact and context:
- Control: How much freedom does the audience have to create their own experience and how much control will you have as the author?
- Impact: What long-lasting impact will the audience have on the evolution of the experience?
- Context: How much of the experience is based in a fictional world and how much exists in “real life”?
Figure 8 Storytelling Cube (Raph Koster & Rich Vogel)
There’s no right or wrong position to be inside this cube: it’s up to you to decide based on experience, preference and resources. At one extreme you might have an entirely fictional world, tightly controlled by the author with no audience interaction and at the other you could have an experience based around real-world places & events in which the audience is free to completely change how the story evolves and is experienced. And of course the two can be mixed and there’s a lot of space in between.
To be continued….
Transmedia Storytelling: Getting Started
Having decided that you want to get into transmedia and write a transmedia story, where do you start?
Well, I’d recommend that you start with what you know and branch out from there. But knowing where and how to branch out means considering the type of experience you want to create.
There are five questions to ask yourself (shown in Figure 1):
- What is the story I want to tell?
- How will I deliver the story?
- What kind of audience participation do I want or need?
- How will audience participation affect the story over time?
- How much is based in the real world vs a fictional world?
Figure 1: Transmedia Storytelling: Getting Started
The more audience participation you want or need, the more you’ll tend towards writing the storyworld before the story. Figure 2 illustrates what I mean by story and storyworld.
Think of a “story” as one implementation of the world of the story among many potential implementations. I guess you might think of story as one plot line and associated characters from a world of many plots, subplots, and characters and so on – I’ve called this a single “narrative space”. Figure 3 illustrates how an author might take a single narrative space (one story) and develop it into additional narrative spaces (new stories).
Figure 2: Story vs Storyworld
Figure 3: Narrative Spaces
When thinking about delivering the story, put aside the specifics of particular platforms (just for now) and think about the experience in terms of:
- the narrative spaces you want to cover (location, characters, time – see above)
- the number and relative timing of the platforms (sequential, parallel, simultaneous, non-linear)
- the extent and type of audience involvement (passive, active, interactive, collaborative) .
There’s a lot to consider here so let’s tackle it as a two-stage process:
- Step 1: decide the narrative space, number of platforms and their timing
- Step 2: decide the extent of audience involvement.
Step 1: Narrative Space and Relative Timing of Platforms
Figure 4 shows a “typical” Hollywood transmedia project. It’s a series of single-platform deliverables – a book, a movie, a game. In many ways the platforms are independent except that they often cover different narrative spaces: prequel, sequel, flashback which may dictate a release order or schedule. In any case there’s no apparent audience interactivity between the platforms.
Figure 4: Transmedia Franchise
By contrast, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) might cover a single narrative space across multiple platforms – each alone insufficient to carry the complete story but like jigsaw puzzle pieces they must be assembled to complete the picture (well… you know… story).
Figure 5: Portmanteau Transmedia
These different types to transmedia can be represented by the diagram in Figure 6. Of course it’s also possible to combine different types of transmedia as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 6: Types of Transmedia
Figure 7: Mixed Transmedia Types
Step 2: Audience Involvement
Audience involvement in the story often bothers indie filmmakers. It’s not just that the indie wants to tell his story without interference; it’s also the fear that amateur involvement will sully the final result. And for those who have tried involving audiences there’s concerns about the effort of “community management” – the time and trouble to guide, motivate, appeal and appease.
It’s not only indie filmmakers that worry about how to tell their story and yet still find room for audience participation. Talk to game designers about audience (i.e. player) interaction and story and they’ll tell you that the more control you give to players (audiences), the less control is retained by the author. In fact the problem is even more pronounced in MMOs where virtual world guru Richard Bartle says “Virtual world designers can’t add story, they can only add content. Content provides experiences that can be made by those who come through or observe them into story.” So at its most open-ended, the virtual world (or transmedia experience) creates a world with lots of actionable content and choices but no plot?
This player-author struggle is tackled by games like Fallout3 and Red Dead Redemption (which are console games, not MMOs) by offering players the choice to explore (create their own stories) or tackle quests (follow the author’s story). Cut-scenes of course offer the most extreme authorial control.
