Transmedia Brand Storytelling: Immersive Experiences from Theory to Practice 9819940001, 9789819940004

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Transmedia Brand Storytelling Immersive Experiences from Theory to Practice Karen E. Sutherland · Richie Barker

Transmedia Brand Storytelling

Karen E. Sutherland · Richie Barker

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Immersive Experiences from Theory to Practice

Karen E. Sutherland University of the Sunshine Coast Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia

Richie Barker School of Communication & Creative Arts Deakin University Burwood, VIC, Australia

ISBN 978-981-99-4000-4 ISBN 978-981-99-4001-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: piranka This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Prologue

While making the final amendments to this book, the authors were scrolling TikTok and stumbled on the trending audio of one of the world’s most iconic transmedia storytelling campaigns to date. Even though Dumb Ways to Die first launched in 2012 for Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia using a quirky array of cute (and clueless) cartoon characters to promote railway safety, the campaign song has experienced a resurgence for an entirely new generation in 2023 as a TikTok trend. Since its launch in 2012, the Dumb Ways to Die campaign has been one of the most awarded immersive campaigns in history winning more than 190 awards within Australia and internationally throughout 2013 alone (Burrowes, 2013). The campaign’s multi-platform content and experiences achieved exceptional success in terms of their reach and engagement. The YouTube video has amassed 274 million views (YouTube, 2023), and associated game apps have achieved more than 340 million downloads and have been played 6.5 billion times (Dumb Ways to Die, 2023). The fact that components of a transmedia storyworld can survive and still evolve more than 11 years after the campaign began demonstrates both the universal appeal and longevity that transmedia storytelling continues to have when it becomes a part of culture; a phenomenon we have devoted this book to exploring. Before launching into the main action of this book, we thought it would be a good idea to explain why we spent the last two years researching and writing it. Context can be helpful. We wrote this book for v

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the common reason that many books are written. We identified a need, a gap in the transmedia storytelling conversation that captured its contemporary execution in a post-COVID world. We both research and teach transmedia storytelling courses at our respective institutions, and while we have found existing literature helpful in many instances, we noticed that the voices of practitioners have largely been missing (or have a minimal presence) in the conversations to date. Adding to that, the rapid evolution in digital technologies pre and post-pandemic encouraged us to pick up the transmedia storytelling conversation to provide an insight into where it stands in our present time. We are thrilled to share that it has been a most interesting and rewarding journey of (re)discovery. We have preempted some questions our readers may have about this book, so let’s tackle those before we embark on our transmedia storytelling adventure in the forthcoming chapters.

Firstly, Why Is There a Need for This Book? Brand communication is exceptionally complex and ever-changing. Audiences expect very different things from brands than they did a decade ago. Existing literature surrounding transmedia storytelling has not evolved as rapidly to reflect the construct’s influence in contemporary brand communication or the integral role that audience co-creation needs to have in the discussion. Co-creation is the “secret sauce” of transmedia storytelling, involving the audience creating or experiencing something of value. There have never been as many platforms, channels and techniques available to collaborate and co-create with audiences. We have aimed to collect practitioner-focused data and insights to accurately analyse social storytelling in a contemporary brand communication context. This will not surprise many, but integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an increasingly outdated concept. We’re not trying to refer to it as “dead”, but the lack of audience engagement in traditional IMC approaches and the broadcast approach of messaging it generally applies is rendering the brands it is attempting to promote as somewhat stale and out-of-step. Transmedia brand storytelling is about allowing audiences to not just co-create brand stories, but to play a role in co-creating the brand, an approach at odds with IMC which aims to control the message across different platforms and neglects to invite the audience to openly play and/or express themselves.

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In a post-COVID world, joy, play and humour have never been so important, and brands have an enormous opportunity to invite their target audiences to interact with them in this way, to provide the imaginative prompts, space and tools for the audience to do so and build a strong brand community in the process. Transmedia brand storytelling provides the framework for brands to bring a sense of belonging to the lives of audiences/communities through engagement, participation and co-creation. The research for this book has helped us to discover that creativity is not solely the realm of brand communication creatives; the audience plays a pivotal role in the creative process as well (as detailed in a Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice in the final chapter of this book). While it may be tempting to skip ahead, allowing the story of our research journey to unfold in a linear fashion (e.g. from Chapter One onwards) will provide helpful context when reaching its crescendo in Chapter 12.

What Value Do We Hope Readers Gain from Reading This Book? Our aim for this book is to provide our readers with an in-depth insight into the ways in which cutting-edge practitioners are applying transmedia storytelling approaches. We also provide readers with a comparison between contemporary practice and existing and emerging transmedia storytelling models. We did this to identify gaps between theory and practice and have shared recommendations on how theoretical constructs can enrich current approaches to contemporary practice. In short, we provide readers with an updated approach to transmedia storytelling derived from theory and primary research investigating contemporary practice.

Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Is It Even Called Transmedia Storytelling Anymore? The answer is yes, and no, but our research found, mostly no. Transmedia storytelling can be referred to by various names that describe similar campaign approaches. Based on our secondary research, and interviews with practitioners, we have found the most accurate term to describe the practice is “transmedia brand storytelling”. We are not implying that the exact term is used in practice, but it aptly reinforces the need for brands to

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centre audience-focused approaches around a strong central narrative and, as such, is used in the name of the model of practice we have developed from our research. Brands that reshape a universal narrative, creative theme or cultural movement and weave it into playful or expressive content-making experiences in collaboration with their audiences are those that are embracing and benefiting from a transmedia brand storytelling approach. Providing the space and the encouragement to empower brand communication audiences is the secret to developing brand loyalty in our currently tumultuous, often-polarised and ever-changing world. Shifting the focus from “talking at” target audiences to building brand communities through shared experiences and collaboration sits at the core of transmedia brand storytelling. Of course, the communication of brand messages to audiences is still essential. Still, more subtly illustrating these within engaging stories and reframing audiences as communities that come together around a cohesive narrative is an elevated and critical brand communication perspective. Transmedia brand storytelling is not just the way of the future, it is happening right now. It is this research story that we are delighted to share with you in this book. We wish you happy travels, stimulating stories and compelling collaborations. Dr. Karen E. Sutherland Dr. Richie Barker

References Burrowes, T. (2013). OPINION: One year on: The full list of dumb ways to die awards. Accessed 25 Apr 2023. https://mumbrella.com.au/one-year-full-listdumb-ways-die-awards-190033 Dumb Ways to Die. (2023). Dumb ways to die—The PSA. Accessed 25 Apr 2023. https://www.dumbwaystodie.com/psa YouTube. (2023). Dumb ways to die. Accessed 25 Apr 2023. https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

Contents

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Transmedia Brand Storytelling—Immersive Campaign Experiences from Theory to Practice

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Part I Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory 2

What is Transmedia Brand Storytelling?

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The Creative Logic of Transmedia Brand Storytelling

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Part II Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory in Practice 4

Practitioner Perceptions of Transmedia Brand Storytelling

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Planning and Creating Transmedia Storytelling Projects

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Audience Participation and “Learning” Transmedia Storytelling

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Evaluating Transmedia Brand Storytelling Experiences

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Part III Transmedia Brand Storytelling Campaign Case Analyses 8

Case Study One: SickKids Airbnb (Canada)

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Case Study Two: VFR Campaign—Wander Geelong and the Bellarine (Australia)

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Case Study Three—Sachin: A Billion Dreams (India)

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Case Study Four: Airbnb Wall and Chain (United States of America)

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Part IV Conclusion 12

The Future of Transmedia Brand Storytelling and a Model for Practice

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Epilogue

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References

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Index

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List of Figures

Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

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Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 9.1 9.2 9.3 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 12.1

A simplified storyworld with an anchor structure A simplified storyworld with a chunking structure Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) den Buysch and van der Kaa’s Toggle Switch Model (2018) SickKids Hospital, Toronto, Canada SickKids Airbnb listing SickKids Airbnb immersive experience Mid-experience Results from the SickKids Airbnb Campaign Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula Campaign App promotion The audience campaign journey Sachin—A billion dreams movie poster Thumbnail from the official teaser Image from the launch event #LiveMoreWithSachin competition Thumbnail from short animated video A frame from the short animated video A frame from one of the behind-the-scenes videos Berlin unification party (Studio Now, 2014) Berlin unification party (Studio Now, 2014) A transmedia brand storytelling model for practice

51 52 130 132 152 157 159 162 168 182 183 184 198 203 207 208 224 228 230 232 235 263

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Table Table Table Table

4.1 5.1 7.1 1

Interview participants Examples of impactful projects discussed Pratten’s five stages of audience engagement (2015, p. 93) Key themes and findings

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CHAPTER 1

Transmedia Brand Storytelling—Immersive Campaign Experiences from Theory to Practice

Transmedia storytelling may not be a familiar term to every consumer of brand communication. However, it is a communicative system they have embraced when exploring a brand story across platforms, reacting to, remixing or even co-creating brand content, and participating in a brand experience that has brought joy or self-expression. In our post-COVID world, providing immersive brand experiences to audiences has become even more crucial for brands attempting to maintain strong relationships with their customers (Panagiotakopoulos et al., 2021). As a popular concept explored in academic literature from the mid-2000s, transmedia storytelling theory has been applied and examined in a plethora of contexts, from its origins in fictional “franchises” to the delivery of educational products (Dena, 2009; Freeman, 2019; Gambarato & Dabagian, 2016; Jenkins, (2010, 2014)). While some scholars have declared the term “transmedia” may have met its demise (see Scolari, 2009, 2019), this book explores how Transmedia Brand Storytelling practices have evolved to become a common strategy employed in brand communication to build positive associations, trust and loyalty. To achieve this, the authors have embedded a comprehensive analysis of transmedia branding literature and expanded on this knowledge with the key findings from an extensive research study with brand communication practitioners with experience in the design and delivery of transmedia storytelling campaigns and immersive brand experiences to highlight the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_1

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similarities and differences between theory and practice. Our international research involved a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 brand storytelling practitioners and an online survey of 256 professionals working in marketing, advertising, digital media content, public relations and communication sectors across Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, the United States and South America. Our sample included brand storytellers who have worked with clients in the tourism, automotive, entertainment, fashion and fast moving consumer goods sectors. Our main focus for this research is to better understand practitioner realities and attitudes in delivering transmedia brand storytelling and if (or how) theoretical concepts play a role in contemporary brand communication practice. The insights drawn from this research have informed our holistic model of practice for transmedia brand storytelling, a framework for crafting social storytelling in the context of rapidly evolving audience behaviours and media use. This first chapter provides readers with a map of what to expect throughout the book. Each chapter is summarised to provide readers with a preview of the key elements presented, critiqued and compared with contemporary industry perceptions and processes.

Section 1---Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory The first section of this book explores the concept of transmedia brand storytelling from its origins in the entertainment industry. The aim of this section is to provide an in-depth review of the literature and a comprehensive analysis of transmedia branding research conducted thus far, including the theoretical frameworks developed from these studies. This analysis of existing transmedia branding literature and its theoretical underpinnings provide a sound basis of knowledge and a contextual frame for the empirical research on brand storytelling practice presented in Sections 2 and 3 of this book. The following chapter descriptions for Section 1 (Chapters 2 and 3) provide a more comprehensive description of how scholarship on transmedia branding and aligned concepts are explored.

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Chapter 2---What is Transmedia Storytelling? Chapter 2 explores the origins of transmedia branding with a focus on its emergence in the entertainment industries, definitions of the concept in brand communication contexts and articulations of the construct’s benefits in the contemporary media landscape. Our analysis of perspectives offered by scholarly researchers in this realm (Buckner & Rutledge, 2011; du Plessis, 2019; Giovangoli, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015) enables our development of an evolved definition for the concept under the name “transmedia brand storytelling”. This definition reflects the direction set by the “grandfather” of transmedia storytelling Henry Jenkins by emphasising the strategy as existing as more of a logic or way of thinking rather than a rigid set of rules or principles to follow. When applying this line of thinking, any object or experience, analogue, in real life or digital, can be a platform, and any platform can spark or allow co-creation. Furthermore, existing transmedia branding scholarship reveals its application across most product categories to achieve an array of brand communication goals. Chapter 2 also examines the challenges other authors believe limit the practice of transmedia branding and identifies a series of research gaps that this book, with its practitioner-focused approach, seeks to address.

Chapter 3---The Creative Logic of Transmedia Storytelling Borrowing from the maxim that marketing sits at the intersection of art and science, Chapter 3 considers the transmedia brand storytelling model in terms of its creative and strategic principles. It begins by considering emerging approaches to understanding the concept of “the brand” in the digital media era to foreground the perspective that progressive contemporary brands exist in a more fluid and less “top-down” controlled state. In terms of messaging approaches, we trace the efficacy of emotion in the storytelling process as identified in existing research to, in turn, highlight the importance of empathy as a crucial means of fostering ongoing audience relationships. From this point, we analyse scholarship on how brand narratives are created and extended into expansive brand storytelling across platforms to identify the dominant perspectives. As co-creation is a foundational aspect of transmedia brand storytelling, we introduce valuable aligned literature, including Gauntlett’s (2018) “everyday creativity” and underscore the relevance of the “experience economy” construct

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(Pine & Gilmore, 2019). From this point, strategies discussed in the literature for planning and disseminating content in transmedia storytelling are analysed, with topics including fan communities and gamification. This chapter elucidates that transmedia branding emerges as a series of theoretical threads instead of one overarching or holistic model. It also highlights the value of drawing in aligned models to accommodate a greater understanding of its evolving form.

Section 2---Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory in Practice With a solid theoretical foundation of transmedia branding developed in Section 1, the authors guide the reader through to the next stage of the journey by exploring how (and if) these theoretical concepts are present and implemented in a real world context by practitioners. Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 use a comparative analysis to contrast the transmedia branding theoretical framework and concepts identified in the literature to their findings from 256 completed surveys and 21 interviews with practitioners who have been responsible for developing and implementing some of the world’s best known transmedia storytelling and immersive brand communication projects. The analysis and contrast of primary research data from practitioners with existing transmedia branding literature provide the reader with insight into the ways in which theory can underpin contemporary industry practice and when it may not be at all present. As the following chapter descriptions in this section will depict, Section 2 focuses on the identification of theory in practice relating to fundamental components of transmedia brand storytelling campaigns: the creation and expansion of storyworlds, immersive brand experiences, the audience’s journey and methods used to evaluate the performance of immersive transmedia branding campaigns. The aim of this section is to deepen the reader’s knowledge from this analysis of transmedia branding theory in practice.

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Chapter 4---Practitioner Perceptions of Transmedia Storytelling Chapter 4 begins our analysis of practitioner perceptions and experiences of transmedia brand storytelling. Our analysis of survey and interviews data allows us to understand the terms used (and the extent thereof) in everyday practice. Next, the chapter identifies reasons why social storytelling across platforms has emerged as a core practice and the benefits of the strategy. Our consideration of the “why” of transmedia storytelling highlights the central goal of achieving an emotional connection with audiences. At the same time, our findings reveal how brand storytellers achieve this outcome using a series of distinctive practices. Prime amongst these is the imperative for audiences to participate actively—to create something of value—within a brand’s storyworld and, as a result, move away from more transactional approaches to brand communication. As such, it reveals how transmedia brand storytelling has evolved from integrated marketing communication and previous brand storytelling models. The chapter ends by documenting the new knowledge drawn from our research and identifying relationships between practice and established transmedia branding models (du Plessis, 2019; Granitz & Forman, 2015; Scolari, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015).

Chapter 5---Planning and Creating Transmedia Storytelling Projects This chapter reveals that a confluence of factors shapes practitioners’ development of surprising and unexpected narratives and storyworld content. These include resolutely focusing on the audience, illustrating brand values and “leaning into culture”. Our analysis of how practitioners plan includes presenting findings on whether some product categories are more suited to others and insights into how platforms are selected. During our interviews, we asked practitioners to describe an impactful transmedia storytelling project they admired. Our analysis of their “case studies” proved fruitful as a means of noting industry perceptions of “good work” that, through their groundbreaking novelty, shape future campaigns. Finally, our consideration of findings through the lens of existing theory helps us to identify novel aspects of social storytelling practice that are as well as established narrative constructs that may assist

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practitioners when implementing social storytelling approaches (Booker, 2004; Campbell, 2008; Freytag, 1997 [1863]; Sachs, 2012).

Chapter 6---Audience Participation and “Learning” Transmedia Storytelling Participation is a critical distinguishing trait of transmedia brand storytelling. Accordingly, Chapter 6 concentrates on how practitioners motivate audiences to engage in a cohesive brand narrative told across platforms. It would surprise few involved in the study or practice of brand communication that this is a challenging and even fraught task. Nevertheless, our analysis reveals a series of perspectives and tactical approaches that interviewees have successfully applied. A “golden thread” that runs the participatory tactics is the imperative of giving audiences something “of value” to do. This sentiment conceptually links to Gauntlett’s (2018) “everyday creativity” perspective on attaining joy through traditional and emerging notions of craft. We feel this concept, and a focus on simple yet creative co-creation prompts serve as a means of guiding practice and research on participatory brand communication. To further respond to the field’s research gaps, this chapter presents findings on how practitioners learned how to plan and create this emerging form of brand communication and if they apply any formal theories in practice. And lastly, the chapter considers what interviewees wished they knew at the start of their journeys as brand storytellers to draw out key themes on the triumphs and challenges of those who make these campaigns.

Chapter 7---Evaluating Transmedia Storytelling Experiences Chapter 7 presents and critiques a range of approaches to the transmedia brand storytelling campaign evaluation identified within the literature. The chapter begins by providing readers with a detailed explanation of the complex nature of transmedia brand storytelling campaign evaluation that extends much further than traditional campaign goal and objective performance measurement and the collection and analysis of platform vanity metrics. Accurate evaluation of transmedia branding and immersive audience experiences requires careful monitoring of the audience

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journey across platforms and recording of co-creation and prosumer activities. Techniques to track the effectiveness of audience cross-platform movements proposed in the literature such as the Toggle Switch Model and various Audience Engagement Models are deconstructed in this chapter to provide readers with a clear comprehension of the challenges that can arise when evaluating transmedia branding campaigns and immersive audience experiences and the theoretical solutions posed to address them (Goico, 2014; Pratten, 2015). With the theoretical approaches to transmedia branding evaluation articulated, the chapter then compares them with the findings from the practitioner surveys and interview findings. Creative practitioners share their experiences and their preferred techniques to accurately measure the performance of transmedia branding campaigns and immersive audience experiences to determine if real world, industry practice aligns with the theoretical evaluation frameworks proposed in the literature. The purpose of Chapter 7 is to identify similarities and discrepancies between theoretical evaluation methods and contemporary industry practice.

