On June 11th we visited the conference “Transmedia: The Story to Sell” in Amsterdam, about new ways of storytelling in the trans-mediated world. Here’s a quick’n’dirty summary of the day.

The day started with an introduction by Nicoletta Iacobacci, head of interactive television and cross media at the European Broadcasting Union. In the past hundred years every generation becomes more ‘digital’ and every generation have their own ‘new media’. The so called Baby Boomers (1946 – 1965) grew up with only television and papers in contrast with the newest generation who are used to internet, (interactive) games, and digital television and so on.
The big question is; how do we involve these different generations in the stories we want to convey? There is no answer yet, but we can try to find it in Transmedia Storytelling.

After the introduction there were several lectures, and I choose to go to Christopher Sandberg, CEO and founder of new media production company The company P. Sandberg was Executive Producer of the participation drama ‘The Truth About Marika’ (produced with SVT) and Dollplay, also a participation drama made for the FOX show Dollhouse with Joss Whedon.
The Truth About Marika was produced for a young audience, between 15 and 35, and is about a search for a missing girl (trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_ZJkwvKR8).
Although they kept saying it was fictional drama, at the end about 25% of the audience thought it was a true story. Sandberg: “We never tried fooling the audience, we were creating a suspension of disbelieve”.
The creators of Marika had a metaphor, a sort of lesson for the audience, in mind: If you can change drama, you can change your own life.
About Transmedia Storytelling, Sandberg stated that Transmedia is about how things move across boarders. Media used to be the message but now people are the message.

When lunch was over, I went to the lecture of Jeff Gomez who is the American leading expert at developing entertainment properties and premium brands into highly successful Transmedia franchises. At a young age he found out that Role-playing Games, and especially the story behind it, created intimacy and intense drama between the participants.
With the citation ‘The shortest distance between two people is a story’ (source unknown) in his mind, he is always exploring the different aspects of a story.

The last lecture I went to was by Ivan Askwith, senior strategist for Big Spaceship. His lecture was about ‘what advertisers, marketers, brands and businesses can learn from Transmedia Storytelling.’ (For his presentation: www.slideshare.net/ivanaskwith)
In his opinion Transmedia content doesn’t just promote a product, it becomes part of the product. That doesn’t mean that all products are benefit from Transmedia content. There are potential problems, such as:
1. Sometimes Transmedia narratives promote themselves, instead of brands and products.
2. Just because a brand can be integrated into a Transmedia narrative doesn’t mean it should be.
3. Not all brands benefit from the creation of detailed Transmedia narratives; some get hurt.
What all businesses can (and should) learn from the rise of Transmedia storytelling:
1. The focus on creating a consistent, unified experience across all platforms
2. Let each platform do what is does best.
3. Each element needs to work on its own terms, but should also add something to the larger experience.
4. Bring people together and give them something to do.

After the lectures there was a panel discussion with Christopher Sandberg, Ivan Askwith, Jeff Gomez, Nicoletta Iacobacci, Reinier Selen and a student of the HvA. After all the information we’ve got and after the accurate discussion, there popped up some interesting conclusions.

Ivan Askwith:
First of all we need (good) education across the boarders. But keep in mind that Transmedia is going to be normal for the next generation. They will be used to, so called, ‘social media’ and will take ‘Transmedia’ for granted.

Jeff Gomez:
Prepare to implement Transmedia. Have commitment to the story and implement that through the media. We need to supervise the development and keep it going.

Nicoletta Iacobacci:
Learn by producing.

Christopher Sandberg:
Transmedia Storytelling is all about the stories and the key is the audience.

Remke Anema
Student Mediamanagement HKU