It’s clear that transmedia experiences can borrow from the lessons of games and virtual worlds – creating a storyworld into which the author places a mix of story and content with opportunities for sit-forward and sit-back participation.
Looking further into audience participation I discovered the “storytelling cube” (Figure 8 ) first presented at the 2002 Game Developers Conference by Raph Koster and Rich Vogel to describe how narrative is explored in online virtual worlds. It applies particularly well to ARGs. The three axes are control, impact and context:
- Control: How much freedom does the audience have to create their own experience and how much control will you have as the author?
- Impact: What long-lasting impact will the audience have on the evolution of the experience?
- Context: How much of the experience is based in a fictional world and how much exists in “real life”?
Figure 8 Storytelling Cube (Raph Koster & Rich Vogel)
There’s no right or wrong position to be inside this cube: it’s up to you to decide based on experience, preference and resources. At one extreme you might have an entirely fictional world, tightly controlled by the author with no audience interaction and at the other you could have an experience based around real-world places & events in which the audience is free to completely change how the story evolves and is experienced. And of course the two can be mixed and there’s a lot of space in between.
To be continued….
June 15 2010
Transmedia Storytelling-Fishing where the fish are
Multiplatform Storytelling: A Master Class with Tim Kring at SXSW brought a rock star–sized following of fans and some press excited to see the architect behind Heroes. Brian Seth Hurst moderated it. Their discussion started with them revealing how George Lucas invented transmedia storytelling. Prepare to be shocked-it all started November 17, 1978 with The Star Wars Holiday Special. A mysterious new character appeared on this show. His name was Bobba Fett. Before long Bobba Fett could also be purchased as a limited edition action figure in toy stores. Fans were confused and excited about this bounty hunter who came out of nowhere. About a year later when The Empire Strike Back was released Bobba Fett showed up again. Many fans were already aware of him. It was the first time a character originated on one platform then moved to the “mother ship of the property”.
Next Tim talked about his experience in the TV biz, then and now. When he started out a viewer had limited options: passively watch a show, at a certain time, via their TV. Now technology has offered new ways to distribute content at anytime to viewers e.g. smart phones and computers. It’s a double-edged sword; this has also brought about new competitors-including social networks and casual games that can steal eyeballs from a TV show.
Here is data that shows how things have changed:
Casual game FarmVille surpasses 80 million users http://mashable.com/2010/02/20/farmville-80-million-users/
Nielsen data shows that U.S. Facebook users now spend an average of seven hours per month on the site.
Apple announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apples-app-store-downloads-top-three-billion-80694707.html
Some people have looked at transmedia storytelling like a novelty; Tim knew it was a necessity. So for Heroes his strategy was to “fish where the fish are”. He created Heroes Evolution, which expanded his stories beyond a TV screen with weekly web graphic novels connected to the show, interactive puzzles that engage fans with text messages and phone apps, among many other techniques to reach an elusive audience who have migrated all over the place. Tim’s closing remarks were he recommended that young producers should prepare to pitch TV executives their shows with a transmedia strategy. For future projects Tim is considering making his story the mother ship where everything is connected vs having his TV show at the hub.
Transmedia Storytelling-Fishing where the fish are
Multiplatform Storytelling: A Master Class with Tim Kring at SXSW brought a rock star–sized following of fans and some press excited to see the architect behind Heroes. Brian Seth Hurst moderated it. Their discussion started with them revealing how George Lucas invented transmedia storytelling. Prepare to be shocked-it all started November 17, 1978 with The Star Wars Holiday Special. A mysterious new character appeared on this show. His name was Bobba Fett. Before long Bobba Fett could also be purchased as a limited edition action figure in toy stores. Fans were confused and excited about this bounty hunter who came out of nowhere. About a year later when The Empire Strike Back was released Bobba Fett showed up again. Many fans were already aware of him. It was the first time a character originated on one platform then moved to the “mother ship of the property”.
Next Tim talked about his experience in the TV biz, then and now. When he started out a viewer had limited options: passively watch a show, at a certain time, via their TV. Now technology has offered new ways to distribute content at anytime to viewers e.g. smart phones and computers. It’s a double-edged sword; this has also brought about new competitors-including social networks and casual games that can steal eyeballs from a TV show.
Here is data that shows how things have changed:
Casual game FarmVille surpasses 80 million users http://mashable.com/2010/02/20/farmville-80-million-users/
Nielsen data shows that U.S. Facebook users now spend an average of seven hours per month on the site.
Apple announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apples-app-store-downloads-top-three-billion-80694707.html
Some people have looked at transmedia storytelling like a novelty; Tim knew it was a necessity. So for Heroes his strategy was to “fish where the fish are”. He created Heroes Evolution, which expanded his stories beyond a TV screen with weekly web graphic novels connected to the show, interactive puzzles that engage fans with text messages and phone apps, among many other techniques to reach an elusive audience who have migrated all over the place. Tim’s closing remarks were he recommended that young producers should prepare to pitch TV executives their shows with a transmedia strategy. For future projects Tim is considering making his story the mother ship where everything is connected vs having his TV show at the hub.
April 21 2010
Evolutionary Entertainment: A 5-stage Development Process for Transmedia Projects
The key to creating a great transmedia project is to see it as a living, breathing, evolving entity. Even though my preference is always to plan rather than wing it, trying to find all the pieces of the puzzle from the start can be exhausting, demoralizing and may later prove to be misplaced. Right now all media and entertainment experiences are built on shifting sands: better not to be locked in to one particular set of ideas if you don’t have to be.
The figure below expands on the transmedia business model to incorporate the idea of “evolutionary entertainment” – that is, entertainment that evolves. It evolves with time, technology, audience preferences, financing and your story. Adopting this approach will keep you open to new opportunities.
Evolutionary Approach to Transmedia Entertainment
Not only do I suggest that the “live” transmedia project evolves but also that it’s possible to use this evolutionary approach to development.
Five Stage Development Process
I’ve identified five key elements to a transmedia project:
- The story
- The audience
- The (technical/media) platforms
- The business model
- The execution
The goal is to get all five working in harmony together – supporting and reinforcing each other.
Rather than try to tackle all five considerations in a single swoop, allow your ideas to evolve through multiple iterations – start with a small concept, run it through the all the stages and see what comes out. Now start again, this time taking the outputs from each stage and feeding them into the other stages.
Developing the project in this way makes the process manageable and ensures you think carefully about what you plan to do.
5-Stage Transmedia Development Process
Each of the five stages warrants its own blog post but for now I’ll stick to explaining the process. Also, I know that ideas can come from many angles but I’m going to assume here it starts with an idea for a story.
Stage 1: Story
Start with the story basics: characters, plot, premise, theme, genre and location.
Stage 2: Audience
Who does this story appeal to? Try to identify as many audience segments as you can ranging from fans of this genre to those who will agree with the premise; those who will identify with the themes, characters, genre etc.
Now iterate back to the Story. What might you add to the story to increase its appeal to these audiences?
(There’s an excellent post related to identifying your audience at Dennis Peter’s blog)
Stage 3: Platforms
By “platforms” I mean the combination of media plus technology. So YouTube and iTunes would be two different platforms even if they can both deliver video. A printed book and The Kindle would be two different platforms. A cinema, a living room and an outdoor public are all different platforms.
Almost any technology, medium and place can be used to convey your story but think about your audience again – what’s their lifestyle? Where and how do they hang out? If you’ve got a story appealing to single-parent families is it likely they’re going to attend live events? Maybe if it’s during the day and they can bring their babies but most likely not in the evenings – they have problems with babysisters, cash and free time. Which platforms will appeal to this audience?
Think of your project as a lifestyle choice: it needs to slip into your audience’ lives with the minimum amount of friction.
Now iterate back to the story. What might you do with the story to have it play out better across these platforms?
Stage 4: Business Model
How are you going to pay for this project? You have three main choices:
- Free
- Premium (only available for sale)
- Freemium (mix of free and paid).
Look at the platforms you’ve chosen for your audience – which of them supports free and which supports paid? Look again at your audience – what do they buy and what don’t they buy? Do you platforms and audience support your business model?
Consider the CwF+RtB=$$ equation – which parts of your content can be pirated (shown in the diagram below as “infinite” availability to all) and which parts are “scarce” (not easily or can’t be copied). What content can be easily copied but some audience members might pay on a platform that offers convenience and immediacy (for more on this see Ross Pruden’s excellent blog).
Offering Audiences Reasons to Buy
Now iterate back to the story but this time think about the timing of the story delivery. By this I mean how will the story be released to the audience on the platforms you’ve identified- a free book chapter a week over 12 weeks simultaneous with a paid Kindle version? A free feature film followed by a paid comic book?
How can you develop your story and platforms to better suit the business model?
Stage 5: Execution
Finally look at the resources you have. If you’re an indie you’ll likely have more time than cash – how can you use that to your advantage? How much cash do you actually need to get going on the Transmedia Business Model? What favors can you pull in?
To answer these questions, consider this equation: outcome = probability x impact. It’s usually used to measure risk – how likely are bad things to happen and if they do happen, what’s their impact. But you can use it to make informed choices about the steps you take to implement your project.
For example, you may feel that a feature film has the highest impact – on your career and/or your audience – but what’s the probability of getting it made? Only you can answer that because you know what resources you have available (money, crew, kit etc). If the probability is low – because, say, you need to get a studio to green light the project – then you might think it better to do something with a higher probability of success even if there’s potentially lower impact.
Ultimately you’ll likely have a range of things to implement – a “portfolio of opportunities” – that get you started with some quick wins and lay the foundations of longer term, higher impact successes.
Now iterate through the five stages again and keep honing and refining.
As I said at the start, don’t feel you need all the answers from the get-go. After a few passes through the five stages, start thinking about implementation and give it a go. Then, in the light of that early experience go back to the development process and evolve.
April 20 2010
Creative extensions to the stories I tell
I find myself baffled at times by the lack of willingness to experiment. Where is the innovation? We find ourselves at an amazing time, one in which storytelling has vast possibilities thanks in part to advancements in technology. Yet many confuse this opportunity with what they literally see others doing or what bubbles up in various press coverage. Social media hype clouds the true creative potential. In fact in many ways the types of transmedia I find myself drawn to are all about story and have little to do with promotion and marketing. Now some of that becomes a natural byproduct but it isn’t what’s driving the story I’m telling. If I can build an audience along the way – why wouldn’t I? In fact they’re more than an audience to me they’re collaborators. Of course some will be passive viewers but others will be active participants.
The technology that we use to design, delivery and tell engaging stories with; is more than just a twitter, blog or facebook account for a character. It isn’t just about documenting the behind the scenes of a film or TV project that we’re making. Not that there’s anything wrong with documentation of a process in many ways that’s what makes the WorkBook Project possible. But for me It’s about creative choices that effect a vast world where the characters and stories we tell live. Where a scene can play through time and space. It can resolve itself on a mobile device, in a dark theater or in someone’s living room. The technology that we use is merely another creative tool no different than a lens or a camera.
There are some amazing projects that embrace technology and data sets. Data is something that touches all of our lives and it is a language that we all will find ourselves learning whether we like it or not. In many ways data is boring but it can also become a beautiful moving piece of art. For instance We Feel Fine jumps to mind. The project is emotional and tells a collective story that connects people all over the world. I could argue that it is as beautiful as some of the foreign films I love. It is an amazing piece of art yet informative and touching all at the same time.
Now Transmedia isn’t for all stories. In fact for some it could be considered a distraction especially if you try to shoehorn it into a project. But that’s because the language for telling stories across multiple devices and screens is relatively a new form. Like writing a good script it takes time to develop a rich storyworld one where you feel a connection to the characters, engage in the story and escape into the world that surrounds you.
One area that I’ve been focusing over the last year is within the mobile app space. The following column from Filmmaker Mag explains some of the reasons why.
It’s a known fact that the film industry has no shortage of middlemen. The path between filmmaker and audience is littered with them – some good, some bad. But the promise of a direct connection to an audience has become the currency of the future. These days it seems as if everyone is trying to find a way to capitalize on fostering stronger relationships with audiences. Much of these efforts are focused after the film is finished when it comes time to promote and market the work. Although some filmmakers are including audience development in their initial business plans, many are still only working to build awareness around traditional elements such as theatrical, DVD and VOD.
Are we missing a window of opportunity by limiting ourselves to formats, running times and traditional markets?
Consider the Following:
* To date, Apple has shipped more than 70 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices and it’s projected that within the next two years they’ll have more than 200 million in the market.
* More than 140,000 applications have been created for the iPhone and iPod.
* Each day, 60,000 Android devices ship.
* The fledging Android Market has more than 10,000 apps.
These stats are just one part of a growing mobile device market, which is currently expanding due to a new generation of tablets. Apple’s iPad and a slew of other computer and handset manufacturers have tablets entering the market over the next few months. Larger screens, faster processors, wireless connectivity and the ability to run various browser and mobile-based applications will all be here soon. We don’t know yet if this generation of tablets will resonate with consumers but, as we have seen in the past, devices do have the ability to influence user behavior and consumption. The iPod revitalized the value of a music track and now the publishing industry is hoping the iPad can do the same for books and zines.
April 15 2010
Followers
Here is my interview with Scott Kirsner, who is the author of Friend, Fans & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Scott spoke on various panels at SXSW.
What did you take away from SXSW this year?
SXSW is always great. I tell filmmakers that it’s the best annual event for figuring out how film and technology work together, and how new online dynamics are changing the way people will consume video. As far as what I took away, I did sessions at SXSW with the videoblogger/Internet artist Ze Frank and Gary Hustwit, who makes documentaries like “Helvetica” and “Objectified.” Both of them really underscored for me that if you do something you’re interested in (or even obsessed about), do it well, and let people get involved (giving them ways to participate and support you), there really is a viable way to be an independent artist in these digital times…without being a shameless self-promoter.
How should film schools adapt to a new media landscape?
I think they ought to be encouraging students to think about making new forms of content that take advantage of technological possibilities: short-form stuff that’s linked in new ways, that connects to location, that engages the viewer in different ways than feature-length, cinematically-exhibited films do. What can you make that lives in Facebook, that spreads via Twitter? Does there need to be a boundary between film and games? I’d like to see more film schools encouraging students to ask those kinds of questions.
When you wrote Fans, Friends And Followers what information did you find surprising?
Mostly, how experimental you have to be to figure out a strategy that works for you to build an audience. A remix contest may work for someone, but not someone else. You need to let a thousand flowers bloom.
Will creators have to spend more money on marketing as the web becomes crowded with new entertainment?
Well, spending lots of money on marketing, whether it’s billboards along every major highway or a Super Bowl ad, is a pretty time-tested way to get people to be aware of your product. But I actually think the online world gives creators more opportunities to organically build word-of-mouth about what they’re doing, rather than buying awareness. And when you do buy stuff, like ads on Facebook or Google, you can do it in a targeted, inexpensive way, without needing to hire an ad agency. That’s really revolutionary for individual creators.
How can artists do more to recognize fans who actually buy their content?
Well, crediting or thanking them is one way. Integrating them into the content somehow is another. M dot Strange incorporated images of some of his fans into his debut feature, “We Are the Strange,” and Jill Sobule sings about some of the donors who made her 2009 album “California Years” possible.
Is content still king or have aggregators taken its crown?
I am a believer in democracy, not monarchy. I think great work will always be recognized, will always find an audience, and that there will be ways for its creators to earn a living. People vote with their dollars, and they are still purchasing books, CDs, movie tickets, movie downloads, videogames, etc. And I’m hopeful that content and aggregators can coexist peacefully.
If you were going to be a financier in the entertainment industry what would be the best investment and why?
Well, I’m really interested in companies like JibJab Media or Next New Networks that have been trying to create new kinds of studio models… What would the next Disney or Paramount look like? What would the production costs be? What kinds of stories would you be telling, and how can the audience be involved in new ways? That said, there have been some failures already in that arena— but I also believe we’ll eventually see some successes.
April 06 2010
My Vision (guesses) for the Future
These predictions are based on my experience at SXSW:
1.The film and music industry will create casual games for Facebook. It will be an effective way to organize fan communities, sell them digital goods, merchandise, tickets to new media events, and introduce them to similar films and music they might like.
2.Apple, Amazon, and Netflix will compete against each other as film buyers to have exclusive rights to hot titles at the Sundance Film Festival.
3.Tastemakers who curate music and film content will actually get paid for their service.
4.Film studios will do more to reach out to Silicon Valley and fund/acquire their own web startups.
5.More entertainment created specifically for the web will be optioned to become TV shows or films.
6.Most film schools will teach 3D film production.
7.With a growing audience excited to watch everything in 3D, including ads, more TV shows are going be produced.
8.Major corporations will create platforms that support entertainment and finance the creation of content. They can own their TV network online versus paying for ads to place on another network.
9.Film studios will hire community managers and some will volunteer to manage fan communities for a movie even after a flick has left theaters.
My Vision (guesses) for the Future
These predictions are based on my experience at SXSW:
1.The film and music industry will create casual games for Facebook. It will be an effective way to organize fan communities, sell them digital goods, merchandise, tickets to new media events, and introduce them to similar films and music they might like.
2.Apple, Amazon, and Netflix will compete against each other as film buyers to have exclusive rights to hot titles at the Sundance Film Festival.
3.Tastemakers who curate music and film content will actually get paid for their service.
4.Film studios will do more to reach out to Silicon Valley and fund/acquire their own web startups.
5.More entertainment created specifically for the web will be optioned to become TV shows or films.
6.Most film schools will teach 3D film production.
7.With a growing audience excited to watch everything in 3D, including ads, more TV shows are going be produced.
8.Major corporations will create platforms that support entertainment and finance the creation of content. They can own their TV network online versus paying for ads to place on another network.
9.Film studios will hire community managers and some will volunteer to manage fan communities for a movie even after a flick has left theaters.
April 01 2010
Transmedia Storytelling-Fishing where the fish are
Multiplatform Storytelling: A Master Class with Tim Kring at SXSW brought a rock star–sized following of fans and some press excited to see the architect behind Heroes. Brian Seth Hurst moderated it. Their discussion started with them revealing how George Lucas invented transmedia storytelling. Prepare to be shocked-it all started November 17, 1978 with The Star Wars Holiday Special. A mysterious new character appeared on this show. His name was Bobba Fett. Before long Bobba Fett could also be purchased as a limited edition action figure in toy stores. Fans were confused and excited about this bounty hunter who came out of nowhere. About a year later when The Empire Strike Back was released Bobba Fett showed up again. Many fans were already aware of him. It was the first time a character originated on one platform then moved to the “mother ship of the property”.
Next Tim talked about his experience in the TV biz, then and now. When he started out a viewer had limited options: passively watch a show, at a certain time, via their TV. Now technology has offered new ways to distribute content at anytime to viewers e.g. smart phones and computers. It’s a double-edged sword; this has also brought about new competitors-including social networks and casual games that can steal eyeballs from a TV show.
How things have changed:
Casual game FarmVille surpasses 80 million users http://mashable.com/2010/02/20/farmville-80-million-users/
Nielsen data shows that U.S. Facebook users now spend an average of seven hours per month on the site.
Apple announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide.
Some people have looked at transmedia storytelling like a novelty; Tim knew it was a necessity. So for Heroes his strategy was to “fish where the fish are”. He created Heroes Evolution, which expanded his stories beyond a TV screen with weekly web graphic novels connected to the show, interactive puzzles that engage fans with text messages and phone apps, among many other techniques to reach an elusive audience who have migrated all over the place. Tim’s closing remarks were he recommended that young producers should prepare to pitch TV executives their shows with a transmedia strategy. For future projects Tim is considering making his story the mother ship where everything is connected vs having his TV show at the hub.
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