Section 3---Transmedia Brand Storytelling Campaign Case Analyses The final section of this book, Section Three further develops the reader’s understanding of transmedia branding theory in practice by applying the findings presented in the previous two sections in the exploration of four case study analyses of immersive transmedia branding campaigns. The authors selected campaigns from a range of countries and industry sectors to provide readers with a diverse perspective of the range of high quality transmedia brand storytelling campaigns on offer. The countries represented in our case study analyses include Australia, Canada, India and the United States, and the Nonprofit, Tourism, Film and Travel Services industry sectors are also featured. Previous case studies have largely focused on specific countries such as the United States and industry sectors such as Entertainment. While these also feature in our analyses, we have provided a much more comprehensive view of the amazing work being undertaken around the world and in industries not traditionally associated with transmedia brand storytelling. The aim of Section Three is to deepen the reader’s knowledge through the identification of the theories, concepts and practices explored in Section 1 and 2 by deconstructing contemporary campaigns to analyse how these

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components function in the practical construction and implementation of storyworlds that effectively engage with audiences and encourage participation and contribution. Furthermore, through interviews with campaign creatives, the authors provide behind-the-scenes insight into the operational considerations and challenges that were required to be addressed throughout the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of their respective immersive transmedia branding campaigns, as further detailed in the following case study overviews.

Chapter 8---Case Study One: SickKids Airbnb (Canada) The first case study in this section investigates a deeply immersive branding experience developed by the children’s hospital SickKids Foundation in Toronto, Canada (SickKids Foundation, 2022). The SickKids team pledged to raise an impressive $1.3 billion dollars, one of Canada’s largest-ever fundraising goals, to completely update the infrastructure of the hospital which had not been changed since the early 90s (SickKids Foundation, 2017). Testing showed that current donors and the general public were completely unaware of the dilapidated conditions of the hospital, instead focusing only on the positive outcomes of the organisation. SickKids knew it required an innovative campaign to change current perceptions of the current infrastructure by showing rather than telling. The SickKids Foundation teamed up with agency No Fixed Address to create a cutting-edge immersive experience never seen before in the nonprofit sector to change the hearts, minds and perceptions of current and prospective donors alike about what it is really like for children and their families to be treated in the outdated surrounds on the current hospital site (No Fixed Address, 2019). To achieve this, SickKids also partnered with accommodation provider Airbnb to create a three-hour immersive experience that could be purchased on the Airbnb platform for an extremely high price. This connection with the global accommodation giant enabled SickKids to extend the reach of its campaign to global audiences. The experience was set in a cramped, bustling and noisy hospital room and high profile sports people and social media influencers were invited to stay for the entire experience and share what happened on their own profiles. This immersive branding experience generated extensive media coverage within Canada and internationally, a high volume of social media content that reached millions of newsfeeds and attracted

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an outpouring of donations resulting in SickKids meeting its target and part of the hospital being completely refurbished to better support the children and parents that it serves.

Chapter 9---Case Study Two: VFR Campaign: Wander Geelong and the Bellarine (Australia) The second case study explored in Section 3 examines an Australian tourism campaign through a Transmedia branding lens. Wander Geelong and The Bellarine is an annual campaign delivered by the regional Victorian tourism body, Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine (TGGATB) to increase local area knowledge and visitation from people living within the state of Victoria (Tourism Greater Geelong & the Bellarine, 2018). The yearly branding exercise is described by TGGATB as its “Visiting Friends and Relatives Campaign”. Campaign managers describe the main purpose of the campaign was to firstly encourage residents (predominantly families) to explore local attractions around the Geelong and The Bellarine region (Tourism Greater Geelong & the Bellarine, 2017, 2018). Next, the campaign encourages visitor participation by providing rewards for sharing their experiences while visiting the region across social media channels with the goal of attracting additional friends and family members from the visitors’ networks to explore the region too. The case study analysis presented in this chapter also compares the similarities and differences between the 2017 and 2018 campaigns where the latter also incorporated the use of a specifically designed campaign app to facilitate most online activities (Tourism Greater Geelong & the Bellarine, 2018). Secondary research of the campaign Storyworld was complemented by semi-structured interviews with the creative professionals and campaigns managers involved in its conceptual design, operational implementation and evaluation to determine how (and if) transmedia branding principles were considered throughout the campaign development process. The impact of the introduction of a campaign app in relation to participation, organisation and measurement was also explored throughout the interviews with the campaign managers along with the decision-making process for its inclusion and development. The creatives and campaign managers interviewed for this case study also share their predictions of

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how the transmedia branding of tourism may function with the evolution of digital technologies and the unpredictable landscape preventing the fairly unrestricted travel enjoyed from yesteryear.

Chapter 10---Case Study Three: Sachin: A Billion Dreams (India) Chapter 10 adopts a similar case study research approach as the previous chapter to investigate the transmedia branding campaign for the highly successful Bollywood movie, Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017). The movie shares the story of legendary cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar’s journey from a small boy to living his dreams and becoming Indian cricketing royalty. With cricket a hugely popular pastime in India, according to Raj (2018), the Indian Government reported the country is home to more than 54 million cricketers and the potential interest in this movie from a vast audience size called for a highly immersive transmedia experience to capture attention in the lead up to its release and long afterwards. Indian digital agency, EveryMedia, led the creative campaign to promote Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017) and described their approach, “…was to not just create (and) connect, but to revive the nostalgia and remind the fans as to what made them fall in love with this living legend, the Master Blaster” (EveryMedia, 2018). The case study explored in Chapter 10 is based on the analysis of interviews with the campaign creatives and managers, who led the promotional campaign that supported the success of this Indian cricketing film epic, and the examination of campaign content from the immersive storyworld that attracted, captivated and engaged with the movie’s audience. This case study also provides an in-depth analysis of the campaign development stages, its implementation process and the methods used to monitor and evaluate the campaign’s success, particularly in relation to audience engagement across platforms. EveryMedia (2018) summed up one of the fundamental reasons for its success with the Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017) campaign, “…we ensured that the film should reach the maximum number of viewers and create a history just like the living legend it is based on”. Chapter 10 is dedicated to deconstructing the specific elements of this campaign and sharing the rationale for the approach of each component through the stories of the people who created it.

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Chapter 11---Case Study Four: Airbnb Wall and Chain (United States of America) The final case study explored in this text focuses on a transmedia brand storytelling campaign for global accommodation travel brand, Airbnb (Airbnb, 2022). The campaign launched soon after its rebranding in 2014 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (Psyop.com, 2019). The campaign aimed to increase brand awareness by deepening the audience’s understanding of and relationship with Airbnb to showcase its brand mission with a large focus on the European market. The campaign told the true story of a daughter taking her father back to visit Berlin and staying in an Airbnb property. Her father was once a guard on the west side of the wall. Once arriving at their Airbnb accommodation they were welcomed by their host who was once a guard on the east side of the wall at the same time as her father worked on the west side. Once enemies they were now together as Airbnb host and guest. This beautiful true story was brought to life through a range of platforms including offline events, social media, video and traditional media coverage. The creatives behind the campaign, while based in the United States, worked closely with German practitioners to ensure the campaign was an accurate representation of the story that respectfully paid homage to its cultural heritage. The practitioners behind the campaign included the Airbnb creative team, Psyops Illustration Studio and advertising agency, VCCP Berlin (Psyop.com, 2019). The campaign was hugely successful, beating its engagement, efficiency and consumer satisfaction targets and generating worldwide media coverage. The Wall and Chain campaign was the perfect vehicle to deliver Airbnb’s core brand mission to create a world where all people can belong anywhere. This story perfectly represents the power of opening your home, exploring the world through local people, places and experiences.

Chapter 12---The Future of Transmedia Brand Storytelling and a Model for Practice The final chapter focuses on the future of transmedia brand storytelling by first exploring past predictions from the literature, and comparing those with our findings from the practitioner interviews in this study. The authors then make our own predictions based on our analyses and their possible impact for scholars, practitioners and brands. A common

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theme throughout the book has been the uncertain nature of our post-COVID world. This chapter explores this dynamic and predicts strategies to support the navigation of this unpredictable environment while still delivering highly immersive transmedia branding experiences for audiences. This chapter concludes with the presentation of a transmedia brand storytelling Model for Practice, a culmination of the research and analysis undertaken throughout the book and a representation of the practical application of theory to practice. The main aim of this “end-to-end” model is to provide scholars and practitioners with a methodology to underpin the creation of a transmedia branding project that has evolved from the comparative analysis of theoretical concepts and primary research undertaken with creatives and campaign managers. This model for practice can be used by industry practitioners to underpin and guide the development, implementation and evaluation of immersive transmedia branding campaigns. A comprehensive description is provided for each component of the model along with examples from the data analysis to demonstrate how each can be practically applied.

Epilogue We conclude this book by recapping the core themes, theories and concepts explored throughout our research journey. The epilogue is circular in its approach by highlighting the main objectives of the book presented in its first section and providing a summarised account of the findings. This final sign off will highlight the key results discovered through the comparative analysis of transmedia storytelling theory and how it relates to the lived experiences of campaign managers and creatives in their design and implementation of immersive brand experiences. The main discussion draws on the fundamental points from each chapter to incorporate the key research findings from our surveys and interviews with practitioners and our case study analyses in contrast with the theoretical discussions explored in the book to present a further synthesised definition of the nature of transmedia brand storytelling in theory and practice. The overall purpose of the epilogue is to revisit the research journey undertaken throughout the book and use it to provide readers with

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actionable recommendations for transmedia branding campaign development and an applicable methodological framework to help support their implementation. We hope you enjoy the journey this book takes you on and the many insights into the industry practices applied by global brand storytellers who are continually finding unexpected and inspirational ways of bringing transformational brand narratives to life across platforms, old and new.

References Airbnb. (2022). Airbnb. https://www.airbnb.com Bucker, B., & Rutledge, P. (2011). Transmedia storytelling for marketing and branding: It’s not entertainment, it’s survival. Internet Marketing Association. http://www.kcommhtml.com/ima/2011_03/transmedia_storytelling.pdf Booker, C. (2004). The seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. A&C Black. Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces (Vol. 17). New World Library. Dena, C. (2009). Transmedia practice: Theorising the practice of expressing a fictional world across distinct media and environments [Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney]. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christy-Dena-2/pub lication/256600225_Transmedia_Practice_Theorising_the_Practice_of_Exp ressing_a_Fictional_World_across_Distinct_Media_and_Environments/links/ 587aedf208ae4445c0630c74/Transmedia-Practice-Theorising-the-Practiceof-Expressing-a-Fictional-World-across-Distinct-Media-and-Environments.pdf du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192. EveryMedia. (2018). Sachin: A billion dreams. http://139.59.88.3/everym edia/casestudies/sachin-billion-dreams/ Freeman, M. (2019). Transmedia historiography as educational practice: Narrativising Colombian cultural memory. The International Journal of Creative Media Research, 1. Freytag, G. (1997). Die Technik des Dramas. In H. Garland & M. Garland (Eds.), The oxford companion to German literature (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Gambarato, R. R., & Dabagian, L. (2016). Transmedia dynamics in education: The case of Robot Heart Stories. Educational Media International, 53(4), 229–243. Gauntlett, D. (2018). Making is connecting: The social power of creativity, from craft and knitting to digital everything. John Wiley & Sons.

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Giovagnoli, M. (2018). Transmedia branding and marketing: Concepts and practices. In R. R. Gambarato & M. Freeman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 251–259). Routledge. Goico, N. (2014). How to measure transmedia experiences. Conducttr. https:// blog.conducttr.com/how-to-measure-transmedia-experiences Granitz, N., & Forman, H. (2015). Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22, 38–59. Jenkins, H. (2010). Transmedia storytelling and entertainment: An annotated syllabus. Continuum, 24(6), 943–958. Jenkins, H. (2014). 11. The reign of the “mothership”: Transmedia’s past, present, and possible futures. In D. Mann (Ed.), Wired TV (pp. 244–268). Rutgers University Press. No Fixed Address. (2019). Sickkids Airbnb. https://nofixedaddressinc.com/ case-studies/sickkids-airbnb Panagiotakopoulos, D., Mountzouri, A., Christodoulou, M., Papapostolou, A., & Metzitakos, R. (2021, March). Intelligent ticket and its interaction with transmedia content in the COVID-19 smart tourism era. In A. Kavoura, Havovic S. J., & N. Totskya (Eds.), Strategic innovative marketing and tourism in the COVID-19 era: 9th ICSIMAT conference 2020 (pp. 19–28). Springer International Publishing. Pine II, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2019). The experience economy, with a new preface by the authors: Competing for customer time, attention, and money. Harvard Business Press. Pratten, R. (2015). Getting started in transmedia storytelling: A practical guide for beginners. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Psyop. (2019). Work: Airbnb wall and chain. https://www.psyop.com/work/ wall-and-chain/ Raj, A. (2018). Read how Indian Cricketers are ruling the nation, chase your sport. https://www.chaseyoursport.com/Cricket/How-Indian-Cri cketers-are-ruling-the-nation/87 Sachs, J. (2012). Winning the story wars: Why those who tell (and live) the best stories will rule the future. Harvard Business Press. Scolari, C. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3(21). Scolari, A. C. (2018). Transmedia branding: Brands, narrative worlds, and the McWhopper peace agreement. Semiotica, 2018(224), 1–17. Scolari, C. (2019). Transmedia is dead. Long live transmedia! (or life, passion and the decline of a concept). LIS Letra. Imagen. Sonido. Ciudad Mediatizada, 20, 69–92.

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SickKids Foundation. (2017). SickKids launches $1.3 billion fundraising campaign to build a new hospital. https://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/abo utus/newsandmedia/news2017octsickkidscampaignbuildnewhospital SickKids Foundation. (2022). SickKids foundation. https://www.sickkidsfoundat ion.com/ Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press. Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine. (2017). VFR Campaign: Wander Geelong and the Bellarine. https://www.tourismgeelongbellarine.com.au/vfrcampaign-wander-geelong-bellarine/ Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine. (2018). Wander Geelong and the Bellarine. https://www.wandertowin.com.au/

PART I

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory

CHAPTER 2

What is Transmedia Brand Storytelling?

Following its emergence within the entertainment industry as a means of building immersive storyworlds with multiple entry points across platforms, transmedia storytelling has repeatedly been touted as the future of brand communication. Scolari (2009, p. 590) has described the model as “one of the most widespread strategies of media corporations”, while Buckner and Rutledge (2011) identified the need for marketers to adopt transmedia approaches as a matter of “survival”. Articles published on business websites have predicted the dominance of “transmedia marketing” as a powerful iteration and “the newest frontier” of brand storytelling (Carmody, 2016; Sawhney, 2019). Other authors have discussed the construct’s ability to “expand reach, longevity, and intensity” of brand communication (Tenderich & Williams, 2015). While its benefits have been identified and its possibilities explored, has transmedia storytelling emerged as predicted? The answer requires a nuanced exploration of the history, nomenclature and varied interpretations of the approach in brand communication (Freeman, 2017). In doing so, this chapter brings together the concept’s various theoretical threads and, as such, provides a foundation for this book’s empirical exploration of how practitioners are integrating transmedia storytelling into brand communication. We also identify gaps in the existing literature to work towards

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_2

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a comprehensive picture of an evolving approach to brand communication that, in later chapters, will be explored from the perspective of those responsible for producing contemporary approaches to social storytelling.

Defining Transmedia Storytelling in Brand Communication Contexts Easily pinning down a definition for transmedia storytelling, a term used across numerous industries, is far from a straightforward undertaking. However, a starting point is that the concept is, according to Freeman (2015), not “new” but rather a product of the early twentieth century with, for example, The Wizard of Oz emerging as an immersive storyworld that unfolded across multiple and varied entertainment experiences. Transmedia storytelling is also a concept that has experienced “conceptual chaos” (Scolari, 2009) due to gaining currency as a buzzword or “catch-all” term for various emerging media production practices in the early twenty-first century. Stein (2013, p. 405) offers a similar perspective stating that the model exists in a state of “flux” and is shaped to suit the needs of different objectives, producers or contexts. Given this, there is value in considering how it emerged and its application in brand communication contexts to argue that the term’s fluidity is not a problem to be solved but a strength to be embraced. While transmedia storytelling practices have been applied since the early 1900s, Kinder (1991) is credited with coining the term “transmedia” in her intertextuality-focused research on how children engage with stories across media. The concept was further developed by Henry Jenkins (2010, p. 944), who defined transmedia storytelling as, “...a process in which 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 its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.”

Using this perspective, Jenkins (2006) sought to delineate how emerging forms of “synergistic” stories told across a selection of platforms were being constructed in the entertainment sector. In this early work, he discusses The Matrix as an apt example of transmedia storytelling due to its development of films, video games, comics and websites to form an immersive and cohesive storytelling universe. In response

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to new media technologies that enabled greater audience participation (Granitz & Forman, 2015), transmedia storytelling became a ripe area for industry practice and academic research in journalism, education, tourism, advocacy and the arts. Another adopter of transmedia storytelling is brand communication, which has further contributed to the model being “commonplace” in the creative industries (Freeman, 2015, p. 1). Product or service brands’ embrace of transmedia storytelling approaches can be viewed as an outcome of brand communicators reflecting the practices of cross-platform entertainment brands or “franchises” in their work and recognising the benefits of participatory media cultures. While Scolari (2013) has claimed advertising has been a transmedia experience since the introduction of mass media in the mid-twentieth century, contemporary interpretations of transmedia storytelling can be distinguished by the creation of a participatory brand story across multiple digital and non-digital channels. In the broadcast era, advertisers commonly communicated across platforms in “integrated” or “360-degree” campaigns; however, audiences had limited involvement in shaping the brand narrative. On the surface, adopting transmedia storytelling practices would seem an apparent response to media change; however, it is a paradigm that requires tightly held control over messaging, a mainstay of brand stewardship, to be loosened. It calls for, as Tenderich (2014) has posited, “disruptive” thinking that encourages consumers to assist in the creation of novel propagations of a brand’s story across platforms, a concept apparent in his often-quoted definition of transmedia storytelling: “...a communication process in which information about a brand is packaged into an integrated narrative which is dispersed in unique contributions across multiple media channels for the purpose of creating an interactive and engaging brand experience.” (p. 16)

Expanding on this, Tenderich (2014) underscores the centrality of participation as a brand value, the role of the audience working collectively to develop engaging content, and the importance of the notion of spreadability—borrowed from Jenkins—to allow brand messages to go “viral”. This perspective is also evident in Scolari’s (2018, p. 5) succinct definition of transmedia branding as “a brand narrative told across multiple media and platforms with the collaboration of users”. A

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definition by Buckner and Rutledge (2011) adds to these understandings by emphasising the significance of each platform telling a unique aspect of an overarching story: “Transmedia storytelling is telling a story across multiple media outlets. It’s not one story repurposed on its own. Together, these stories across platforms create a deep, rich narrative experience.”

These definitions have set the tone for an evolving field yet focus on expansive branding campaigns when the examples presented in literature—with a few notable exceptions—appear to be more standalone and immediate in focus. Given this, we feel it is salient to conceive transmedia storytelling not just as a brand (re)positioning strategy but also as a means of achieving shorter-term outcomes. This duality can be exemplified with two examples: One from British fashion house Burberry, which created Burberry World to maintain currency with younger audiences by connecting to contemporary music, digital innovation and cultural distinctiveness (Medvedev, 2015) and a second with Nike’s She Runs the Night (Sutherland et al., 2019), a shorter-term community-building campaign that responded to misconceptions about the brand amongst female runners and their concerns about running alone at night. In addition, while the term “transmedia branding” has gained traction (du Plessis, 2019; Giovagnoli, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015), we argue that omitting the word “storytelling” de-emphasises an essential element of the concept. Based on these considerations, the following definition for transmedia brand storytelling, one we feel applies to contemporary brand communication, has been developed: “Transmedia brand storytelling is a logic that can be applied as a scalable and fluid series of choices to achieve strategic brand or short-term campaign outcomes by building a storyworld that unfolds across platforms, with each unique content extension contributing to an immersive, creative and participative fiction or nonfiction experience.”

