TRANSMEDIA PLATFORMS a Creator’S Guide to Media and Entertainment
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TRANSMEDIA PLATFORMS a creator’s guide to media and entertainment anne zeiser © Illustration by Brett Ryder A companion to Transmedia Marketing: From Film and TV to Games and Digital Media Contents _______________________________ Preface to Transmedia Marketing 4 Chapter 1 – Introduction – Transmedia Platforms 7 Transmedia Platforms Today 7 Finding Your Platforms 9 Chapter 2 – Film 10 History of Film 10 Film Industry Standards 13 Film Trends 19 Chapter 3 – Broadcast –Television and Radio 21 History of Television 21 Television Industry Standards 23 Television Trends 27 History of Radio 30 Radio Industry Standards 31 Radio Trends 34 Chapter 4 – Print – Books and Publications 36 History of Books 36 Book Industry Standards 38 Book Trends 41 History of Newspapers 42 Newspaper Industry Standards 43 Newspaper Trends 45 History of Magazines 46 Magazine Industry Standards 46 Magazine Trends 48 Chapter 5 – Games 49 History of Games 49 Game Industry Standards 51 Game Trends 58 ! 2! Chapter 6 – Digital Media – Internet and Mobile 61 Digital Media Overview 61 The Internet 63 Web Sites 64 Blogs, Pods, and Vlogs 66 Social Media 68 Mobile Apps 70 Digital Marketing and Awards 71 Key Social Media Sites and Apps 76 Facebook 77 Google+ 78 Twitter 80 YouTube 82 Tumblr 83 Instagram 83 LinkedIn 84 IMDb 85 Reddit 86 Snapchat 86 Shazam 87 Skype 87 Flickr 88 Pinterest 88 MySpace 88 Vine 89 Flipboard 89 Goodreads 90 Flixter 90 Raptr 90 Viggle 91 Beamly 91 Periscope 91 Meerkat 92 Chinese Platforms 92 Chapter 7 – Experiential Media 93 Theatrical Productions 93 Concerts 97 Exhibitions and Live Installations 98 Theme Parks 99 Toys 101 Chapter 8 – Conclusion – Transmedia Platforms 103 Shaping Your Transmedia Profile 103 Embracing the Transmedia Future 105 ! 3! Preface to Transmedia Marketing: From Film and TV to Games and Digital Media _______________________________ Over the past decade, I’ve had countless queries from anxious filmmakers and media makers seeking advice about setting up a Facebook page or a Twitter account. While that’s not my core business, they saw it as more in my wheelhouse than theirs. My first response was, “Why?” Some said, “Because these days you need it for a film (or TV show, or game, or book).” I probed further, “What do you want the social media platform to achieve?” Dead silence. A few secretly hoped that simply having a social presence would be enough to place them firmly in the twenty- first century. To their chagrin, I advised them there was no point in setting up social media just to have it. Like every other form of content creation and content marketing, social media must be part of a thoughtfully-designed plan to achieve enunciated goals with key target audiences. Now, most of us unconsciously espouse that philosophy as we craft our social personas. Yet today, I get the same kinds of queries around transmedia – the media buzzword du jour. Many producers and marketers want their media and entertainment properties to be transmedia, but don’t fully understand how adding media platforms to their project fits into the overall story arc or audience experience. Like the art of developing a vibrant and relevant social media graph, being transmedia is more than ticking off a box to say you’ve done it. You must invest in it, tinker with it, and learn from it. The great news, when you strip away the semantics, you’ll find that the core of transmedia is something you’re probably already doing. You’re already engaging audiences with your narrative using various media. Through both traditional and mobile media, you’re reaching them wherever they are – in theaters, in living rooms, in cars, in museums, and on the street. And your content isn’t just randomly distributed across various media streams. It’s part of something bigger and more strategic. Transmedia Marketing is a holistic content creation approach – both storytelling and marketing – simultaneously across multiple media platforms. It’s part of a thoughtfully-designed plan to achieve enunciated goals with key target audiences. Sound familiar? That’s because social media has ushered in a mindset of engaging audiences with media and entertainment properties with additional media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. A fully-transmedia approach simply expands that universe of platforms to film, TV, radio, books, publications, games, online, mobile, toys, live installations, events, and more. So, that decade of chasing the Wild Wild West of social media, proclaiming, “There’s gold in them thar hills!” had some kernels of truth. The opportunities and lessons of social media and viral marketing preview this modern era of transmedia. Tweets or shared online video teasers, once seen as marketing tools for a bigger product, are media products unto themselves. The socialization of content has blurred the lines between entertainment and its marketing. In ! 