Just Story It

Managing this combination artfully is the essence of marketing. Today, brands live in such a fluid digital ecosystem that these pixels are constantly being refreshed in real-time to keep the story of the brand alive and relevant. New platforms and technologies allow marketers to manage each of their "pixels" in sophisticated transmedia storytelling. Three growing trends that are improving multi-platform marketing include deeper storytelling, sophisticated curation, and using artificial intelligence to improve the contextual relevance of ambient marketing.

This is a thoughtful article that I enjoyed because it highlights the notion of 'subtlety' in marketing/branding activities. What does the author, Victoria Young, mean by subtlety?

She uses Kate Spade as an example -- where the company uses different platforms to post different content that in its entirety tells a story.

The activity is call curation and as the author says, "This is an effective, graceful, and non-intrusive way to continue to reinforce the Kate Spade story. Furthermore, this allows consumers to identify with aspects of the brand that are not so directly commercial, and therefore more relatable."

Curating content in a variety of ways across different social mediums (this is a take on transmedia storytelling) which can lead to deeper story sharing experiences between companies and their customers without hitting people over the head with repetitive messages. That is a good thing!

So how subtle are you in your marketing efforts and is this a quality you want to bring into your branding? Definitely food for thought!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

"A Story is a progression of events in a cause and effect chain.The only part that changes as new mediums are added to the long-standing history if multi-platform Transmedia, is not Story but Style."

 

Once again Mike Jones hits the nail on the head, helping us sort through the hype about transmedia storytelling.  Is transmedia storytelling fun and cool?  Absolutely.  Is it changing the fundamentals of storytelling?  Absolutely not.

 

Discover what's real and what's hype by reading both this article, and the previous one posted here on transmedia storytelling.

As technology becomes more advanced and more accessible across multiple platforms, it’s only natural for consumers to expect increasingly higher standards of creativity and engagement from content creators. Experimentation is all well and good, but what do audiences actually want? To answer this question, research group Latitude has interviewed 158 early adopters and compiled a report that forms the first phase of its The Future of Storytelling project.

 

This article popped up today and I really like the 4 "I's" that it says the best business stories bring to the table: immersion, integration, interactivity, and impact. All stories, if told really well, do this. They immerse the audience and teller in the experience of the story, facilitate integration of messages, are co-created experiences that often generate story sharing back-and forth (interactivity), and have an impact on both the teller and the audience.

These 4 "I's" I really like -- they help capture the intent and purpose of our business storytelling. If your stories are not hitting all 4 dimensions, go fix them!

The author Martin Bryant is framing his points here in the world of transmedia storytelling -- where stories are told across multiple technology formats. The results of the study shared here contain no surprises if one is familiar with the dynamics of storytelling however.

For example: people influencing the media or producers in the creation of stories. Well, that's been happen for a hundreds of years now. Yet I do agree that the rate and amount of access has increased with technology, all of which is a good thing.

So what's the take-away here? 

First -- focus on the 4 "I's" in any business storytelling you do in order to be successful. And expand your notions of what Interactivity, immersion, and integration can be. The info shared in the article might spark some ideas for you. If you are in business, are a blogger or content creator of any time, take these 4 "I's" to heart and do more of them.

Second -- stay tuned for the next part of this report that looks very promsing: "Latitude is currently working on phase two of its study, which it describes as “a large-scale international exploration focused on quantifying storytelling trends and opportunities, and understanding key audiences for multi-platform and transmedia experiences.”

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

Yeah -- the truth has been told! A lot of people are drinking the transmedia storytelling Kool-Aid and finally someone has commented on all the crazy hype. Yes, it's true -- the transmedia Emporer has no clothes.

Storytelling has not changed for millenia. Transmedia storytelling is not replacing storytelling. Read this article ASAP to help clear up any misconceptions you may have about storytelling and new media.

Thank you Gregg Morris for turning me onto this article -- see his Story and Narrative curated content at http://www.scoop.it/t/story-and-narrative