Imagine your first role in your next job is to develop a transmedia storytelling campaign for your business. What will you do?

Transmedia storytelling is a powerful process of telling a (fictional) story on multiple channels and it has become an important element of today´s businesses. It is defined by Henry Jenkins, an American media scholar and professor for communication studies.

“Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.“

Everything in the economy is shifting from analogue to digital and digital media is getting more and more important. As I already stated in my last blog entry we are now living in a knowledge economy were creativity and traded ideas and information have become the main resources for businesses.

Trough Transmedia storytelling companies are trying to communicate complex ideas for a long time (long-time orientation) and it is not just about entertaining but also about selling. Companies are catching stories and use it for their own advertising.

Most of the companies’ budgets are spent for medial marketing and they use Transmedia storytelling to catch the consumers’ attention by picking up on old movies or books. The purpose is to immerse users in the world it creates.

Companies are using Franchising principles to increase profit and to extend their transmedia opportunities. Here you can see the power of the digital capitalism through transmedia storytelling in our economy.

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Also, the production processes have changed dramatically. In 1950 companies have taken popular / famous actors to make people awake. Nowadays due to the digitalisation not only actors are “used”, it is more about sounds, special effects and animations to make it real.

The point is that people have done amazing things in context of Transmedia storytelling. A good example for a successful transmedia storytelling is Harry Potter. After the release of the books, a virtual reality was created; the books were so successful that they were filmed. The movies were a huge success and after that there were even more fan pages, Video games were developed and also events were fans could exchange ideas. There was literally a Happy Potter “hype”. Also, in 2011 “Pottermore” was released, which is still very popular today.

„Pottermore is the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling and is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling. The site features Rowling’s thoughts, several pages of unpublished text, and a sales resource for e-book and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels.”

Since 2010 fans can enter into the world of harry potter in “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter“.

But why are we at this stage where stories often become huge? People have a deep interest in a particular story / universe and want to receive more information, they want to experience more and want to escape from the reality. They do not always want to receive stories but they want to share information and experiences with each other.

According to the question, what I would do if my first role in my next job was to develop a Transmedia storytelling campaign for my business, I can say that I would consider several things.

Firstly, using media technologies has become one of the most important section in this business that we should focus on. Companies and also the knowledge workers need to make sure to act in different platforms. The purpose is to create platforms were the consumer can experience and relive the stories told. They should have the opportunity to dive into the different worlds with all the characters. If this happens I am sure that it will maximise the profit because of the wide range of information.

Secondly, people who are working in the creative industry like I am going to, are focusing on developing new ideas. Therefore, I would make sure to fill the gaps and to get new technical ideas. Also, by improving the technical approaches and identifying the important target groups, new possibilities will arise for the development of trans media stories.

Moreover, it is also important to focus on the current trends around the world. Are there new video games, movies, comics or books to which we can react and which we can work with? All of this points are essential for transmedia storytelling because it is a kind of a self-promotion and creates an image of the companies. And it is important to react quickly. New media technologies should also be used for the media industry since this can help and improve the development of important transmedia storytelling.

In conclusion, I can say that transmedia storytelling is a unique and really powerful tool for companies and also for people who want more than just a movie or book. In my opinion transmedia storytelling is changing the marketing and advertising industry enormously.

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References:

Transmedia 202:Further Reflections .(2011).henryjenkins.org

Transmedia Storytelling 101.(2007).henryjenkins.org

Transmedia Storytelling.Tstoryteller.com

What is Transmedia Storytelling?.Athinklab.com

Lecture 8 – Key Concept – What is Transmedia Storytelling?.coursera.org

Transmedia Storytelling Around The World: Henry Jenkins.(2012).transmedia-storytelling-berlin.de

Transmedia Storytelling: The Complete Guide.(2015). Stateofdigital.com

Transmedia storytelling.Wikipedia.com

Henry Jenkins.Wikipedia.com

Transmedia Defined.Christineweitbrecht.com