4! any form, media content can both advance the story and market the story. In this new media and entertainment world order, that makes you both a Media Maker and Media Marketer. And to connect audiences with your media projects in this content-saturated world, you must provide multiple media on-ramps. That also makes you Transmedia. As a twenty-first-century media maker and media marketer who’s telling stories and engaging audiences in entertainment experiences on multiple media platforms, Transmedia Marketing: From Film and TV to Games and Digital Media is for you. Still, you might ask, if your primary job is to write television scripts, why do you need to understand games? Because your pilot’s premise might be suitable for an interactive gaming experience that feeds superfans. If you create movie trailers, why do you need to understand social platforms? Because your trailer could be the lynchpin of a mysterious social teaser campaign to promote the film. If you produce films, why do you need to understand target audiences? Because to greenlight your film, you must prove to financiers and distributors that it’s marketable to key audiences. And if you publicize games and digital media, why do you need to understand story? Because to secure press and blogger coverage, you must craft compelling narratives about your media project. You can embrace this new sensibility of making and marketing content across multiple media platforms. Grandma Moses didn’t start painting in earnest until she was 78 years old. Her bold and indomitable spirit is what transmedia’s about. Remember how foreign your first Facebook account felt when you set up? Now, it’s second nature to tell your story or telegraph something you deem important on it. You’ve become an agile content creator and marketer on that platform. And, you can be just as facile and compelling on other media platforms – on air, online, in print, and on the go. It’s well worth it, because embracing multiple media platforms delivers huge rewards. Transmedia cuts through the morass of content and connects your audiences with deep, participatory experiences. This translates into audiences’ active engagement and co-creation with your content. Then, they find meaning and connect personally to your content. This translates into audience loyalty for and ambassadorship of your project – the Holy Grail of branding, marketing, and engagement. When your fans use, love, and tell others about your media content or project, that’s a smash hit for you. Transmedia Marketing will get you there because it takes a twenty-first-century holistic approach to content creation across multiple media platforms, using both storytelling and marketing. It teaches media makers and marketers like you the fundamentals of developing a sound marketing and content plan through strategic research, target audience identification, goal setting, and branding. And it demonstrates how to execute key elements of your plan – from publicity, events, partnerships, and advertising to online content and video, social media, and interactive media. These key concepts come to life throughout, with real-world insight and quotes from original interviews that I conducted with more than 45 top media and entertainment experts across various media. They include writers, directors, producers, composers, distributors, marketers, publicists, critics, journalists, attorneys, and executives from markets, festivals, awards, and professional organizations. Transmedia Marketing culminates with several powerful case studies from various media platforms, also based on exclusive interviews, which showcase different content creation or marketing approaches: A.I. Artificial Intelligence’s “The Beast” – participatory tribal audiences; Mad Men – branding the American Dream; Lizzie Bennet Diaries – perspective storytelling; and, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo “Watch ‘n Sniff” Premiere Event – socialized talent and content. ! 5! In addition, a macro case study of a project I managed, Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, is woven throughout the book as a teaching tool to demonstrate critical techniques in action. Many chapters conclude with an Author’s Anecdote – a takeaway or muse about ideas in that chapter – derived from my professional experience or perspective. By the book’s end, you’ll be versed in the craft of marketing film, TV, games, and digital media and you’ll be ready to write and execute the marketing and content plan for your project. As an online companion to the central concepts and real-world examples in this book, http://www.transmediamarketing.com/ has a rich array of resources to help you develop and market your transmedia project. It provides a primer on various transmedia platforms – film, broadcast, print, games, digital media, and experiential media. It takes a deeper dive on the Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues case study, providing a combined marketing plan and project evaluation, plus additional sample materials. And the Web site provides bonus material on content creation and marketing, experts’ insight, and transmedia marketing success stories. The overall goal of Transmedia Marketing: From Film and TV to Games and Digital Media and its resources is to teach you how to imagine the unlimited storytelling and marketing possibilities for your media project.