Central to our definition is the term “logic”, which reflects Jenkins’ (2010) discussion of the nature of transmedia storytelling practices across the creative industries. He argues that there is “no transmedia formula” and that instead the model is best understood as an “ongoing conversation between academic theorists and industry practitioners”. Viewing it as

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a fixed set of practices or in isolation from practice is limiting. However, discussing transmedia storytelling as a “logic” accommodates a fluidity of understanding and acknowledging that it is continually evolving. In addition, it is worth noting that many transmedia storytelling practices undertaken by brand communicators may not be framed by the producer as “transmedia storytelling” but rather using different terms, such as immersive campaigns. This condition has been identified by Tenderich and Williams (2015), who argue that practitioners apply transmedia techniques to their brands “knowingly or not”; to illustrate this point they describe how the creators of Toshiba and Intel’s groundbreaking The Beauty Inside project, which allowed the audience to “be” the main character in the story by uploading video contributions, did not seek to apply transmedia storytelling principles per se but instead sought to find innovative ways to attract the attention of younger consumers. As touched on earlier in this chapter and in a further reflection of the merit of having a less fixed explanation of the phenomenon, the above definition highlights the approach’s utility as both an all-encompassing brand and a one-off campaign strategy. This adds further clarity to the concept in brand communication contexts and reflects practice in so far as previous literature that discusses transmedia storytelling case studies focuses on standalone or shorter-term campaigns as opposed to transmedia storytelling as the guiding strategy for the brand in its entirety. That is not to say that one approach is stronger than the other, but instead that both are prevalent in contemporary practice, as further explored in Chapter 4, and that identifying this distinction allows us to create a foundation for our analysis of practitioner experiences. One of the challenges of researching transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts is the fluid interplay between using the approach in entertainment realms as opposed to product and service brand communication. Transmedia storytelling approaches are often employed to promote films or video games, while product and service brands have applied the communicative system to entertain their audiences. Cronin (2016) has identified these porous boundaries to explore various ways product and service brands can apply the strategy. These are “focus”—the avoidance of producing content for content’s sake due to concentrating efforts on a particular brand story; “stickiness”—the ability to maintain audience attention due to the avoidance of traditional product benefitdriven marketing communication strategies; “market growth”—changing opinions of a brand or attracting interest in it due to an audience’s

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engagement with a particular story; “brand advocates”—the ability of a story to encourage a stronger emotional connection and “lower cost”— unpaid User-Generated Content and a focus on just one story are identified as accommodating communication efficiencies. These points highlight clear benefits for brands, yet there is scope to view audience participation as achieving more than just an economic benefit. Giovagnoli (2018, p. 251) has argued that not all brands can successfully apply transmedia storytelling as the practice requires sprawling narrative systems built to deliver “almost unlimited stories across multiple media platforms”; he goes on to add the approach calls for “richness and complexity”, something that can be “too wide for a company’s communication strategy”. It is, of course, vital that transmedia storytelling is adequately resourced. However, there is scope in problematising this argument; to query whether storytelling across platforms is not so much an option but a necessity to connect with contemporary audiences who are likely to avoid traditional advertising approaches. Granitz and Forman (2015, p. 43) write, “brands can be complex worlds which present values that the consumer can accept or not”. However, if the brand does not deliberately shape a “story”, one will nevertheless be constructed collectively in the audience’s minds, albeit as a piecemeal set of perhaps less-than-advantageous associations. The power of story will be more fully explored in Chapter 3; however, our definition seeks to establish the idea that storytelling is scalable, that a transmedia logic can be applied in an expansive or contained fashion provided it presents a central narrative idea that responds to audience insights and offers meaningful opportunities for audience participation.

The Rise of Transmedia Storytelling for Brands A prevailing reason for the emergence of transmedia storytelling practices in brand communication is that it represents a response to changes in media consumption patterns. The challenge of message saturation arises from the rapid proliferation of new media channels and brand communication, which makes it increasingly difficult to capture and maintain audience attention and engagement. Furthermore, in the digital landscape where audiences can easily avoid advertising, the repetition of one-way brand messaging to achieve organisational objectives that characterised the broadcast era has become less effective. Audiences are no

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longer “captive” and reachable in large numbers through a few channels. Instead, they are fragmented and often simultaneously move their attention across platforms in ways that do not accommodate traditional advertising models. Transmedia storytelling presents an opportunity to create a rich ecosystem of audience-focused experiences and, as a result, move away from product or service-focused messaging that can struggle to achieve attention in the cluttered media environment. It can also be considered part of a renewed emphasis on “brand”, a focus that had shrunk as advertisers became overly enamoured with the efficiency promise of performance marketing at the expense of making content with a deeper meaning for audiences. This pivot back to the brand is exemplified by Adidas, which according to industry press, recognised an over-investment in “digital and performance marketing at the expense of brand building” that saw sales-driven messaging encourage a focus on promotions and price sensitivity as the expense of audience engagement (Vizard, 2019). While just one example, this anecdote illustrates why social storytelling across platforms has achieved renewed momentum in response to the valorisation of advertising’s “math men” over “mad men” (Auletta, 2018). Underpinned by creativity, immersive brand storytelling provides an elevated logic for brands seeking to engage audiences across channels and build long-term relationships. Transmedia storytelling is supported by the emergence of “participatory culture” in which creative and culturally relevant contributions are drawn from audiences (Jenkins, 2006). Indeed, participation is commonly identified as a defining trait of transmedia storytelling as a means of allowing a brand narrative to spread across an audience (Sawhney, 2019; Tenderich, 2014). du Plessis (2019) has contributed to this line of thinking by exploring the role of the “prosumer”—the conceptualisation of audiences as both consumers and producers of media content— in transmedia storytelling approaches applied in brand communication contexts. Her analysis of toy brand Lego’s creation of its immersive storyworld highlights the promise of an audience-centric approach that allows an active engagement in an expansive brand story. Granitz and Forman (2015) have also investigated the benefits of fostering a participatory audience through transmedia storytelling in their research on self-brand connections. These connections, which occur when an audience member builds a symbiotic relationship with a brand, result from story-making that mirrors or responds to the consumer’s psychological needs. In other words, consumers want to see themselves in brand stories; it is a trigger

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that can encourage them to produce creative, emotive or instructive content that is more likely to be disseminated through their networks. As such, Granitz and Forman (2015, p. 44) argue that transmedia branding can help achieve this by amplifying the benefits of storytelling as the approach results in a more “active” audience that “interacts with more platforms”. The authors concluded that it is vital for brands to learn to allow and trust audiences to communicate a brand story, a development, as mentioned previously, that is a shift from traditional brand communication that commonly seeks tight control over messaging and brand assets. Doing so is not just a conceptual leap for marketers with regard to relinquishing elements of control but requires a continual return to the notion of what makes a powerful story. It is not a particularly easy goal, but according to Tenderich and Williams (2015), a solid starting point is to focus on why the audience should “care” enough about the brand narrative to contribute to its expansion. In addition, Giovagnoli (2018) argues that the concept of “participative consumers” is not a homogeneous one. To explain this, Kozinetz’s (1999) categorisation of audiences into four distinct groups—tourists, minglers, insiders, and devotees—has been discussed, based on varying levels of interaction and proactivity. An idea that runs through this book is the prominence of emotive appeals as a basis for storytelling. An expansive body of research (see Woodside, 2010) tells us that stories are potent forms of communication as they are more likely to be persuasive and remembered. But good stories are not just remembered; they are retold in ways capable of perpetuating the brand narrative and expanding its storyworld. Granitz and Forman (2015) have argued that transmedia thinking magnifies the potential of brand stories because it offers more entry points across different platforms for audiences to engage with an overarching narrative. Coombs and Harker (2021, p. 122) have aligned narrative transportation theory with transmedia storytelling principles to map out narrative techniques in strategic communication contexts. This theory considers the power of stories to remove audiences from reality by achieving a shared meaning of evocative imagery and empathic cues, an outcome capable of shaping the receivers’ emotive and cognitive responses. The brand must first determine a specific emotional attachment to achieve the “spreadability” that Tenderich and Williams (2015) have argued is vital to successful transmedia storytelling projects. Once this is known, the transformation that occurs within the story can be established. Sachs (2012) suggests that a key starting point in brand storytelling is to identify and leverage the

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brand’s values to connect with audiences who share a similar worldview, and to use this as a guide for narrative development. The outcome of this process is both simple and powerful, as it enables the brand to embody a relatable and “human essence” (Costa-Sánchez, 2014) that resonates with target audiences. The use of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs has also been incorporated in transmedia storytelling literature, as Hayes (2011) suggests that self-actualisation can be achieved when audiences are given the power to create original and challenging content for an existing narrative. The narrative theory that underpins the logic of transmedia storytelling will be examined in more detail in Chapter 3; however, it is critical to highlight early in this book the scholarly and industry interest in the emotive aspects of narrative approaches that support transmedia storytelling in contemporary practice. Considering the objectives that transmedia storytelling can achieve also helps to reveal why the approach has gained currency. Granitz and Forman (2015, p. 44) list the outcomes of transmedia storytelling as “awareness, involvement, participation, creating empathy, conveying brand meaning”. Recall—a vital goal in the cluttered media landscape— has been discussed as an outcome of transmedia storytelling, with Buckner and Rutledge (2011) positing, “people remember messages in stories far longer and with greater accuracy than any other form of communication.” A common theme across the field’s scholarly and popular business literature is that transmedia storytelling can help to achieve market growth or open new markets (Buckner & Rutledge, 2011; Cronin, 2016; Tenderich & Williams, 2015). Giovagnoli (2011) has identified the model’s utility as a means of repositioning a brand, using BMW’s The Hire transmedia storytelling campaign as an example. Tenderich and Williams (2015) have discussed how Old Spice’s iconic The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign was developed to shift brand associations to appeal to younger audiences. While brand repositioning is a common strategic imperative of brands that apply transmedia storytelling, there is scope to highlight its ability to perpetuate a sense of active loyalty amongst target audiences. Indeed, Scolari (2018, p. 3) discusses the capacity of transmedia storytelling to build “very loyal niches of consumers around a narrative”. The nature of transmedia storytelling means that as audiences proactively find out more, they continue to go back to the narrative to engage with further stories, and in doing so the brand (the story facilitator) becomes engrained in their everyday lives.

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The Shape of Transmedia Storytelling The sprawling semantic nature of transmedia storytelling is reflected by authors who discuss its design and implementation. To progress this book’s crafting of a model of practice based on contemporary empirical research, a series of transmedia branding processes will be explored to look for themes and opportunities for new perspectives. Tenderich and Williams (2015) write that transmedia branding possesses four design elements: “brands”, the sum of perceptions by audiences and the meanings they evoke; “narratives”, storylines with protagonists that drive a series of brand-related events; “participation”, the encouragement of audience-produced content across various platforms and to varying degrees and “media channels”, as categorised in the PESO (paid, earned, shared, owned) model. “Expansion” is commonly referred to as a distinctive feature of transmedia branding that represents a departure from integrated marketing communication approaches that focus on amplification through message repetition. Further, the authors explain that a fundamental aspect of transmedia branding is that “[t]he longevity of a message is extended when it is split into self-sustainable outlier stories or subplots and pushed across multiple platforms” (Tenderich & Williams, 2015). When delineating methods that initiate transmedia storytelling, the authors highlight a fork in the road at the start of a project, the brand’s need to either create a story or connect itself to an existing one. Overall, the elements described provide a clear basis for telling a brand story across platforms. Yet, there is scope for further insight into how the strategy is applied in practice and how narratives encourage a sense of transformation for the audience as they explore a brand storyworld. In a process model that centres more on audience story-making, du Plessis (2019, p. 184) has developed a four-level prosumer framework for transmedia branding. These are “Creative guidance to explore a new world”, “interactive innovation by creative support for storylines”, “maintaining prosumer involvement with storyline extension” and “amplifying prosumer co-creation experiences”. As the framework centres on prosumer engagement, how brand communicators establish the storyworld and foundational narratives is less apparent in this model. However, du Plessis (2019, p. 179) does identify the advantages of an anchor story within a storyworld, “which is expanded through backstories and places that consumers can explore”. With reference to Pratten (2011), she also

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identifies the possibilities of an “open storyworld”, the creation of a nonlinear narrative featuring a vast number of secondary characters that hover above a more traditional linear story. Ultimately, du Plessis’ analysis of Lego’s transmedia branding highlights an instructive prosumer engagement strategy for brands, such as toy makers, that very naturally lend themselves to co-creation. Granitz and Forman (2015) provide a valuable contribution to the scholarship by categorising the types of stories audiences want to explore. While not presenting a holistic structure for transmedia branding, their research provides valuable insight into the interconnected types of stories different audiences want to experience. For example, when the consumer has a self-brand connection, brand communicators are encouraged to start with experiential stories, such as how the brand “gives back” or anecdotes about other consumers; stage two sees a mixture of experiential and utilitarian stories being developed, such stories about product differentiation and founder narratives; and stage three sees the encouragement of “self-created stories” in which audiences are encouraged to contribute personal perspectives that align to what has come before. The framework also raises the possibility of segmenting audiences based on the types of stories desired or media consumed. As such, Granitz and Forman’s (2015) analysis suggests multiple storytelling pathways, but importantly, based on their empirical research, they underscore the importance of using knowledge of the type of stories that audiences want to experience as the starting point for transmedia storytelling development. While the creative process is not covered in their article, the authors allude to the potential of stories gathered from research to act as a prompt for storytelling creative, an approach that has been discussed with regard to Nike’s She Runs the Night campaign (Sutherland et al., 2019) where stories about women’s concerns of being solo night runners were creatively translated into compelling content that triggered conversation and created a sense of community amongst the target audience. Scolari (2018) has presented semio-narratological categories to analyse and design transmedia branding experiences with an emphasis on narrative construction and reception. His analysis starts by emphasising the importance of world-building, a concept often passed over by brand communication scholars who have explored the field. Scolari’s analytical framework employs semiotics to trace how narratives are discursively constructed around brand values to establish “instructions” that guide

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audience sense-making of transmedia storytelling content. This semionarratological analysis is presented as predominantly allowing analysis of brand strategies but is also suggested as being useful as a means of guiding the design of brand storytelling approaches. Using this perspective, Scolari’s research incorporates a case study of Burger King’s McWhopper campaign from Aotearoa, New Zealand to highlight the notion of establishing a “complicity contract” with an audience to respond effectively to the contemporary media landscape in which advertising often ironically presents itself in ways that allow audiences to be “in on the joke”. According to Scolari (2018), storyworld building is a valuable construct for brand communicators, as it provides a framework for developing consistent, relevant and distinctive experiences for audiences. Giovagnoli’s (2018) contribution to the existing transmedia storytelling literature considers cross-cultural communication to discuss how brands can avoid “issues with cultural compatibility” when content is developed for different geographic regions. A framework for achieving this has been conceived as a “deodorizing” process, which refers to a set of four principles: “camouflaging” or “censoring” sensitive elements of a transmedia work; “combination” refers to the introduction of relevant cultural traditions to an existing storyworld and a “new reading” or “explicit violation” that seeks to reframe the brand in a new context to achieve a novel effect. Furthermore, Giovagnoli (2018) proposes a “system” for identifying the behaviours of “participative consumers”, with a focus on identifying engagement techniques that can be effective across different territories. These three systems are identified as firstly, various narrative layers that appeal to different “communicative registers and experiential opportunities”; secondly, the involvement of highly engaged audience members group who the brand can communicate with as a “sounding board” and thirdly, story characters that the audience can see themselves in and guide them through the story. Further, Giovagnoli’s (2018, p. 256) exploration of how transmedia projects navigate cultural differences incorporates a discussion of gamification, which is seen as emerging in the two core activities of the audience reinterpreting “the activity, the role, and the image of the company through games” or experiences that transpire as team challenges, events and quests. CostaSánchez (2014) has also explored the role of gamification in transmedia storytelling in corporate communication and emphasised its ability to reach new audiences and build brand loyalty; however, in an important

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observation, she notes that this can only be achieved with the development of ludic gamification approaches that foster spontaneity and playfulness. Existing literature on the topic tends to explore transmedia storytelling through various theoretical lenses; however, a key theme that emerges from reviewing this scholarship is the importance of building and maintaining an active and loyal audience. How the audience moves through a transmedia storytelling campaign, i.e. the audience journey, is briefly mentioned in some research, most notably du Plessis (2019). Still, there is scope to incorporate perspectives that trace the consumption of content that lays the groundwork for audience participation. One way to achieve this, explored in future chapters, is to focus on how the narrative illustrates an emotional transformation. Although transmedia storytelling originated in the entertainment industry, little research has explored how this background influences its application in brand communication, except for Matteo and Zotto (2015), who argue that as media content producers have transformed into brands, brands are also adapting to resemble media companies. Exploration of this perspective could consider whether particular brand categories lend themselves to transmedia storytelling approaches more than others and why. It is also worth noting that while covered briefly in some industry literature, the evaluation of transmedia storytelling in brand contexts has, to date, received limited attention from researchers. In sum, what is further lacking from existing research is a theory–practice nexus approach—an aim of this book—that seeks to interpret transmedia storytelling models through the experiences of brand communicators. The need for this perspective is reflected by Jenkins (2011), who explains that transmedia storytelling refers to a “set of choices about the best approach to tell a particular story to a particular audience in a particular context depending on the resources available to particular producers”.

The Challenges of Transmedia Storytelling for Brands While it has been noted that previous literature has yet to substantively analyse practitioner experiences, researchers have approximated the challenges of producing transmedia storytelling campaigns in their case study or content analysis research. One challenge, according to Cronin (2016, p. 91), is that the term transmedia storytelling has been applied

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very loosely by marketers, who, he writes, “[do] not fully understand it, have equated it to multimedia communication, content marketing, IMC, multiplatform communication and probably other terms”. Giovagnoli (2011) echoes this concern in his observation that the terms “transmedia” and “cross-media” are often used interchangeably; this is stated as being problematic as where transmedia seeks to expand stories, cross-media is the practice of repeating the same content across different channels, a traditional redundancy approach aimed at achieving recall as opposed to participation. Coombs and Harker (2021) write that transmedia storytelling faces stumbling blocks in practice as a result of being considered largely as a series of tactics instead of integrating the theory required to achieve effective strategic outcomes. The argument that brand communicators conflate transmedia storytelling with other strategies or use its principles intuitively will be explored later to situate the value of this book’s theory meets practice focus. As mentioned above, the application of transmedia storytelling strategies calls for a shift in practice that is not just audience-focused but centred around knowledge of participatory cultures. Transmedia storytelling can only be successful if audience members are trusted and empowered to tell their brand stories (Grantiz & Forman, 2015, p. 55). Integrated marketing communication has focused on strict messaging control across specialisms; as such, handing over the reins represents a challenge to established thinking and requires marketers to embrace an element of risk. However, concerns can be overcome by understanding that transmedia storytelling presents a different form of continuity, a narrative cohesion driven by emotive responses from contemporary audiences who are unlikely to engage with traditional, less sophisticated broadcast communication models. And in a theme that runs throughout this book, transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts can only be successful if creativity—within the parameters of knowing how the audience experiences narrative transformation—is a guiding force. For du Plessis (2019), a significant challenge for successful transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts is that “brands might struggle to create and sustain transmedia story” due to the difficulty of developing “eventful” stories. And in his warning that transmedia storytelling is not within the grasp of all brands, Giovagnoli (2018) highlights the resource-intensive process of manifesting the “expansive narrative engines” that propagate rich and complex narratives across a growing array of media platforms. Indeed, the approach does require complexity

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and investment; however, in response to how audiences engage with contemporary media, all brands need to reveal multidimensional and surprising elements to achieve emotional engagement. In other words, is it possible for one-dimensional brands that don’t seek to achieve participation in some form to continue to exist in this era of brand communication? It is also worth noting that while emotive engagement can be positive, it can also result in negative responses, as noted by CostaSánchez (2014). This is a given of the contemporary media environment, an outcome to be preempted and planned for, one that calls for agility and flexibility in response to adverse experiences. This dialogue is not something to be trepidatious about but instead can be reframed as a hallmark of authenticity.

Conclusion This chapter has presented an updated perspective on transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts by developing a definition that identifies a more fluid logic rather than a fixed set of principles; however, at the same time, our understanding seeks to add clarity to existing research on the topic by highlighting that a transmedia brand storytelling approach can be translated to both holistic brand and standalone campaign approaches. This, in turn, provides a foundation for examining practitioner descriptions of their perceptions of transmedia storytelling and their processes, whether applied implicitly or based on specific knowledges. Specifically, it allows us to explore whether the approach is within reach of brands in particular categories and beyond others. In this chapter, we have examined various factors that have contributed to the sustained relevance of transmedia storytelling in the field of brand communication. Prime amongst these is that the construct responds to media saturation and represents an evolution of traditional marketing communication that addresses the emergence of participatory cultures that leave little room for traditional one-way promotional techniques. Yet it is worth remembering that transmedia storytelling is not a new concept; while social media has enabled powerful new forms of engagement, we still have much to learn from well-established narrative theories that guide the development of stories through an emphasis on emotional engagement. The following chapter delves into the narrative theories associated with transmedia storytelling and related literature to provide a thorough foundation for our examination of the contemporary practices discussed in Chapters 4 through 6.

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References Auletta, K. (2018, May 2018). How the math men overview the mad men. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/ how-the-math-men-overthrew-the-mad-men Bucker, B., & Rutledge, P. (2011). Transmedia storytelling for marketing and branding: it’s not entertainment, it’s survival. Internet Marketing Association. http://www.kcommhtml.com/ima/2011_03/transmedia_storytelling.pdf Carmody, B. (2016, 12 January). Transmedia marketing is the future of brand storytelling. Inc. www.inc.com/bill-carmody/transmedia-marketing-is-the-fut ure-of-brand-storytelling.html Coombs, W. T., & Harker, J. L. (2021). Strategic sport communication: Traditional and transmedia strategies for a global sports market. Routledge. Costa-Sánchez, C. (2014). Transmedia storytelling, an ally of corporate communication: #Dropped by Heineken case study. Communication & Society, 27 (3), 127–150. Cronin, J. (2016). Teach students to communicate a brand story with transmedia storytelling. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(2), 86–101. du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192. Giovagnoli, M. (Ed.). (2011). Transmedia storytelling: Imagery, shapes and techniques. Etc Press. Kinder, M. (1991). Playing with power in movies, television, and video games: From muppet babies to teenage mutant ninja turtles. University of California Press. Kozinets, R. V. (1999). E-tribalized marketing?: The strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption. European Management Journal, 17 (3), 252–264. Hayes, G. (2011, February 11). The transmedia hierarchy of human needs. Personalize Media. https://www.personalizemedia.com/the-transmedia-hierar chy-of-needs/ Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press. Jenkins, H. (2010). Transmedia storytelling and entertainment An Annotated Syllabus. Continuum, 24(6), 943–958. Jenkins, H. (2011, July 31). Transmedia 202: Further reflections. Pop Junctions. http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html Giovagnoli, M. (2018). Transmedia branding and marketing: Concepts and practices. In R. R. Gambarato & M. Freeman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 251–259). Routledge. Granitz, N., & Forman, H. (2015). Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 38–59.

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Freeman, M. (2015). Up, up and across: Superman, the Second World War and the historical development of transmedia storytelling. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 35(2), 215–239. Freeman, M. (2017). Historicising transmedia storytelling: Early twentiethcentury transmedia story worlds. Routledge. Matteo, S., & Zotto, C. D. (2015). Native advertising, or how to stretch editorial to sponsored content within a transmedia branding era. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, & S. M. Chan-Olmsted (Eds.), Handbook of media branding (pp. 169–185). Springer. Medvedev, S. A. (2015). Il branding transmediale nella moda: il caso Burberry. ZoneModa Journal issue 5—Fashion Convergence, 74–81 Pratten, R. (2011). Getting started with transmedia storytelling. CreateSpace. Sachs, J. (2012). Winning the story wars: Why those who tell (and live) the best stories will rule the future. Harvard Business Press. Sawhney, M. S. (2019, April 5). What you need to know about the newest frontier of brand storytelling. Kellogg Insight. https://insight.kellogg.northw estern.edu/article/newest-frontier-transmedia-storytelling Scolari, C. A. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3, 586–606. Scolari, C. A. (2013). Lostology: Transmedia storytelling and expansion/ compression strategies. Semiotica, 2013(195), 45–68. Scolari, A. C. (2018). Transmedia branding: Brands, narrative worlds, and the McWhopper peace agreement. Semiotica, 2018(224), 1–17. Stein, L. E. (2013). #Bowdown to your new god: Misha collins and decentered authorship in the digital age. In J. Gray & D. Johnson (Eds.), A companion to media authorship (pp. 403–425). John Wiley & Sons. Sutherland, K., Khattab, U., & Ali, S. (2019). Public relations and strategic Communication. Oxford University Press. Tenderich, B. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press. Woodside, A. G. (2010). Brand-consumer storytelling theory and research. Psychology & Marketing, 27 (6), 531–540. Vizard. S. (2019, October 17). We over-invested in digital advertising. Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/adidas-marketing-effectiveness/

CHAPTER 3

The Creative Logic of Transmedia Brand Storytelling

When applied in brand communication, transmedia storytelling exists as a model that sits at the intersection of art and science. It must embrace creativity to develop immersive content that draws from the concept’s lineage in entertainment industries while also adhering to branding principles to achieve organisational goals. This chapter starts by exploring the concept of “brand” in the digital era and, as a result, highlights the evolving nature of this term. It then considers the focus on emotion that emerges in the literature on brand storytelling; this provides a foundation for tracing perspectives on how transmedia storytelling campaigns are conceived and structured. From this point, we examine the complexities inherent in creating and implementing a transmedia storytelling project, as revealed in existing research. This chapter essentially reveals how a comprehensive picture of transmedia storytelling requires threads from various literatures to be woven together. Gaps in the literature on transmedia branding are also identified to help us model a cohesive framework that can be applied in practice.

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From “Shackled” to “Living”---Brands in the Digital Era Transmedia storytelling methods in brand communication predominantly focus on brand building. Yet, existing literature in this field does not seek to precisely situate what the term “brand” means in the digital era. This oversight may well reflect the term’s broad application across business and social spheres and the vast body of extant literature from functionalist and cultural perspectives. While pinning down a universal meaning for the term is difficult, one approach, as conceived by Kornberger (2011, p. 13), is the equation of “functionality + meaning = brand”. As has often been pointed out, a brand is not solely what the organisation wants it to be but rather what the audience perceives. It relies on “interpretation and sensemaking by both insiders and outsiders” (Kornberger, 2011, p. 15). This perspective highlights that brands have never exerted complete control over their meaning; however, in the broadcast era, they could rely on limited communication channels and, as such, brand managers aimed to disseminate one unassailable and singular brand meaning. With the proliferation of media channels and the ability of audiences to block or avoid brand communication, this “shackled” approach has become less relevant. When theorising on the changing nature of the concept, Kornberger (2011) identifies the emergence of “living brands” that accommodate semantic richness and multiple narratives. While his work does not explicitly refer to transmedia storytelling, it aligns with observations from Jenkins (2010), which highlight that transmedia storytelling, in the context of entertainment properties, works best when there is multiplicity, and continuity is not the main goal. Scolari (2009, 2018) sees brands as “storytelling containers” and the application of transmedia approaches as allowing “heavyweight narrative brands” to manifest. Other authors focus on the importance of the co-creation of the brand through transmedia storytelling as a means of responding to contemporary consumer culture (du Plessis, 2019; Granitz & Forman, 2015; Piccialli, 2021; Coombs & Harker, 2021). For Tenderich (2014), transmedia branding approaches provide a means of repositioning brands and achieving distinctiveness through “disruptive” communication. This snapshot of understandings of “the brand” in transmedia storytelling and associated literatures suggests varying approaches. However, it is clear that transmedia storytelling facilitates the shift from a tightly controlled and hierarchical approach to brand guardianship that seeks to

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restrict rather than broaden brand associations. At a time when brands are required to be more nuanced and continually evolving, transmedia storytelling offers an unexpected and multidimensional communicative system that accommodates longer-term relationships. The immersive richness achieved through the application of transmedia storytelling will be further explored below, but before doing so, it is instructive to discuss the central role of emotion in this form of brand communication.

The Art and Science of Transmedia Storytelling Literature on transmedia branding and brand storytelling more generally highlights the central role of emotion with, for example, Giovagnoli (2011) stating that emotive and sensory experiences are decisive factors in achieving successful communicative outcomes. For Moin (2020, p. 23), it is the “main ingredient” as it “drives” audiences to engage with a brand and others at a deeper level. Larsen and Høgsberg (2009) write that narrative has manifested as the “primary tool” for achieving an emotional response at a time when audiences are likely to be more critical of the more transactional and predictable claims made by brands. Costa-Sánchez (2014) writes that building an emotional connection is commonly the first imperative of transmedia storytelling in corporate communication contexts. And in his work on transmedia storytelling for the entertainment industries, Pratten (2011, p. 2) goes so far as to define the concept around the idea of an “emotional journey that goes from moment-to-moment”, Giovagnoli (2011) extends this idea into transmedia storytelling in marketing by describing the process as the creation of emotional universes. Clearly, the transmedia branding paradigm revolves around emotional transformation, but how is this achieved? While the goal of achieving an emotional connection is not a new persuasive technique, as Moin (2020) points out, brand storytelling can encourage a more strategic response if the overarching narrative presents a moral that resonates with the audience. For brands, this resonance can equate to recall. This perspective is supported by brain researchers, with Schank (1999, p. 2) famously positing that “all human memory is storybased”. That is not to say rational responses are irrelevant, but instead that emotional responses must always pave the way for logic or reason (Giovagnoli, 2011). Or, as Moin (2020) puts it, storytelling-centric communication sees a rational message “wrapped” inside an emotional

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appeal or idea. This is a salient point, as purely emotional messaging can result in the story resonating but brand messaging being lost (Sachs, 2021, p. 35). Giovagnoli (2011) highlights the importance of scientific research, which shows that storytelling elicits responses from both the rational (cerebral neocortex) and emotional (amygdala) areas of the brain. Drawing from these perspectives, the inter-relationships between emotional and rational messaging become apparent as a key planning consideration for those seeking to develop participative social stories. While embedding a rational appeal within an emotional message is identified as a faculty of brand storytelling, there is still scope for specificity around the concept of emotion itself. Fostering a sense of authenticity has been identified as a powerful pathway for achieving an emotional response—however, the term suffers from being overly general and overused in practice to the point where it no longer has a particular meaning. This issue is addressed by brand storytelling authors who identify empathy as the emotional response most capable of connecting with audiences (du Plessis, 2019; Laer et al., 2014; Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012; Woodside et al., 2008). Empathy provides a pathway to identifying and creatively embedding common lived experiences—elements of everyday life—of audiences into a storyworld. For Tenderich and Williams (2014), this emotional connection can be summarised as “reasons for the audience to care”. Neuroscientist Paul Zak’s (2015) research on how compelling stories evoke empathy through the release of the hormone oxytocin provides a scientific perspective on the efficacy of this focus. As such, we can argue that empathy appears to be the one emotion to rule them all in the context of transmedia storytelling and is central to the goal of identifying a narrative transformation capable of triggering audience engagement.

Aligned but Distinctive: Narrative and Story While du Plessis (2019) suggests the “brand becomes the story” when applying the transmedia branding model, it is worth separating the terms “narrative” and “story” as a means of delineating core elements of practice. Narrative can be considered a broad articulation of how the brand represents a form of change that accommodates “plurality” and “semantic richness” (Piccialli, 2021). Tenderich and Williams (2014) state: “The narrative serves as the glue that holds the transmedia branding process together.” Accordingly, narrative can be considered the overarching idea

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communicated through story extensions communicated across platforms. Brand narratives do not finish or close (Dahlén et al., 2009); in contrast, the stories that emerge within a storyworld as communication tactics are more specific and offer distinctive characters, plots and resolutions, yet are still guided by the overarching narrative. Scolari (2018) sees the brand narrative as providing a storytelling container that establishes a strategic position, i.e. it is a means of differentiating a brand, but at the same time also provides a guiding framework for creativity. His transmedia branding research applies Remaury’s (2007) six brand narratives of time-based narrative, place-based narrative, statebased narrative, character-based narrative, expertise-based narrative and material-based narrative. Rather than offering rigid templates, these narratives identify constructs that audiences are—as life-long story absorbers and makers—are innately familiar with. As such, they provide practitioners with a framework to illustrate an emotional transformation across a cohesive collection of unique, exploration-encouraging stories. In a practical guide to transmedia marketing of entertainment projects, Zeiser (2015) suggests the brand archetype model as a means of identifying or establishing a brand narrative. This approach is largely drawn from Mark and Pearson’s (2001) 12 foundational brand archetypes: The Innocent, The Explorer, The Sage, The Hero, The Outlaw, The Magician, The Regular Guy/Gal, The Lover, The Jester, The Caregiver, which are based on the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung. Rutledge (2018, p. 356) argues that “archetypes function as heuristics that deliver a large amount of meaning with relatively little information and effort”. In other words, they exist as a shorthand based on shared symbolic knowledges. For Ganassali and Matysiewicz (2021), archetypes are central to brand narrative strategy as they allow audiences to weave specific brand associations into their own lives. From the practitioner perspective, MacInnis and Folkes (2017) argue that archetypes give brand communicators a character to work with at a time when audiences are increasing, albeit in a largely implicit or tacit way, seeing brands in humanistic terms or as friends. As such, archetypes both position a brand in the audience’s minds and provide a further creative impetus for establishing a central narrative that can be extended in new ways across a storyworld.

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Extending the Narrative into Unique but Connected Stories In transmedia storytelling, if the narrative is overarching and open-ended, the stories that extend its storyworld are self-contained, coming together as a mural or mosaic to reinforce brand meaning. Story development often comes down to understanding plot, which offers a sequence of events (Kühn and Boshoff, 2022). For Giovagnoli (2011, p. 57), Aristotle’s three-act structure of a “preface” (followed by a first turning point), “development” (a second turning point) and “resolution” remain a foundational means of developing content within a transmedia storyworld. Gustav Freytag’s five-structure arc or pyramid presents another narrative structure, despite not being explored in transmedia branding literature. The approach, which sees a storyline segmented into five acts that flow from developing the story, exposition, rising action, a climax, falling action and then resolution, has been explored empirically by Quesenberry and Coolsen (2019) in their research on viral advertising videos. Kühn and Boshoff (2022, p. 3) have also identified its efficacy, describing Freytag’s Pyramid as “ubiquitous and can be often found within archetypal plot structures”. The application of Freytag’s arc to longer-form video storytelling or games is readily apparent as it encourages audiences to stay interested and imagine “what’s next?” while immersed in the story. Universal storylines commonly mentioned in brand storytelling literature complement these narrative structuring mechanisms. Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey (2008) is often used in business literature on brand storytelling that is relevant to transmedia applications (Gains, 2013; Sachs, 2012) as well as in academic explorations (Costa-Sánchez, 2014; Moin, 2020). With this approach, a transformative journey occurs for the hero as they face a series of new experiences and challenges. The hero is helped by a mentor who shares wisdom as they move from an old world to a new or changed one. Authors such as Sachs (2012) and Donald (2017) stress the importance of envisioning the audience as the protagonist instead of placing the brand in the hero role. This approach is considered more immersive and effective in building a connection with audiences, as it gives the brand a supporting role as a mentor to illustrate how it enables and supports an emotional transformation. The plots employed in brand storytelling are not limited to the hero’s journey “meta-plot”, with literature also identifying the utility of Booker’s (2004) seven basic plots: voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, rebirth,

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rags to riches, the quest and overcoming the monster. These widely discussed plot approaches provide roadmaps that professional storytellers perhaps apply intuitively, yet their identification enables a more strategic and deliberate approach to story-making in brand communication contexts. In another perspective on story design from a transmedia branding perspective, Granitz and Forman’s (2015) empirical research identifies utilitarian or experiential stories that audiences gravitate towards based on their self-brand connections. While not rooted in narrative theory, this approach helps comprehend the function of short-form social media content, as these (often-video format) stories are less likely to have a complex plot structure but instead exist more as vignettes. Indeed, brand storytelling is being reshaped by evolving media-making approaches, particularly ephemeral forms of brand content that exhibit a meme sensibility rather than a traditional narrative structure. Benaim (2018) describes memes as cultural units that represent multiple social ideas and, as such, can be understood less as stories than associations or metaphors capable of progressing innovation in the cultural industries. Meme-based content is well suited to transmedia storytelling as it provides associations in the form of ideas, symbols, movements and music that the audience can quickly replicate in ways that allow easily achievable but still evocative forms of participation. This point further highlights the importance of creating an overarching storyworld narrative capable of accommodating a variety of story-making techniques. Returning to Jenkins’ notion of transmedia storytelling being a logic rather than a formula, there is little merit in developing a strict set of guidelines for extending brand content in a transmedia storyworld. However, a theme that does emerge from analysis of previous literature is the ability of narrative models to act as a roadmap for brand story design in a practical sense. And for that roadmap to offer an illustration of emotional transformation and shared experience in novel and surprising stories that add meaning to the audience’s lives.

Where Transmedia Storytelling Begins Scholarship on transmedia branding commonly analyses completed campaigns or aims to present theoretical foundations. What needs to be more apparent is how the model is applied in practice and the extent to which these theories are employed. This is a challenging task due to the multiple actors involved in developing transmedia storytelling campaigns.

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However, with this hurdle acknowledged, a starting point to tease out the relationship between theory and practice is to consider the creative process that sits behind this form of brand communication. This is an advantageous approach as it is unlikely that clients explicitly ask for a transmedia storytelling campaign but rather are pitched brand storytelling methods, albeit under various, if any, labels. A consideration of extant literature on transmedia branding suggests the starting point for practitioners is either an outcome of drawing inspiration from the brand values, the audience and broader cultural influences. Coombs and Harker (2021, p. 124) argue that values—“which comprise organizational goals, missions, and purpose”—are a foundational aspect of storyworld development. These touchstones become the “boundaries” for what “can and cannot” be integrated into a storyworld and act as an overarching guide, a source of inspiration and a starting point for creative practice. In her work on brand storytelling, Moin (2020, p. 29) explains that “marketers use brand stories to create and communicate brand meaning and brand values to those consumers who love to share similar behavioural codes and find brand stories as a way of telling their own stories”. Further, she states that any transformation depicted in a brand story must align with a brand’s moral imperatives. For du Plessis (2019), storytelling provides a means of illustrating its values in a way the audience will be more likely to engage with, ideally to the point of being a prosumer in that brand story. In her case study on Lego’s transmedia storytelling, she identifies how participation is shaped across channels through the prism of established brand values. This perspective reflects aligned literature on brand storytelling by Sachs (2012), who advocates for moral codes to be woven into the fabric of stories. A powerful example is offered by the US restaurant chain Chipotle, whose The Scarecrow campaign presented an emotive illustration of values, i.e. ethical food sourcing (Weiss, 2013), within fictional storyworld to achieve an impact that a traditional corporate video or informational web page could struggle to achieve. A focus on the audience is another starting point for transmedia storytelling. Tenderich (2014, p. 25) argues that a powerful narrative “seeds reasons for the audience to care” and, in doing so, reflects a process commonly discussed in the context of advertising creativity that revolves around the identification of audience insights as a starting point for creative inspiration. du Plessis’ (2019) framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding adds to this by seeing the brand less as the

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teller of the story and more as a facilitator of prosumer storytelling. To gain traction with this particular model, a brand must develop an overarching narrative and storyworld extensions that trigger the audience to reshape the storytelling to varying degrees with their creativity. Our review of the literature indicates that drawing from a culture sphere is another starting point for transmedia storytelling. While many well-known brands exist as cultural icons, all brands sit within a broader cultural domain and can draw from symbolic representations and “cultural moments” to establish an overarching narrative that allows for story extensions. Tenderich and Williams’ (2015) advice to transmedia storytellers to either “create a story or join a story” is sound, but it is worth noting that both approaches require a deep engagement with existing cultural representations and dynamics. Examples drawn from literature show how brands have sought to either “piggyback” off existing entertainment franchises, such as Air New Zealand and the film The Hobbit, or reference cultural symbols or tropes, as with BMW’s The Hire campaign drawing inspiration from the James Bond storyworld (Mitchell, 2001; Tenderich & Williams, 2015). This technique has been further expanded with the development of creative collaborations between brands and artists to shape creative content with, for example, Beyonce and JayZ’s Above Love collaboration with luxury brand Tiffany & Co. (2022) providing storytelling avenues that connect to an overarching narrative of romance and sophistication (Hughes et al., 2016). Tenderich (2014, p. 26) sees culture more broadly as an impetus for transmedia branding, noting that cultural representations are always in flux. Intertextuality and its relationship to cultural dynamics are touched on by Scolari (2013) in terms of how transmedia entertainment projects are “mashed up” by participatory audiences to become part of an “expansive textual network”; however, what appears to be missing is a substantive empirical consideration of the influence of popular culture as revealed in media texts on this form of brand communication. This is perhaps a gap that has occurred due to limited studies of the production of transmedia branding. However, we can draw from advertising production studies to reassert Hackley’s (2002, p. 214) argument that brand communication “can only be effective or striking to the extent that it taps into the cultural meanings and practices of local consumption communities”. While described separately above, the creative influences of brand values, audience and culture drawn from our review of the existing literature are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they can be viewed as an

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interconnecting method of formulating a storyworld to achieve engagement, immersion and shared story-making. These sources of inspiration provide a starting point, yet less apparent in the existing literature is how they are developed into a transmedia brand project in terms of who, when and how.

Creating Transmedia Storytelling Projects To date, there has been limited specific literature or research on the nature of the holistic process of transmedia branding or campaign development. It is far from a straightforward topic to broach, as ideation is dispersed across various disciplines and individuals, and transmedia storytelling, by its very nature, requires the development of complex narratives. That said, a series of process models has been advanced to help map out this specialist form of brand communication practice. du Plessis (2019) has proposed a framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding that provides a sequential roadmap for brand storytelling that encourages audience engagement and co-creation. Its four elements include initial guidance to explore a storyworld, creative support for prosumers to be part of storylines, the identification of the importance of maintaining their involvement and lastly, the amplification of co-creation experiences. The framework serves to remind us that participation sits at the crux of transmedia storytelling and, as such, provides a broad series of milestones capable of guiding practice. du Plessis uses the model to analyse the co-creation strategies of Lego as a transmedia branding powerhouse, yet its application for brands with less play-focused relationships and capacities has yet to be tested. Further, this “brand as the facilitator of creativity” approach tends to de-emphasise the brand’s story making, as the storyworld needs to be initiated and fully fleshed out to encourage participation. Tenderich (2014) offers a series of standard “building blocks” with his Transmedia Branding Design Elements model, which consists of three elements: narratives (memes and media), participation (culture and communities) and brands (protagonists and markets). While this model delineates the various components of a transmedia branding approach, there is scope to explore the sequence in which these design elements flow and to further grasp who is responsible for developing these components. As mentioned above, Tenderich’s identification of the importance of culture and community are vital aspects of transmedia branding and,

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thus, elements worthy of emphasis. While it is alluded to that there is a circular causality to these elements, there is merit in again recognising that an overarching narrative needs to be established before the platforms and experiences that extend the narrative are determined. While not strictly focused on brand communication applications, Gambarato’s (2018) transmedia design and analytical model applies the logic of design thinking to describe the 10 phases of (1) premise and purpose, (2) narrative, (3) worldbuilding, (4) characters, (5) extensions, (6) media platforms and genres, (7) audience and market, (8) engagement, (9) structure and (10) aesthetics. It focuses on addressing complex challenges, of which there are many when developing a transmedia storytelling project due to its numerous moving parts. Rather than being separate elements, these phases are described as “entanglements” within a system of components, milieux and relationships. It is important to draw attention to this point, as it could be argued that a consideration of the audience should occur before identifying a narrative premise. The model’s problem-solving approach has been used to analyse successful existing campaigns, but it is yet to be applied in studies of brand communication practice. There could also be scope in this problem-solving model to include a “problem finding” phrase for a brand communication project to situate the strategic imperatives of a campaign. While the models discussed have a different focus, none comprehensively address the “who” of the creative process involved in developing transmedia storytelling projects. It is, however, possible to draw from a creative process model developed by Stuhlfaut and Windels (2019) that maps out how nascent media platforms have reshaped the creative practice in advertising. The authors’ 10-phase Step and Structure Model of Creative Process model identifies four agency structures that have emerged in response to changes in the media and technology landscape and, importantly, the various practitioner roles involved in bringing together campaigns that cross multiple platforms. They are Dispersed structures —campaigns are developed with outsourced agencies specialising in specific areas of digital media production; Consultative structures —separate digital media departments are formed within an organisation; Collaborative structures —digital specialists are placed within creative teams; and Holistic structures —all creative roles as seen as digital. Beyond its tracing of various agency structures, the model identifies technology as central to the idea development process, i.e. it is used to inspire ideas

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rather than just being used to produce or disseminate brand communication. Identifying these various approaches to collaboration within a series of other creative process stages provides a workable means of exploring transmedia storytelling practice. This is particularly important with developing story extensions as platform affordances shape the nature of the content, albeit content that aligns with an overarching narrative to achieve campaign cohesion. The Step and Structure Model provides insight into the who and when of creativity in contemporary brand communication, yet there is value in going deeper into the “what” of creativity for participatory brand storytelling. Gauntlett’s (2018) consideration of “everyday creativity” provides this understanding with a paradigm that does not seek to explain the creative process in its entirety but instead offers a means of thinking more deeply about triggers or prompts for audience participation. Specifically, his consideration of everyday creativity guides transmedia storytellers as it connects the concept to the idea of community. Rather than seeing creativity as something that is the gift of groundbreaking artists, the concept is considered in terms of craft—small-scale creative acts that are both meaningful and personally satisfying. Gauntlett (2018, p. 67) writes: “Everyday creativity refers to a process which brings together at least one active human mind, and the material or digital world, in the activity of making something which is novel in that context and is a process which evokes a feeling of joy.”

Doing this allows audiences to feel recognised within a community of “interesting people” with a mutual purpose, and as such, builds on the idea of collective intelligence, in which storyworld knowledge is shared and built by the audience and brand, that is stated by Tenderich (2014) as being central to the success of transmedia branding. The logic of everyday creativity emerges as a guide for practitioners as their work both needs to trigger audience creativity and, in many cases, reflects the DIY aesthetic of the contemporary media landscape. In summary, the models that delineate the process of developing transmedia storytelling campaigns—a creative process—tend to focus on the audience and problem-solving. The role of the practitioner and the temporal nature of creative practice have received less attention. Notably, the transmedia branding-focused models discussed are illustrated through the description of campaign examples rather than through analysis of

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practitioner observations or experiences. While focusing on advertising in the digital era, the model developed by Stuhlfaut and Windels (2019) is a valid means of helping to understand the “who” and “when” of producing transmedia storytelling campaigns. While research has been completed on what encourages participation, the creative nature of this participation is not sufficiently covered in the existing literature; however, emerging ideas, such as “everyday creativity”, are instructive.

Making Transmedia Storytelling Content Our exploration of the creative process provides an overview of how transmedia storytelling projects are conceived based on existing scholarship. Knowing how they are executed further contributes to a holistic encapsulation of the strategy. Rather than a unified theory or model arising, existing scholarship offers a series of threads on building out a storyworld across platforms in ways that accommodate complexity. In addition, our literature review allows us to identify research gaps on how these campaigns are implemented. Conceiving the Storyworld As discussed in the previous chapter, the concept of the storyworld—the “fabric of details that make a story believable” (Pratten, 2015, p. 32)— is commonly mentioned in literature in this space. In his article on teaching transmedia storytelling to advertising students, Cronin (2016) uses Jenkins’ (2015) taxonomy to suggest ways of creating transmedia storytelling content. This approach sees the development of a backstory— events involving key characters and the storyworld before a primary story began; elaboration—the development of story subplots and additional characters; multiple perspectives —telling stories from the point of view of different characters; and deepening audience engagement —identifying emotionally relatable content capable of triggering interaction. While the framework offers a clear pathway to developing content, it is primarily producer-focused in orientation, as how audiences co-create content in a storyworld is underdeveloped. The “anchor story” structure provides means of understanding how a transmedia narrative can be extended within the storyworld. du Plessis (2019, p. 179) writes that an anchor story allows content to be expanded to provide backstories and additional experiences with new entry points

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for the audience to explore. This anchor story may exist as an “origin” story that both initiates a storyworld and helps tie together all other campaign content in terms of genre and a prevailing brand values-driven moral of the story (Fig. 3.1). This approach has been explored by Jenkins (2011) when discussing transmedia storytelling in entertainment contexts—in effect, it is a primary text that allows extensions to flow from it and build out a storyworld. Further, this structure lends itself to an open-world, discovery approach for the audience journey as larger amounts of content are released at the same time. Another storyworld structuring approach discussed by Jenkins (2011) is seriality, which is achieved through a process of “chunking” content and experiences by dispersing “meaningful bits of the story over time”. All of the unique stories within this storyworld reflect a central narrative and cohesive sense of transformation, but the storyworld is not originated and conceptually linked by specific anchor story content. In effect, the campaign is more of a linear mosaic of stories, experiences and co-creation opportunities that the audience pieces together to complete the story. This approach lends itself more to being a closed world with the audience guided—mainly through the sequential release of story extensions—through the storyworld and, as a result, would best serve shorter-term campaigns (Fig. 3.2). Building Brand Communities Crafting content extensions based on the guiding principle of communitybuilding is a further means of conceptually guiding storyworld content extensions. Tenderich (cited in Jenkins, 2015) writes: “In an ideal world, every brand would have its devoted brand communities … in reality, this is not possible because many products or services do not lend themselves to strong brand communities.” However, he also argues that there is the potential for “ad hoc brand communities … that rally around a specific campaign, either because of its relevance or entertainment value”. Skincare brand Dove’s Real Beauty campaign shows how a sense of community can emerge in response to storytelling that addresses a relevant social issue—in this case, body image and self-esteem—when explored with depth and sensitivity. Building a sense of community around a powerful social insight or issue demands a shift in brand communication thinking. The Cluetrain Manifesto (Levine et al., 2009), an early (and prescient) position on social

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Fig. 3.1 A simplified storyworld with an anchor structure

media engagement for brands, informed us that “markets are conversations” to help conceptualise the move away from one-way, top-down communication tactics. In the context of our evolving media landscape, this could be extended to “communities are conversations” to identify the relevance of thinking of audiences from a more social rather than transactional perspective. In other words, brand communities result from (and

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Fig. 3.2 A simplified storyworld with a chunking structure

perpetuate) conversations based around shared interests and values initiated and elaborated upon in a storyworld amongst audience members and with the brand. Another way of building communities when applying transmedia branding, as examined by Giovagnoli (2018), is to encourage engagement with “fans” (rather than audiences or consumers). To illustrate, he uses the example of the motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson’s expansion of

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its fan community to embrace younger audiences by twinning its brand story with those of audience members to strengthen attachment. This approach draws the concept of transmedia storytelling back to conceptualisations of how fan cultures appear around entertainment franchises, as envisioned by Jenkins (2006). Thinking of audience members as fans connects to Granitz and Forman’s (2015) analysis of transmedia branding in terms of self-brand connections, a tactical approach to content expansion that focuses on producing stories about the brand’s history and social responsibility, how products deliver what they promise, and other audience members’ personal histories. Gaming the Storyworld Video games as content extensions have also been incorporated into well-received transmedia storytelling projects. According to Giovagnoli (2018), game elements can be categorised as either goal-directed “advergames” or “free creative experiences” in the form of open worlds or sandboxes for audience-shaped creativity and self-expression. The approach can allow brands to communicate complex messages or to reconfigure “ordinary” subjects in deeply engaging and novel ways. It also achieves personalisation, as audience members can name characters and make choices, a fundamental trait of transmedia storytelling (Sawhney, 2019). Far from manifesting as a passing trend, brands have increasingly embraced video games, with many exploring the potential of the metaverse to offer various platforms for brand games. While it is too early to identify whether the metaverse will become a common transmedia storytelling platform, its emergence allows us to highlight the benefits of experimentation with in nascent virtual spaces, a direction that suits brands with values that link to progressive action and exploration. Focusing on the Experience Transmedia branding literature often focuses more on digital media platforms, yet it can be argued that a combination of both “old” and “new” media supports the execution of immersive campaigns. As such, there is merit in weaving “experience economy” theory into our consideration of complementary theoretical approaches. Pine and Gilmore (2019) have been instrumental in drawing attention to successful contemporary brands

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seeking to offer more than just goods or services; to instead craft experiences—memorable and “inherently personal” events—that add a sense of happiness or fulfilment to the lives of audiences. Collier and Lansanah (2020) write that “when brands associate themselves with experiences, they have a greater opportunity to build positive brand associations that endure over time and trigger long-term brand growth.” They use the example of New Balance’s Runaway Pub campaign, which saw the brand motivate London marathon runners by opening a “pop-up” pub where patrons used credits earned by running to purchase beer. As such, Runaway Pub is an example of the creation of a story ecosystem across platforms and experiences that encourage in-real-life and personalised audience story-making. Further, this activation reveals itself as more than just an Instagram selfie opportunity, but a means of building connection and community within a target audience. Putting the Story First Although the term “transmedia” appears before “storytelling” in the phrase “transmedia storytelling”, there is little evidence in the literature to support the idea that platforms (i.e. media channels) should be chosen or focused on first. Recent literature on advertising creativity in the digital media era suggests that platforms are increasingly inspiring new ideas (Stuhlfaut & Windels, 2019), yet there is still considerable benefit to sequentially identifying the brand or campaign narrative first and then considering the best selection of media platforms for audience engagement and co-creation. While it is self-evident that platforms should be selected based on media consumption patterns, Tenderich (2014) argues that audiences will move to new platforms if given appropriate incentives. In addition, he reminds us that a defining feature of transmedia branding is that each platform should offer unique content or experiences that collectively contribute to an overarching narrative or storyworld. A consideration of affordances is vital. As Jenkins (2006, p. 98) writes, each medium should be allowed to “do what it does best”; for platforms to be considered due to their distinctive abilities and how affordances shape the communicative actions of both the brand and audiences. Beyond these points, existing research has yet to explore how practitioners select platforms and design audience experiences. Emergent questions include whether their decisions are intuitive or based on guiding principles, when platform selection occurs, and how platform content is

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woven together within the storyworld. It is vital to explore these elements to fully comprehend the nature of social storytelling in a holistic rather than piecemeal fashion.

Mapping the Audience Journey If we return to the idea that transmedia storytelling is a logic rather than a formula, the imperative of developing an audience journey map is challenging to conceive in a one-size-fits-all paradigm that is relevant for every campaign. As discussed above, different storyworld structures, from anchoring (non-linear content extensions) to chunking (predominantly linear, episodic extensions), preclude the development of just one approach, and this is reflected in the literature on transmedia branding. Another complication is that standalone transmedia storytelling campaigns, such as Runaway Pub, are inherently short-term. However, expansive brand positioning applications of the construct live on and continue to evolve over decades, as exemplified by storyworlds created by Burberry and Lego. However, our literature review reveals a series of threads on audience journey mapping that falls into either media or storycentric categories. It is instructive to approximate the audience journey as it allows practitioners to see how the various parts of the campaign connect and to approximate how the audience may move through the campaign in various ways. In his practical guide to transmedia storytelling for entertainment properties, Pratten (2015) offers a series of pictorial flow charts that map the ideal audience journey for entertainment projects as a pathway from one content experience to the next; this serves as a guide rather than a strict journey as the audience can enter the storyworld at any point, once content has been released, and move backwards should they feel inclined. The benefit of this approach is that it identifies relationships between content extensions and, as a result, highlights the “hooks” (prompts to explore other content) that need to be embedded in the content. Cronin’s (2016) work on transmedia storytelling suggests a pathway presented as a calendar matrix organised around media platforms that identifies the entry points and movement of the audience through a storyworld. This schema draws attention to the need to “drip feed” the audience with new content and experiences so there is continually something additional to anticipate and discover.

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A third, more conceptual, take on audience journey mapping is storyfocused, with Rutledge (2015) adapting Srivastava’s (2013) model that focuses on the audience’s psychological transformation through the story. This paradigm reveals how the audience moves from being initially aware of a transmedia story to experiencing an emotional shift. This journey includes movement between deeper story immersion and opportunities for the audience to participate in “actionable content”, a motivating process that brings them back into the storyworld to continue their discovery of the storyworld created. Rutledge (2015) also provides a series of practical instructions that help scaffold and guide the audience’s journey. These include: “signposts” that direct the audience to other content; the release of supporting stories to fill in gaps between major episodic content pieces; opportunities for social connections with other audience members; embedding “cliffhangers” to build anticipation; and demonstrations of positive emotions to encourage content-sharing. These planning mechanisms are helpful in conceptually identifying the audience journey in terms of their relationship with other content extensions, the temporal nature of the audience journey and the psychological rewards of participation. A consideration of these approaches underscores the value for practitioners of embedding signposts and including psychological rewards for audiences to approximate an audience journey while also acknowledging that the audience can explore the storyworld in individual ways. Thus each extension needs to be a self-contained and participation-encouraging story.

Conclusion: Tying the Threads Together Overall, our consideration of how transmedia storytelling projects are created and implemented reveals limited consensus within the existing literature. As such, there is an opportunity to see if the various theoretical threads presented can be woven together and, importantly, further developed by analysing practitioners’ experiences. In preparing to present our empirical research findings, it is helpful to recap a series of conclusions from our literature review. Transmedia storytelling evolved from the theorisation of fictional stories across entertainment platforms, a lineage that is often lost in transmedia branding literature but vital in terms of crafting transformative brand narratives that audiences are motivated to engage with—an outcome that is only achievable through a balance of knowing the foundations of storytelling and taking the

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creative risks required to craft surprising and meaningful outcomes. It has been argued that entertainment has historically sat at the foundation of advertising, yet in the digital era, has been diminished by the industry’s performance marketing turn with its emphasis on transactional repetition over engaging storytelling. While it is self-evident that media platforms should be selected based on media user, Tenderich (2014) argues that audiences will move to new platforms if given appropriate incentives. Considering brands as narrative-driven, participatory vessels offers a solution to attracting engagement in the cluttered media environment. Beyond a focus on the creativity needed to support transmedia branding storytelling, the construct of community building also emerges as an engagement construct worthy of emphasis. Seeing audiences this way provides a mechanism for connecting on a values-driven level. Responding to cultural moments is also an essential creative impetus that can be amplified by understanding and encouraging the everyday creativity of audiences. None of this, of course, is easy. As Jenkins (2010) reminds us, transmedia storytelling is constantly evolving (and doing so often without a particular name attached to its practice), with scholars and practitioners continually reshaping its form. Nevertheless, this conceptual fluidity and complexity materialise as a benefit rather than a cause for rejection as the logic of transmedia brand storytelling offers a means of navigating the increasingly multidimensional and evolving nature of brands, cultures and audiences.

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Rutledge, P. (2018). Transmedia psychology: Creating compelling and immersive experiences. In R. R. Gambarato & M. Freeman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 350–363). Routledge. Sachs, J. (2012). Winning the story wars: Why those who tell (and live) the best stories will rule the future. Harvard Business Press. Sawhney, M. S. (2019, April 5). What You Need to Know about the Newest Frontier of Brand Storytelling. Kellogg Insight. https://insight.kellogg.northwest ern.edu/article/newest-frontier-transmedia-storytelling Singh, S., & Sonnenburg, S. (2012). Brand performances in social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4), 189–197. Schank, R. C. (1999). Dynamic memory revisited. Cambridge University Press. Scolari, C. A. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3, 586–606. Scolari, C. A. (2013). Lostology: Transmedia storytelling and expansion/ compression strategies. Semiotica, 2013(195), 45–68. Scolari, A. C. (2018). Transmedia branding: Brands, narrative worlds, and the McWhopper peace agreement. Semiotica, 2018(224), 1–17. Srivastava, L. (2013). Narrative design for social impact. http://transmedia-act ivism.com/ Stuhlfaut, M. W., & Windels, K. (2019). Altered states: The effects of media and technology on the creative process in advertising agencies. Journal of Marketing Communications, 25(1), 1–27. Tiffany & Co. (2022). About love. Tiffany & Co. https://www.tiffany.com.au/ stories/guide/beyonce-and-jay-z-about-love/ Tenderich, B. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo. Tenderich, B. & Williams, J. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo, viewed 24.4.2021: http://www.filesuso.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/1119/transmedia_ EIMO.pdf Tenderich, B. & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press. Weiss, E. (2013, September 23). What does “The Scarecrow” tell us about Chipotle? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/ what-does-the-scarecrow-tell-us-about-chipotle Woodside, A. G., Sood, S., & Miller, K. E. (2008). When consumers and brands talk: Storytelling theory and research in psychology and marketing. Psychology & Marketing, 25(2), 97–145. Zak, P. J. (2015). Why inspiring stories make us react: The neuroscience of narrative. Cerebrum: the Dana forum on brain science, 2015, 2. Zeiser, A. (2015). Transmedia marketing: From film and TV to games and digital media. Routledge.

PART II

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory in Practice

CHAPTER 4

Practitioner Perceptions of Transmedia Brand Storytelling

Somewhat of a corundum sits at the heart of studying transmedia storytelling in a brand communication context. The approach, drawn from academic understandings of the changing nature of the entertainment industries in the convergence era (Jenkins, 2006), has received more scholarly and industry attention in some regions of the world than others; for some, it is seen as a trend that has now passed or an “academic” approach with scant relevance to “what actually happens”. And as mentioned in Chapter 3, considerable semantic confusion surrounds the term. All of these factors surface as challenges to researching the concept through the eyes of contemporary practitioners. Yet, at the same time, it is a concept that refuses to disappear. It continues to manifest because it is an age-old and continually evolving construct that offers considerable scope to attract the attention and loyalty of consumers who are increasingly unresponsive to traditional advertising. While this chapter uses the lens of transmedia storytelling to identify evolving industry practices, what matters is the body of ideas it represents. As the name of this book suggests, it is our goal to consider the theories associated with transmedia branding and trace the extent to which they may or may not be employed in practice. To this end, Chapter 4 explores how practitioners understand the concept of transmedia storytelling in a brand communication context. More specifically, we examine how commonly the term “transmedia storytelling” is used, identify the driving forces © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_4

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behind the approach and discuss its perceived benefits. Our analysis of the experiences and observations of practitioners is based on an analysis of 21 in-depth expert interviews and survey data drawn from the responses of 256 global brand communication practitioners. Overall, this chapter reinforces the distinctiveness of transmedia brand storytelling as being more audience-centric and focused on illustrating brand values than other models including integrated marketing communication and brand storytelling.

Gathering and Analysing the Practitioner Perspectives Our qualitative research took the form of expert interviews with practitioners who had been involved in transmedia storytelling and immersive brand communication projects. Participants were contacted with an invitation to participate in an interview either via an email address they had made publicly available or through social media networks. A total of 21 practitioners agreed to participate in an interview via online video. The recruitment process resulted in interviews with experts from Europe, North America, South Asia and Australasia. Interviewees were predominantly aged in their 30s and 40s, and well-established in their careers as brand communicators. While all practitioners were approached due to their involvement with a particular project, their roles in its production varied. This was a deliberate decision on behalf of the researchers to gather insights from the different specialisations involved, rather than, for example just focusing on those responsible for creative concept development (Table 4.1). Our interviews lasted between 30 and 50 minutes and were based on an interview protocol. Drawn from a panel of participants, the study’s survey respondents answered an 18-question online questionnaire developed following our analysis of practitioner interviews. In total, 256 surveys were completed by brand communicators in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australasia. Our sample included professionals with marketing, advertising, digital media content and public relations backgrounds to further reflect the diverse nature of those involved in transmedia storytelling and immersive brand experiences. Our mixed method approach allows us to present an encapsulation of a contemporary form of brand communication in the words and perceptions of those who create and implement it.

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Table 4.1 Interview participants Job title

Agency type

Employer size

Location/region

Lead Planner Senior Creative Creative Strategist Brand Voice Director Account Director PR Executive Executive Creative Director Creative Director Chief Creative Officer Strategy Consultant Art Director/Animator Agency Founder Content and Creative Director Agency CEO PR Director Brand Manager Creative Director Agency CEO Brand Manager Communications Manager Chief Creative Officer

Communications Advertising Advertising (freelance) Branding Advertising Communications Advertising

300+ 200–300 NA 1–10 10–20 200–300 100–200

Australasia Europe Australasia Australasia Australasia North America Europe

Creative Communications Advertising (freelance) Advertising (freelance) Brand Storytelling Creative

1–10 200–300 1–10 NA 1–10 20–50

North America North America Australasia Australasia Australasia Australasia

Digital Advertising In-house In-house Advertising Production In-house In-house

100–200 200–300 200–300 300+ 20–30 300+ 300+

India North America North America Europe North America Australasia Australasia

Creative

10–20

North America

Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis model—an approach well suited to studying a still nascent phenomenon that has not been the topic of significant previous empirical research—was applied to draw inferences from the interview data gathered. The data itself was categorised and coded using the NVivo software. Both researchers took part in the coding process to achieve code reliability and refinement, and coding took place both during the interview stage and after theoretical saturation had been achieved. Analysis of themes and survey data form the basis of the findings presented in this section. These core findings allow us to consider the theory–practice nexus and identify implications for practice.

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While the Term is not Commonly Used, the Approach is Understood Our interviews started by asking practitioners to describe the term “transmedia storytelling”, a question that resulted in 12 out of 21 participants telling us that they did not use the term. Some saw transmedia storytelling as an “academic term” not used in “day-to-day life”. Yet despite this, it emerged that the practitioners we spoke to commonly use approaches that could be understood as transmedia storytelling in their practice. For instance: “We don’t use the word transmedia, but it’s something we do in our jobs every day, because to be able to speak to a customer, you need to be able to tell the same story across many different platforms .”(Senior Creative, UK)

Another practitioner, when describing how a campaign was developed, discussed how the concept was applied organically rather than following a particular industry or conceptual model: “It wasn’t anybody’s intention to ‘create a transmedia campaign’. Nobody was even using the language. We just were looking for a really different approach and different way of getting people interested and excited.” (Creative Director, Canada)

Others felt the term was lost or part of an overwhelming amount of jargon that exists in the marketing sector and was, in effect, interchangeable with other terms such as integrated marketing communication (IMC) or 360-degree campaigns, as illustrated by these observations: “When I talk about transmedia or what we call as integrated planning, we look at storytelling as the ability to kind of go and spread a centralised idea.” (Lead Planner, Australia) “I would describe transmedia storytelling as an integrated marketing campaign that is centred around content, that tells a brand story, has a point of view and is an expression of brand values .” (Brand Manager, Canada)

In other descriptions, the term “integrated” was not used, however, transmedia storytelling was considered as existing within the blurred lines between “PR, advertising and content” (PR Executive, Canada). While

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the term “content” was commonly mentioned, the need for a mix of media platforms that went beyond just the digital was also highlighted, as the following statement reveals: “[Transmedia storytelling is] using a diverse mix of these days, especially digital channels and traditional channels to get our brand story out there.” (PR Director, Canada)

A lineage to other brand communication models was noted. Yet, it was not entirely seen as a replication of IMC with participants highlighting that the concept was an evolution due to its greater focus on the audience, a sentiment exemplified by the following description: “We think [transmedia storytelling] is a whole lot of stuff that we can leverage to put people at the centre of that story and say, ‘You have the power to influence the people immediately around you’ … So yes, putting people right at the centre of that story as well is a way to go.” (Communications Manager, Australia)

Others saw it as a contemporary evolution of brand storytelling. For instance, “there’s not a separate transmedia type of storytelling. It’s actually the storytelling that exists today” (Mixed Reality Agency CEO, US). As the above descriptions suggest, the audience is seen as being important yet their participation in the story, such as User-Generated Content or brand experiences for example, were rarely noted in practitioners’ initial descriptions. Our survey data supports these qualitative findings by revealing 42.5% of respondents saw transmedia storytelling as the communication of a brand story across multiple platforms, and 28.2% saw the construct as allowing each platform to add a unique contribution to the campaign story. Our findings confirm the semantic conflation surrounding the term, yet understandings of this form of brand communication largely align with definitions commonly presented in academic literature. A key departure is that it is often viewed as an evolution of integrated marketing communication or brand storytelling rather than an entirely new model.

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Transmedia Storytelling Exists Due to Changing Audience Behaviours Understanding why practitioners feel the concept has come into existence provides further insight into its place in the brand communication landscape. Participants mentioned media fragmentation and changes in technology use that give the audience more control over their media consumption when discussing why approaches that could be framed as transmedia storytelling have emerged. In the words of an executive creative director from the Netherlands office of a high profile global advertising agency, these factors were part of a “complicated landscape” that differed significantly from “the good old days”. The shift from the broadcast era with a largely “captive” audience to the abundance of media channels in the digital era was, not surprisingly, commonly mentioned by participants as an impetus for transmedia storytelling, an approach they saw as working effectively across platforms. For instance: “[The media landscape] has become so incredibly fragmented, there’s not the opportunity to sit down and receive a one-way piece of communication on such a mass scale, so it’s kind of like we need to be really cognisant where people are.” (Lead Planner, Australia)

Being aware of what platforms were being used was noted as requiring a deeper and more wide-ranging understanding of audience media behaviours: “There’s no one place you can go to reach more than a few per cent of the audience, so, therefore, you’ve got to go hunting for them, and that might be different linear media channels, but also inevitably the other more interactive things.” (Art Director and Animator, Australia) “People program their own lives, and so they go where they want when they want to. And you have to really have to understand that footprint.” (Mixed Reality Agency CEO, US)

Transmedia storytelling approaches were seen as breaking through to audiences by offering content they want to engage with as opposed to more conventional marketing communication offerings, as indicated by this perspective:

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“The proliferation of different platforms has made brand storytelling so much more important. With technology allowing people to opt out of advertising ... you have individuals who choose to follow the brands that they like, so you’re better off putting out content that people find engaging and entertaining.” (PR Director, Canada)

This was achievable by embracing more collaborative storytelling approaches: “As new platforms emerge, brands no longer view their audiences as mere consumers but as potential co-creators and representatives of their brands. When utilising transmedia storytelling as a strategic anchor for a core narrative brand we’re able to capture attention and engagement at a deeper level.” (Chief Creative Officer, US)

While responding to changing audience behaviours was often reinforced, the pitfalls of an over-emphasis on data over novel storytelling were highlighted by one of the creative directors we spoke with: “I have a lot of discussions with people because they feel that data and technology is the future, but I always tell them data is only information. You need to transform this information into insights, into something because if not, it’s only information. You can tell people, one out of four people is doing this. Okay, thank you for the information, but it’s not relevant if you don’t add something, a twist or make people think about it.”

This perspective reinforces the theme that transmedia storytelling should ideally be grounded in a considered understanding of the audience and brought to life through engaging and participatory brand experiences.

A Means of Illustrating Brand Values While the name may not be universally applied, it is interesting to note that the concept is seen as relevant, with our survey finding that 54.7% of respondents felt it was either relevant or extremely relevant to the future of brand communication, in contrast to 27% who perceive it as being either irrelevant or highly irrelevant. The reasons for its relevance are apparent from our analysis of practitioner interviews, with the strategy

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being perceived as allowing for more complex messaging, as illustrated by this perspective: “[Transmedia storytelling] is something that is multidimensional, and you can actually start layering in different messages at different points to get people to buy into that overarching vision and kind of get them working away.” (Lead Planner, Australia)

The construct was also described as allowing brands to illustrate their brand values and align with audience belief systems and cultural dynamics, as revealed by these practitioner perspectives: “Storytelling is what humanises your brand. It’s what, as I say, demonstrates your brand. Your shared brand values with your audience. But also, stories are ways that people learn and retain and translate and transmit information.” (PR Director, Canada) “[The contemporary environment has] kind of put a lot of pressure on brands to deliver a really congruent and quality experience from what their product is, to how they behave as a company, to the public image that they portray, the messages that they need to say, and it all needs to align with the expectation that a consumer has and what’s sitting right in the cultural context as well.” (Lead Planner, Australia)

Overall, discussions of the relevance of transmedia storytelling reveal its ability to accommodate more complex messaging and, importantly, to illustrate brand values in ways that align with audience expectations.

Situating the Benefits of Transmedia Storytelling Various reasons were provided by interview participants on the benefits of transmedia storytelling including the emotional power of story as a means of building engagement, greater brand visibility due to communicating across platforms, and the immersive power of the approach. The Emotional Pull of Storytelling Achieving an emotional connection was the most common benefit identified for brands. For an Australia-based content developer who specialises

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in automotive brand communication, “the story is actually the most intimate part of the brand” and thus connects with audiences on a more powerful level. The notion that many consumer decisions result from emotional rather than rational choices was identified by an Australia-based integrated communications agency lead planner, who felt that storytelling worked as an emotional “shortcut” to connecting with audiences. Specific emotional responses were occasionally discussed in interviews with authenticity being highlighted: “The brands that tell authentic stories that represent their point of view on the world, that develops a relationship with people. So, it’s no longer transactional. So strong storytelling integrates your brand in someone’s life.” (PR Director, Canada)

A similar perspective was presented by a Toronto, Canada-based PR executive: “Whatever your action you’re taking needs to be something that’s in line with the core of your brand. You can’t just be like, ‘Oh, women’s rights, it’s interesting right now. Let’s just jump on that’.”

For an executive creative director currently working in the Netherlands, when a story “ecosystem” works well on an emotional level, it becomes possible to change consumers into “fans” or, in the words of a US-based chief creative officer, “brand advocates”. However, the risks of inauthenticity when seeking an emotional connection were mentioned several times with another interviewee discussing an immersive brand story for an Australian clothing company that appeared “real” but was later revealed to consist of actors, a campaign that resulted in a “massive backlash”. More Channels Allow for Greater Visibility The nature of transmedia storytelling in terms of communicating a story across various platforms was commonly identified as being capable of achieving increased visibility or “more eyeballs in more places because audiences are so fragmented” (Chief Creative Officer, Canada). Or according to another interviewee:

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“Transmedia communication ensures that you are everywhere, and if a person happens to look in that direction, you’re there.”(Senior Creative, UK)

For an India-based digital advertising agency CEO, the increased visibility of a brand through sustained transmedia storytelling accommodates the ability for a brand’s reach to “become wider” and to move into new markets. He used the example of Nike’s expansive “Just Do It” narrative as allowing the brand to successfully move into new product categories and appeal to different consumer groups, such as women’s yoga apparel. For other interviewees, being visible across a broader range of platforms to reach and build audiences was not an option, but a necessity due to being the “reality of the world we live in” (Mixed Reality Agency CEO, US). That is not to say that practitioners saw the ability of transmedia storytelling to broaden an audience as always a positive or mandatory outcome. For a Canadian creative director, allowing a brand to connect with “everyone” was problematic: “If [a campaign or brand] tries to include everyone from the outset, it won’t be meaningful to anybody.”

The ability of immersive approaches to attract those outside the market was mentioned as a concern with a strategy expert discussing a campaign for a European car brand that offered a gamified approach. As a means of pointing out that campaigns can often appeal to those outside the target market, particularly with gamified approaches, he reflected: “Who’s got the time to chase people around the city looking for a thing. So yeah, sometimes the numbers don’t make sense.”

Stories Give Audiences Something of Value In another qualitative research finding on practitioner perceptions of the benefits of transmedia storytelling, a group of interviewees described the model as marking a shift in marketing communication from offering not just product promotion, but also “adding value” to the lives of consumers through the exchange of stories. According to a Netherlands-based executive creative director:

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“If you give something of value to consumers, you give them something that truly is meaningful or fun or entertaining, it doesn’t always have to be a transactional thing, but if you give them something of value, then obviously you’re creating a relationship with that consumer.”

When reflecting on a global luxury brand he worked for, a Melbourne, Australia-based content and creative director explained: “You need to deliver something of value, and then you need to make sure that it is clear that it’s the brand that brings it to you.”

In the words of another interviewee, advertising needed to shift towards creating content that is “more relevant to people’s life” rather than solely focused on selling products. A mixed reality agency CEO from the United States emphasised the need for brands to create experiences, however, they also suggested many brands and their creative agencies were still “really figuring out how to give a value-added experience to their consumers.” Participatory Experiences Support Immersion A group of participants focused on the immersive nature of transmedia storytelling as a critical benefit, an idea framed around higher levels of participation than other brand communication strategies. For instance: “It’s more interesting for [the audience] because they have something to do. It’s so much more exciting to feel like ‘Oh I solved that problem. I figured that thing out. I contributed to that thing. I love that because my Tweet made it. I feel so much more bonded to that brand or story’.” (Creative Director, Canada)

For a Canadian PR director, immersive brand experiences ultimately resulted from the ability to offer a complex narrative and, as a result, allow the audience to experience brand storytelling “from so many different angles”, a benefit that inspired participation and ultimately increased the brand message frequency. However, a disconnect between our qualitative and qualitative data was noted regarding perceptions of the strategy’s benefits. Where the immersive nature of transmedia storytelling was identified as a main benefit for over 50% of survey respondents, interviewees were much more focused in their discussion on the emotional benefits of

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brand storytelling, its ability to increase brand visibility and the ability of stories told across platforms to give the audience something of value.

Transmedia Storytelling Needs Brave Clients Who Embrace Creativity Interviewees commonly felt that clients limited their successful implementation of transmedia storytelling techniques. Some said clients were often uncomfortable with ideas or approaches they had not seen other brands do before, with a mixed reality content producer from the United States observing, “they tend to go quickly to something that had worked for somebody else”. In a similar vein, a Netherlands-based advertising agency creative director explained that brands often want to jump on a trend: “It’s like, guys, it will be an epic fail because you are copying a trend. You are not creating the trend.”

Clients who were not willing to take creative risks were identified as a challenge by another participant: “I think you need a certain level of bravery from the marketing team that’s involved. And by that, I mean, you can’t please everyone. A story has to have a moral. There’s a point of view and not everyone’s going to agree with the point of view, and you have to be comfortable with that.” (PR Director, Canada)

The perspective that creative storytelling approaches are inherently unexpected and unfamiliar and, as such, are not going to necessarily appeal to a broad audience was expressed as a challenge by a Canadian in-house PR director who reflected: “I think the biggest challenge is having brands get comfortable with being uncomfortable and understanding who they want to connect with and being okay with the fact that will leave some people behind.”

Budget pressures were commonly mentioned during interviews. In an interesting perspective, one participant discussed this in terms of clients wanting “guarantees” for their investment:

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“I think the biggest challenge is probably money. [Clients] like to know that their commercial is whatever time of day and their audience will be watching at that point. So that kind of old reach frequency model, which I don’t think works personally anymore, or maybe it never did. … You’re saying, ‘if you build it, they will come.’ What if they don’t come? People want guarantees. I think [transmedia storytelling is] a less guaranteed kind of universe, but with much greater opportunities.” (Creative Director, Canada)

It is fascinating to note that evaluation and the platform planning processes of transmedia storytelling projects were identified as the most challenging aspect of practice for survey respondents yet did not receive much attention as a barrier during interviews. Interview participants instead emphasised, as mentioned above, the client’s role in embracing social storytelling approaches that encompass surprising elements and acknowledge the unpredictability of audience engagement. These disconnects aside, both survey respondents and analysis from interviews revealed budget constraints as a significant challenge.

The “Why” Transmedia Brand Storytelling: From Theory to Practice Our analysis of practitioner perceptions of transmedia storytelling indicates several points of alignment with theories and models discussed in academic literature. While it was clear the term “transmedia storytelling” was not universally used in everyday practice, practitioners revealed an understanding of what the model offered and saw it as an evolution of integrated marketing communication and brand storytelling. These findings, drawn from our quantitative and qualitative research, support Tenderich and Williams’ (2015) conclusion that practitioners commonly apply transmedia techniques to their brands “knowingly or not”. A series of parallels between practitioner perceptions and scholarly understandings support this conclusion. Another key point of alignment is the belief that transmedia storytelling approaches are effective because they allow organisations to illustrate brand values, a core benefit, as discussed in the literature (du Plessis, 2019; Granitz & Forman, 2015; Scolari, 2018). Our interviewees also felt the model was fundamentally audience-centric compared to previous brand communication approaches. This trait was framed as a response to changing audience behaviours, particularly around their

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fragmented media consumption patterns and the idea that audiences now expect brands to be more socially responsible and “more human”. Further, focusing on emotion as a primary means of attracting attention and achieving loyalty reflects previous research on the construct (CostaSánchez, 2014; Cronin, 2016; Granitz & Forman, 2015). In another alignment between theory and practice, empathy—giving the audience an impetus to care based on knowing what matters to them—was identified by several practitioners as a powerful function of social storytelling across platforms (Tenerdich & Williams, 2015). Collectively these parallels tell us that transmedia storytelling—as opposed to more transactional or one-way brand advertising approaches—is a concept that has currency for practitioners, even if a fixed name is not attached to the practice.

Shining a Light on Less Apparent Benefits Asking seasoned brand communicators to define or describe transmedia storytelling allows us to identify what they feel is distinctive about the approach. It also enables us to highlight aspects of the model that are not readily apparent. While it was clear that our research participants understood the general nature of transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts, we identified a series of contrasts between academic models and their descriptions. Noteworthy amongst these is that transmedia storytelling, while viewed as inherently audience-centric, was not commonly defined or described as seeking to encourage audience participation, or related concepts such as viral communication, prosumer action or co-creation in a brand story. When prompted with additional questions in interviews, this trait was elaborated upon. Yet it is interesting to note that this component was not identified as a primary trait, and thus emerges as an important inclusion in emerging definitions and models of practice. A fundamental aspect of the transmedia storytelling model is that each platform offers a unique content or experience contribution to the storyworld (Buckner & Rutledge, 2011; Scolari, 2009; Tenderich, 2014). While it was not surprising that practitioners did not commonly use the term “storyworld”, their descriptions of the construct reinforces the need for transmedia storytelling to focus on expansion as opposed to repetition. While often noted in academic literature, interviewees did not focus on the ability of storytelling approaches to relay complex ideas or messaging. This is an area where a more defined model could assist. For instance,

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a key aspect of the model—a storyworld in which unique and participatory extensions—provides a means of accommodating more complex messages and revealing the brand as a multidimensional and fluid object, one that reflects a narrative but is open to the audience’s interpretation and ownership. At later points during interviews, some of our participants discussed the need for each platform to have unique content. Yet, we can argue that this specific model component requires further emphasis. On this, there is value in returning to where transmedia storytelling evolved from, as successful entertainment franchises offer powerful examples of narrative expansion. Given the imperative for contemporary advertising to focus more on entertainment was articulated by our interviewees, there is considerable scope to reinforce the conceptual lineage of the transmedia model in brand communication contexts. A lack of alignment between extant models and practitioner perceptions was also revealed in our analysis of the benefits of transmedia storytelling. Our interviewees commonly discussed the ability of the approach to broaden markets or increase reach due to the multipleplatform nature of this form of brand communication. Discussion of long-term relationship building emerged as a secondary focus. An evolved transmedia branding model can address this imbalance by focusing on achieving active loyalty, ideally with a community that forms around a brand positioning or shorter-term campaign narrative. A starting point is to consider loyalty as existing in a perpetual loop rather than as the end point of a funnel (Court et al., 2009), a perspective that encourages brands to continually give audiences reasons to care.

Giving Value and Reflecting Cultural Dynamics Our interviewees’ discussion of the nature and benefits of transmedia storytelling revealed fruitful new knowledge. Our analysis suggests that the brand stories developed must, from the perspective of practitioners, focus on giving the audience “something of value”. This value was discussed in terms of its ability to entertain, give pleasure or contribute to authentic community discourse. As such, this finding provides an important guiding principle for creating immersive storyworlds and, importantly, a clear means of “selling in” a project to a client. The need to reflect not just an understanding of the audience but also of their “cultural spaces” emerged. While this imperative is mentioned in existing literature (Tenderich & Williams, 2015), our analysis adds nuance

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in its identification that the process of “leaning into culture” should be well-considered rather than merely “jumping onto a trend.” Reflecting cultural knowledge, and thus illustrating brand values, within implicitly understood narrative approaches manifests a salient pathway that became evident when practitioners discussed examples of work, which we analyse in the next chapter. A focus on the audience was noted; however, for a section of our interviewees, this was tempered by concerns over relying too heavily on statistical information over more observational audience insights gathered informally by practitioners. This indicates an imbalance of the art-science nexus that sits at the heart of the approach. While being audience–centric is important, crafting brand narratives should not be solely dictated by media use metrics or consumption and purchasing patterns. Further, this is an aspect of practice where culture and the application of narrative theory come into play as a means of emphasising the relevance of putting the story first. Based on our empirical work, we feel it is time for emerging models to emphasise the role of cultural dynamics and community conversations to achieve social storytelling that connects deeply with the zeitgeist and fosters ongoing brand loyalty. This chapter also included an analysis of the challenges practitioners experienced when bringing social storytelling into existence. Clear themes emerged to indicate that the approach required clients to take considerable leaps of faith and to be comfortable with the unknown. Budget issues were also flagged. It is the goal of this book to contribute to academic/industry discourse by developing justifications that can alleviate both barriers. A holistic model also provides a more robust pathway for evaluating transmedia brand storytelling projects drawing on insights from practice and the contextualisation of models from the entertainment sector. Identifying a focus on giving the audience “something of value” by connecting this goal to narrative constructs is another means of justifying investment. In sum, developing an end-to-end framework will highlight the emotionally resonant and culturally connected nature of the approach and situate the creation of a holistic evaluation method.

Conclusion This chapter offered a series of contemporary insights into how the concept of transmedia storytelling is perceived by practitioners who took part in the in-depth interviews and surveys conducted for this book.

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By examining this research through the lens of existing scholarship on transmedia branding and aligned fields, we have identified a series of alignments between how practitioners see the concept and ideas presented by academic researchers. An instructive finding is that while the term transmedia storytelling is not widely used, it is clearly understood and is seen as an evolution of brand storytelling and integrated marketing communication strategies. Importantly, it was noted as being more audience-centric than previous models and has emerged from changes in how audiences use media and engage with brands in today’s communication landscape. Both existing academic literature and the findings of our empirical research reveal that storytelling across platforms is a powerful means of achieving an emotional response by audiences who are increasingly closing themselves off to transactional advertising techniques. The main challenges in bringing transmedia storytelling and immersive brand experiences to life highlighted the barriers of clients being “brave” enough to invest in the fluidity and creativity required by the approach—hurdles that can be ameliorated with the application of a holistic model for practice. While the ability of transmedia storytelling to immerse an audience in a brand’s narrative was widely viewed as a key benefit, the outcomes of this strategy were articulated less by interview participants. As such, there is scope for the “why” of transmedia brand storytelling to receive greater emphasis and further empirical research due to its ability to build and maintain brand loyalty, and, as mentioned above, for a connection between circular consumer loyalty relationships and the creation of complex storyworlds to be woven more significant into practice. Practitioners’ shared understandings of what could be considered transmedia branding approaches reveal a series of ideas not covered in existing literature. Prime amongst these is the ability of social storytelling across platforms to add value to the audience’s lives. Framing the strategy around this perspective is a helpful step forward, as it further reinforces the audience-centric (rather than brand or product-focused) nature of immersive brand communication. This insight also reinforces the potential of entertaining audiences rather than assuming they will respond to the tsunami of transactional forms of brand communication prevalent during the industry’s performance advertising turn. Now that we have considered how theory can support practice and identified new insights on how this form of brand communication is perceived, we can move to the “doing” aspect of our research. Our

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next chapter seeks to explore the ideation and implementation of transmedia storytelling approaches in terms of the relationship between theory and practice and in doing so further highlights the need for brands to recast themselves as more experimental storytellers that are shaped by the cultures in which they exist and the audiences with whom they collaborate.

References Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. Bucker, B., & Rutledge, P. (2011). Transmedia storytelling for marketing and branding: It’s not entertainment, it’s survival. Internet Marketing Association. http://www.kcommhtml.com/ima/2011_03/transmedia_storytelling.pdf Costa-Sánchez, C. (2014). Transmedia storytelling, an ally of corporate communication: #Dropped by Heineken case study. Communication & Society, 27 (3), 127–150. Cronin, J. (2016). Teach students to communicate a brand story with transmedia storytelling. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(2), 86–101. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., & Vetvik, O. J. (2009, June 1). The consumer decision journey. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey. com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumerdecision-journey du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192. Granitz, N., & Forman, H. (2015). Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 38–59. Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press. Scolari, C. A. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3, 586–606. Scolari, A. C. (2018). Transmedia branding: Brands, narrative worlds, and the McWhopper peace agreement. Semiotica, 2018(224), 1–17. Tenderich, B. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press.

CHAPTER 5

Planning and Creating Transmedia Storytelling Projects

Previous research on transmedia storytelling for brands has primarily involved analysing completed campaigns (Costa-Sánchez, 2014; du Plessis, 2019; Piccialli, 2021; Scolari, 2009, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015). There is value in analysing completed work, yet a detailed examination of the processes and relationships that bring campaigns into existence is well overdue. To address this gap, this chapter explores the planning and creation of transmedia storytelling projects. It considers how the professionals who make immersive brand communication projects select media platforms and craft their content and experiences. To provide further insight into the relevancy of the transmedia storytelling approach, we consider, through the experiences of practitioners, if these kinds of immersive projects are more suited to some product categories than others. We also explore our interviewees’ perceptions of what constitutes impactful participatory storytelling across platforms and the extent to which theory is used to guide their practice. This analysis works towards building a more complete picture of a still-unfolding brand communication model that encourages playfulness and self-expression in ways that are supported rather than dominated by the brand through imaginative articulations of its values. As such, the research and discussion presented further contribute to the holistic model of transmedia brand storytelling practice we present in Chapter 12, a construct shaped by the lived experiences of practitioners in our study. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_5

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Transmedia Storytelling Is a More Natural Fit for Some Product Categories Than Others The majority of survey participants said they felt a transmedia approach is more relevant to some product categories than others. Specifically, the data reveals an even spread of responses in terms of which product categories were most suited, with “media” (41.2%) identified as the most relevant, followed by “arts and entertainment” (39.7%), “technology” (35.4%), “fashion” (35.4%) and “technology” (35.5%). These findings contrasted somewhat with our analysis of in-depth interviews due to “entertainment”, “luxury brands”, “tourism” and “automotive” emerging as the most relevant product categories. For our interviewees, brands with primarily “transactional” audience relationships were not seen as being suited. These brands were contrasted to those in the luxury sector or heritage brands with an existing “brand adoration or brand love”. Brands that already had a “cultural cache” were also considered a natural fit for the approach. According to an Australia-based strategy expert: “Brands with cult followings are definitely way easier because people want to spend time with the brand. A bank trying to do an immersive experience, it’s not happening.”

As indicated above, some specific product categories were discussed as either being suitable or not, with tourism seen as an ideal sector for transmedia storytelling, as explained by an Australian communication manager working in that sector: “As a tourism region and a destination, storytelling is just critical in trying to convert people from loosely, vaguely aware to interested to actively seeking to book.”

Products that involved a longer decision-making process, such as luxury cars, were also seen as a good fit for the approach: “There’s a lot of brand storytelling that goes into cars, partly because the consideration process for buying a car is quite long.” (Brand Voice Director, Australia)

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Some interviewees felt that any product could benefit from the approach provided the longer-term nature of transmedia storytelling was understood by the client and adequately funded: “Anything where you’ve kind of got people who are happy to be immersive and where you’ve got big budgets , right.” (Creative Strategist, Australia)

Commonly, our interviewees felt that fast moving consumer goods were not an ideal fit with, for example, the product category of toilet paper being identified as not likely to benefit from a transmedia storytelling strategy as “there are places where it doesn’t make a lot of sense in terms of the levels of investment” (Account Manager, Australia). This fits with the idea that product categories which require higher levels of consumer involvement or a more considered decision-making process are better suited. However, other practitioners suggested that a transmedia storytelling approach was possible if a brand was committed to focusing more on creating experiences as opposed to achieving immediate conversion outcomes: “I think all brands on some level need to be thinking about an experiential approach to engage their audience … all brands could benefit by really figuring out how to give a value-added experience to their consumers.” (Mixed Reality Agency CEO, US)

A group of interviewees felt transmedia storytelling was a valid approach if the brand committed to communicating a consistent narrative over time. In the words of one of these participants: “I first of all believe that brands should have something that they hold on to, that they stay with for a really long time, because that’s what your brand gets associated with … for example, I keep going back to Open Happiness, because that’s one of the simplest and has stayed the same for quite a long time.” (Senior Creative, UK)

Based on this, we can identify two lines of thinking: the first is that transmedia storytelling is best suited to high-involvement products categories and the second perspective is that any brand can apply the model provided they are willing to invest in communicating an emotively impactful narrative over the long term.

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Transmedia Storytelling Can Be Effective as Both a Brand and Short-Term Campaign Approach As discussed in Chapter 4, transmedia storytelling can be applied either as an approach that encompasses all brand communication, i.e. an overarching brand strategy, or as a solution to a specific communication problem through the implementation of a shorter-term campaign. When asked about these strategic options, the majority indicated that both avenues were possible as it depended on a range of factors, for example: “It’s the actual story or the heartstring that’s being pulled behind the story. It’s what matters, that’s what resonates, and that’s what makes a huge difference. It could just be a product, or it could be an actual brand, but if it’s one product it’s got to be a product that people are going to love.” (Creative Strategist, Australia)

A London-based senior creative felt that it all boiled down to whether the brand had “something strong to say”, a perspective that a Canadian in-house PR director described as “having a platform” that can be adapted as required but consistently presents a distinctive “attitude”. Or in the words of a Canadian not-for-profit organisation brand manager: “Whether you’re a little brand that can only do one campaign a year or whether you’re somebody like Burberry … that has hundreds of touch points and engagements with your customers, if you understand what you stand for and you build a platform you can work on that in whatever scale you need.”

For one of the Australasian planners we spoke with, a campaign approach is relevant if it fits into a larger strategy: “You can design a campaign-specific ecosystem, but that campaign is designed to solve X problem, but you can also be doing it from a master brand-level as well.”

Other interviewees were adamant that the approach was most effective as a brand strategy. In the words of a Canadian communications agency chief creative officer:

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“I think the brand needs to have a transmedia strategy that supersedes the campaign, supersedes anything else, because you’re developing an audience in that channel and you’re conditioning them to expect something from you.”

An Australian brand voice specialist also discussed the need for an expansive rather than contained approach: “Brand storytelling needs to permit every touchpoint of a brand, it can be treated as a campaign. You see a beautiful piece of communication that tells a really clear story ... but it has carried through all of the [brand’s] touch points.”

Analysing interviewees’ perceptions of whether transmedia storytelling is more effective as an all-of-brand or shorter-term campaign strategy revealed that while a section of participants believed it was best suited to being applied to every brand touchpoint, others felt there were justifications for its use in a more contained fashion. As such, this points to a collective perception that transmedia storytelling has the flexibility to address various brand communication goals.

The Creative Process Starts with the Central Narrative Our analysis revealed most interviewees began their creative process by developing the central narrative, a finding exemplified below: “No matter what, trying to figure out what’s central, what’s the idea, what’s the central driver is, for me, always the first hurdle. But you don’t really know where that’s going to come from.” (Creative Director, Canada)

A story-finding approach was mentioned by another interviewee: “Some brands inherently understand what their story is, and other brands have absolutely no idea and you need to go and find it for them.” (Brand Voice Director, Australia)

Other interviewees were adamant that the central narrative should be drawn from an insight into the audience or what others commonly called “a human truth”, as paradigmatically indicated by this reflection:

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“What is the human truth, the insight, and that could take shape in many forms. For us, it was about the brand, about the perception versus the reality of the brand. But it could also be a moment in time.” (PR Executive, Canada)

According to a chief creative officer, also based in Canada, the starting point for developing a central narrative was the audience, as he felt creatives “need to start with the humans that are going to be receiving it”. Some interviewees discussed the importance of the campaign or brand narrative being “channel agonist” or “technology agonistic”, while others explained that to some degree the creative concept has to be shaped by media planning which is commonly purchased or selected during the planning process. It is, however, worth noting that there were alternative perspectives on what triggers the development of a central narrative. For instance, some felt that the brand should be the focus: “If you haven’t got a really, really strong brand story at the head of all of that, then you are in real trouble. Because, in some ways, the idea, the advertising construct, the campaign construct, it’s great if it’s good, but it’s kind of pointless if it doesn’t say something about the brand and you don’t have a really strong brand story.” (Brand Voice Director, Australia)

Others discussed “leaning into culture” as guiding the creative process. For example: “I think for me, it’s just starting to ponder and think it through and think of what’s the best way to tell a story. And at its best, those stories are stories that resonate in culture. So they’re things that speak to culture, they’re in culture and they might become culture, if they’re good enough.” (Executive Creative Director, Netherlands)

While audience insights, brand and culture were all noted as shaping the creative process, it was clear that identifying the central narrative was the starting point for the creative process of the practitioners we spoke to. If the term “central narrative” is swapped out for “the big idea”, this reflects the traditional focus of the creative process in advertising. Interestingly, a Canadian public relations expert mentioned that for the transmedia storytelling projects she worked on, the journey was still “a fairly traditional process” of a creative brief being developed and then distributed to the different agency groups working on the campaign. A

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similar depiction was offered by a Toronto-based chief creative officer who felt the creative process for transmedia storytelling was “no different to ideating an integrated campaign”. Our analysis suggests that many elements of the creative process follow a similar trajectory to those involved in developing more traditional forms of creative advertising. Importantly, it highlights critical considerations drawn into the early stages of the process and a focus on creating a potent central narrative as the starting point, ideally before platforms are selected.

Platform Selection Is Determined by the Audience and Budget First, then Shaped by Other Factors When discussing platform selection, a clear theme emerged that our interviewees based their decisions on the audience’s media consumption patterns. This collective response in many ways was not surprising; however, other factors that surround how platforms are chosen by those who produce these campaigns further our understanding of how transmedia storytelling projects are developed. While some traditional aspects of the media buying process were evident, the practitioners we spoke to also emphasised the importance of flexibility and experimentation as core aspects of their practice. As mentioned, our analysis of our interviewees’ discussion of how platforms are selected to disseminate a central narrative identified the audience as the guiding factor. In the words of one Canadian PR director: “We tend to look at the audience first. So, we’ll always have a session on audience insights ahead of seeing a media plan. We want to understand, again, emerging platforms and how much time is our audience spending on a certain platform … once we understand where our audience is, we’ll take a deeper dive on the platform, understand what units are available, how they interact.”

Media selection was also framed in terms of “what resonates” with the audience and the imperative of reflecting the audience’s “social patterns”. A consideration of how platforms can be used to “customise” storytelling was discussed by a Melbourne, Australia-based luxury brand specialist and an Indian digital advertising agency CEO who explained, “content should be tailored to suit the platform”. However, overall, only a small number of

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interviewees specifically discussed how messaging—the central narrative— played a role in platform selection. While practitioners preferred platforms to be selected after the central narrative was developed, the way the industry functioned meant that media is usually purchased first, as the following description reveals: “Sometimes it’s dictated even before you get the brief. Media has been bought for the year. It’s got to show up here, here, and here. And you’re like, ‘Okay, now I’ve got to come up with an idea and figure out how it fits into that real estate.’ ” (Chief Creative Officer, Canada)

While commonly noting the process of purchasing media at the start of the planning process, several interviewees highlighted the ideal approach of working collaboratively across specialisms from the early campaign development stages onward. This was specifically mentioned by one interviewee who explained: “There’s just so much power when we decide these actions together. Because I think coming from different mindsets, you wouldn’t understand a decision that you’re making on either would have an impact on the other. And when you can make them together, it’s just best for everyone.” (PR Executive, Canada)

The role of collaboration was also mentioned by a Canadian in-house PR Director who emphasised the value of “bringing the team that’s going to actually produce that creative” into the process early when media planning was occurring. Budget restraints were mentioned by a group of participants as a core shaping force of media selection with an Australian creative strategist describing the order of influences as being, “it’s definitely audience, it’s budget and then it’s platforms”. However, financial constraints could be overcome in the contemporary media environment, with practitioners explaining that a modest budget lends itself to the greater use of costeffective tactical responses such as social media channels and achieving coverage in news media. The need for flexibility was discussed with an Australia-based advertising strategist explaining that because media is generally purchased very early in the planning process, there was often little scope for adjustments:

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“There were two stages. There’d be one where I’d be asking the media agency early on, ‘Hey, what media do you have booked?’ And they’ve usually got 80% of the plan booked. And then, after the creative ideas come back, I would usually be brought in by the creative director who would say, ‘Hey, what channels should we be using? How should we bring this to life? What’s the best way you think we could bring this to life?’ And maybe I’d tweak the channels that they’ve chosen or keep them.”

The identification of flexibility during campaign implementation was also mentioned, as exemplified by the following reflection: “You keep an eye on [platform use] the whole way through because you never know what can change and you have to be prepared to be flexible and adaptable.” (Creative Strategist, Australia)

Experimentation was discussed with a Toronto, Canada-based not-forprofit organisation brand manager allocating “10% every year to test new things”. An understanding that platforms, content and audiences are in a continuous state of change was also voiced: “TikTok is a channel now, not necessarily applicable to all cohorts within your segmentation analysis, but it certainly is changing. The TikTok profile is changing. It is a place for information sharing. It is a place for learning.” (Brand Manager, Australia)

In addition, the challenges and benefits of being an early adopter of new platforms were identified: “I’ve been in many scenarios where CEOs and CMOs are afraid of testing new platforms, channels or modes of speaking with their audiences … [however] it pays to be a first mover in a new space.” (Chief Creative Officer, US)

A desire to ensure authenticity also arose when discussing platforms with an Australian brand voice director articulating, by way of example, the pitfalls of financial institutions embracing TikTok: “Even though they’re trying to reach Gen Z with the digital product, it might feel like a battering ram if they go straight to TikTok, and it might feel better if they do YouTube pre-rolls that feel less invasive or insincere.”

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Overall, we can identify the audience as a primary determinant of platform selection. However, tensions were noted due to media often being purchased before practitioners had crafted the project’s creative elements—a practice that suggests the siloed nature of the specialisations of those involved in developing transmedia storytelling projects. Yet interviewees responded to this challenge by expressing the importance of flexibility by “tweaking” the media plan during the ideation process and campaign implementation.

Social Stories Are Highly Effective During the interviews, we asked practitioners to discuss a transmedia storytelling project they have been involved in producing. These descriptions provide insight into impactful or noteworthy aspects of completed work from the perspectives of people who planned and created it. Our analysis of these projects, which ranged across various product categories, revealed three dominant themes that further assist in understanding transmedia storytelling practice. When describing their own transmedia or immersive brand storytelling work, interviewees commonly identified the goal of building a connection between audience members and encouraging shared experiences. For example, AirBnB’s One Less Stranger campaign was discussed as revolving around random acts of kindness facilitated by hosts that linked into a brand narrative of Belong Anywhere (shortyawards, n.d.). As was the case with many other projects, it involved both in-real-life and online experiences with this particular campaign incorporating the physical experience of the host doing something special for the guest and this being shared across digital platforms including a digital map. A sense of community was also evoked in a campaign for beer brand Desperados which took place during COVID-19 lockdowns. The practitioner involved in the brand’s Save The Rave project explained how an app was developed that allowed audience members to enjoy the clublike music of live DJs and enabled their dance moves to count towards financial support for struggling venues. While seemingly more focused on tactics than an expansive transmedia storytelling approach, the interviewee explained how the initiative reflected the client’s “full-on party” brand narrative. For this practitioner, it worked because “it really got our brand out there and it got people to engage with our brand in a completely different way because we weren’t chasing them to listen to us. We just

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created something that they wanted to be a part of, and that’s how they explored our brand even more”. Another common trait of the projects discussed was collaborations with artists and creatives. One of our interviewees discussed luxury car brand Porsche’s collaboration with KONIG Gallery which brought art by emerging artists to billboards across Asia, the United States and Europe. The campaign extended into the release of NFTs of these artworks and told artists’ stories across media platforms. Another example of an artist collaboration came from an interviewee who had worked with Australian prestige winemaker Penfolds to tell its origin story across platforms. Narrated by actor Russell Crowe, the brand’s Story of Grange featured an original score written by film composer David Hirschfelder that the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra performed at the launch of the film, a project that saw the brand focus on music as a core storytelling device. A third element of the work discussed by our interviewees was an integration of gamified approaches in their transmedia storytelling projects. Examples included Nike’s You’re It campaign, which reimagined the game of tag for the digital era to boost the self-confidence of school-aged girls by encouraging them to participate in a game across social media channels. Another interviewee discussed their work on the Dark Knight: Why so serious? project, which allowed a global audience to become part of an alternative reality game set in Gotham City. This gamified approach was viewed as successful in overcoming the challenge of attracting an audience that spanned “five to six decades of people who loved Batman”. One of its producers explained: “And so you’re trying to reach people on all those different levels. And some of them, very tech savvy, some of them very analogue. So you’re trying to figure out how can I open up the storyworld in a way where everyone can participate on some level. I think one thing that was super important and successful about the types of experiences that we created is that we honoured people’s social circles and we didn’t try to create a false one.”

While developed for various product categories, a thread running through all projects discussed was that a central narrative took priority, with the brand playing a supporting role. Given this finding, it is clear practitioners need to intricately understand how to craft an expansive narrative that responds to relevant cultural dynamics.

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Powerful Transmedia Storytelling Projects Reflect Cultural Dynamics We asked our interviewees to discuss a transmedia storytelling or immersive brand experience they admired and had not worked on themselves, a question designed to explore what success looked like from an alternative perspective (Table 5.1). Campaigns with diverse narratives and those produced for various product categories were identified, which further speaks to the utility of the transmedia brand storytelling approach. Practitioners often discussed campaigns for heritage brands already ingrained in the cultural domain as exemplars. Luxury brands, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton, were mentioned due to their application of storytelling approaches across multiple platforms that allowed them to “stay relevant” or achieve “reinvention.” For an Australia-based brand manager, Gucci leveraged its history through storytelling that used its “heritage symbols and codes” to reshape the brand for younger audiences. The use of storytelling as a means of reinvention was mentioned by an Australian content and creative director who also noted that repositioning or staying relevant did not happen quickly but instead was a result of a longer term, up to 15 years, strategy. The importance of adapting to cultural change was woven through these discussions as was the need to Table 5.1 Examples of impactful projects discussed Brand

Project

Product category

Location

Change the Ref Apple Barbie Sick Kids Carling Black Label Mini Egg Farmers Canada Gucci Halo 2 JayZ + Bing Cancer Council Victoria Nike Formula 1 Toshiba + Intel Tide

Class of 2021 Beats launch campaign Imagine the Possibilities Better Tomorrow #NoExcuse The Heist Eggs aren’t weird #TFW Bees Decoded Slip Slop Slap You can’t stop us Drive to Survive The Beauty Inside #laundrynight

Advocacy Technology Toys Not for profit Beverages Automotive Produce Luxury Gaming Publishing Health Apparel Sport Technology Household

USA Global Global Canada South Africa US Canada Global Global Global Australia Middle East Global Global US

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stay relevant with the Imagine the Possibilities campaign developed for the doll brand Barbie discussed: “[The brand] had a lot of real big negativity about setting a wrong stereotype for young girls. And so, they created a campaign and also changed their products and created new products as well around demonstrating all the different ways in which a doll can help change the world. And so, they had representation of all different types of role models and all different types of people to really get people thinking the representation of what is right in the community is very different from where it has been.” (Lead Planner, Australia)

This example epitomises the relationship between product development and culturally responsive storytelling as a form of immersive brand communication that gives something of value to the consumer. As such, it points to the importance of linking to culture and community with brand messaging as a means of remaining relevant, particularly in market categories that experience continual change. Somewhat surprisingly, nostalgia as a specific creative focus was not specifically mentioned as a means of connecting with audiences; however, Australian national airline Qantas’ I Still Call Australia Home campaign was described as an example of circling back to “legacy” brand stories and revisiting them with new interpretations. Indeed, practitioners’ identification of inspiring campaigns reveals a connection between much-loved product or service brands and enduring entertainment franchises or universes, with both embracing reinvention and unexpected forms of expansion that respond to an established central narrative. Our interviewees commonly discussed campaigns that either linked to a social cause or sought to address a social issue, with beer brand Carling Black Label’s stance on violence against women in South Africa offered as an example. A chorus of women initiated the brand’s #NoExcuses campaign by taking to the football field before a rugby finals game to sing the national football anthem Masambe Nono before changing the words to call out domestic violence (WPP, n.d.). According to the Australian lead planner who praised the campaign: “They had all these people that were drinking at the stadium really kind of understand the impact that the product actually has on the behaviour that they have at home. This sparked an absolute news outpour across all social media, which then extended into in-stadium media, which then also then

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extended over to their product, where they had actually created beer cans with ‘no excuses’ on there.”

This campaign indicates bravery on behalf of the client as it acknowledges that, in this instance, the product is part of the problem. Another provocative campaign was mentioned by a Netherlands-based creative director who identified The Lost Class of 2021 as a highly immersive campaign for the Change The Ref organisation. The campaign saw a former National Rifle Association president speak to 3044 empty chairs to symbolise gun violence victims who would have graduated from high school in 2021 if their lives had not been taken. The speaker was unaware of the reasons for the empty seats and did not realise that the school James Madison Academy was not real but instead a fabrication developed by the advocacy group. The campaign resulted in a significant amount of media coverage and online conversation. The initial video was supported by additional content that went into further detail on the argument for universal background checks for firearms purchasers to “set out a longer discussion” (Leo Burnett, 2021). For the creative professional who identified the campaign’s merits, the brand story’s power resulted from novel messaging that worked across media in ways that did not repeat an expected message. These social impact-focused campaigns have a common thread of presenting social messaging in unexpected and surprising ways, and as a result, encourage co-creation in the form of conversation.

Evoking Playfulness and Creativity When discussing impactful work, interviewees also described transmedia brand stories that evoked a sense of playfulness and encouraged collaborative creativity. For example, a UK senior creative discussed search engine Bing’s collaboration with the publisher of JayZ’s autobiography in a campaign that saw pages of the book placed across the world in “the location of each page was inspired by the story it told” (Droga5, n.d.). The campaign encompassed a diverse mix of in-real-life, broadcast media and digital experiences as well as game elements, with audience members seeking to find each clue and compile the book before it was released. This practitioner explained:

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“I thought that was one of the coolest pieces of advertising to come out because it really changed the way that I approached media in general. Because at the end of the day, he was selling a book. But just to make it super interesting, turning it into a treasure hunt around the city, making people go around the city to be able to discover the pages of his book. I think the best kind of advertising actually gets you to get the consumer to do something.”

Similarly, the goal of “getting the audience to do something” was mentioned by a Toronto, Canada-based creative who discussed The Beauty Inside campaign developed by Toshiba and Intel. The groundbreaking campaign revolved around a “social” film about the main character Alex who wakes up in a different body each morning. The brand is woven subtly into the story as Alex documents his experiences using a webcam on his Toshiba computer with an Intel processing technology “inside.” To enable co-creation, audience members auditioned to be part of the project via Facebook by developing a short video as the main character. They were also able to interact with the main character Alex across social media platforms as the series of web films was released. In her reflection on the campaign our interviewee explained: “The people, we, could participate in it and visibly participate in it. So in the way that The Beauty Inside allowed people to audition to be part of the story, and then they were in it.” (Creative Director, Canada)

Tide’s #laundrynight campaign was also discussed as an example of storytelling creativity and innovative media use. The campaign, a collaboration with the US National Football League, evolved from the insight that “most people do laundry on Sunday, which also coincides with live football” and as a result, can miss exciting parts of the game (The Drum, 2019). The campaign spread across social and traditional platforms in unusual ways. These included the integration of the campaign’s central narrative into NFL press conferences and TV programmes, including Superstore, The Voice, Days of Our Lives and Saturday Night Live (Gianatasio, 2019). The project gained momentum by fostering playful debate on the downsides of multi-skilling and the best night to do laundry. Limited edition laundry pods—Tuesday Tide Pods—that featured competition winners’ favourite NFL players further advanced the

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storyline. In all three examples, blurred boundaries between the entertainment world and branding are apparent through interesting collaborations and novel use of platforms. Our analysis of practitioner examples of impactful work suggests a series of influences that shape social storytelling creativity. It emerged that successful campaigns have "seeped into culture" due to offering unexpected but relatable ways of seeing the world. In addition, they typically involved innovative uses of media that linked in-real-life actions with digital content-making to facilitate playfulness or self-expression. In all instances, the brand played a supporting rather than leading role in the story and, as a result, encouraged the audience to invest emotionally.

Creativity, