For my second morning tea at The FARM I decided to share with the team some of the cool case studies presented at Metro Screen's Transmedia Seminar on Friday June 25^th that I attended as part of my Certificate IV in Screen & Media.

A bit of a buzz word in digital, I thought it good timing to go through some examples of successful transmedia projects to spark thinking in the group as many of our clients go into business planning for FY11.

What is transmedia?

A project that consists of narrative storylines across multiple platforms such as film, TV, web, social media, mobile – the list goes on. Most importantly, the narratives are not the same as repurposing material from one platform to another.

Why do clients want it?

They often don’t know! A study by Digital Brand Expressions in May 2010 found "52% of social marketers are operating 'without a game plan' (read the article here) and brands are afraid of being behind their competitors without presence in social media, video, viral and mobile.

How do you decide the platform?

Content dictates the platform – story comes first! What is the nature of your content and what platform is it suitable for. On the flip side, the platform is not simply a vessel with shapes and fuels the creative – it is a symbiotic process.

Case Study – Miles Becket (EQAL) and LonelyGirl15

Watch the LonelyGirl15 sizzle reel

This project worked because it was timed with what users were doing at the time. Youtube was becoming highly popular, it was recognized that youtube audiences were a recurring audience like TV and video bloggers were emerging.

Case Study – Darius Devas and Justin Buckwell with Goa Hippy Tribe

Watch the Goa Hippy Tribe intro video  

Darius and his team invested greatly in digital strategy (with The Dubs) for this Facebook delivered documentary series to be such a success. Launching with a Facebook group to recruit and reunite the original Goa Hippy Tribe it was from here that the real story leads and talent were generated. Key to this project I believe is the knowledge of difference between a Facebook GROUP and FAN PAGE. Once the story leads were gathered from the interactive and community group, the completed documentary was distributed via the fan page which allowed the producers more control over the content and the interactions with it. Group for discussion. Fan page for celebration of the final product.

Not so good examples

Unsuccessful examples of transmedia products often come down to a duplication of content across medium rather than extension into new content or failed use of UGC (User-Generated-Content). UGC should fuel other medium not simply be created and lost in the ether. The pay off for users must be greater than the effort required (credit to Cora Spear at Wanted Digital for that equation) meaning a tangible end purpose can be gained.

Viral, and when to use it?

Viral is perhaps one of the most common buzz words in advertising yet there is not a great understanding of how to use it, when to use it, why to use it or how to measure its success (we are all still learning as we go!). The viral videos seeded for the Black Water movie (Andrew Traucki) are a good example of reaching the target audience by using the same medium (online video) in its marketing strategy. It is a logical avenue and was very successful.

Risks?

Understandable brands see an element of risk involved with UGC, viral video or other interactive media as there are associations and social commentary that come with it and the content becomes inherently unpredictable. To avoid this some golden rules:

Be transparent with your audience – you cannot initiate conversation and not maintain it, the brand must be constantly involved and responding to its users (invest in social media moderation!)

So, leaving The FARM to think about the possibilities I hoped this presentation not only got people excited but reignited the team to own our agency, to be the experts and to ask the right questions. We are here to not only find out what platforms brands are interested in but why and to what end with the hope of delivering something with just as much a buzz!

I came accross some future predictions around Facebook penetration a couple of days ago and is it truly staggering.

Discounting China (Facebook is restricted there) it looks like we will  be approaching 30% of the worlds active internet population will be regular Facebook users by the end of 2009.

In the article they also talked about future projections and the possibility the Facebook audience could possibly top 1 billion users, the digital universe would sure be a different place, for a start we have to play by Facebook's rules while on their platform.

As agencies and marketers what does this mean for us? Well I guess it certainly means no matter who you are at the moment you cannot ignore the big F. The most obvious way to tap in to this huge potential audience is through ads but until now they have been targeted in a fairly standard way. These ads have been more effective in my experience than standard units due to organic impressions generated, context and their non banner like appearance but the targeting has been at best unimaginative, certainly not taking advantage of the social platform.

There is a new option open to us though which seems subtle at first, you can simply target your ads at friends of your connections. These connections are defined by Facebook as: Fans of your page, users of your applications, members of your groups or attendees of your events. Looking in to it a little further this is a different method than the top ten targeting methods currently available. 

Why? Well the ads can have social context which is after all what Facebook is supposed to be about. So if I am working on a new film theatrical release and someone fans my new movie page I can target ads at their friends which will list below the ad that their friend is a fan of my film. If the person viewing the ad would also like to see the film and I am offering pre-release tickets or a competition, who are they going to ask to go with them I wonder.

It is a great step in the right direction I believe for Facebook, there is still much work to be done, I could rattle on for hours about the numerous ways I would like to use the platform but lets save that for another day and simply be happy they are thinking about us little agencies and marketers.

Yesterday the DDB WWF ad sparked a little debate round the office on the subject of shock ads, it was amazing how quickly and fiercly the fuse burnt once lit! THis section of the email trail literally flew around in under five minutes. Some interesting questions were raised, does the message get lost? Is any conversation good conversation? Do shock ads work? What I really would like to see is what impact the ad has on donations after this little storm. Anyone else have an opinion?

Read from the bottom up.

From: Wade

Ahhhh … but we are critiquing the ad from the perspective of “is that an inappropriate message in relation to 9/11?”

The WWF message is getting lost …….. we are debating the WRONG topic.

Well done Drew – you Sh*t starter …….. my turn now

Ok … so which religion is BETTER Christianity or Buddhism?

From: Chris

Can an ad’s success be measured by the conversation it produces or the opinions it polarises?

From: Phillip

Agree with all comments, Wade definitely agree comparing man made to nature is ridiculous. What we need to do with things like the tsunami is humanise them, they are seen as things that happen somewhere else and a number is just a number.

Having said this look at the email trail, definitely got the office talking about serious issues....

From: Kristina

Fair point, but surely  there is a better way to show the value of third world life than belittle that of the US?

Though I guess it may indirectly touch an element of human nature we might not like to admit – we only instill value on something by taking it away from something else.

If we are talking about minute silences, there isn’t actually anything official for 9/11 in the States that I’m aware of… or the Bali bombing for that matter which was in the same vicinity of the tsunami..

Lots of talking points here Drew, nice debate starter!!!!

From: Tom

Disagree.

I think it makes an important point (perhaps unwittingly) about the value of third world life in relation to US lives. Where is the one minute of silence for the Tsunami victims (which seems far more relevant to Australia than terrorism to me).

From: Nikk

I completely agree. Never would have thought an organization like the WWF would stoop this low and feel it necessary to compare with and almost belittle 9/11.

The hell?!!

From: Kristina

Agreed Wade.

I actually find that disgusting – the comparison holds no merit whatsoever, how can you compare the two?!?

And more importantly WHY should we compare the two?! They are two equally devastating events, the body count should absolutely not be used as a hook to “respect” one over the other..

Very powerful image and it will no doubt get people talking but I think it’s a really poor way of getting this message across.

From: Wade

FAIL

I get that they tapped into the destruction of 911 because of the global impact that story had to get cut through, but it feels a little icky because the comparison is made to a man made act of terrorism which takes it off brief in my opinion.

I look at the ad more like -  “imagine if terrorism escalated” rather than going “isn’t mother nature a powerful thing that should be respected.”

From: Drew

http://blog.stephengates.com/2009/09/03/ddb-wwf-tsunami-twin-towers-ad-powerful-or-despicable/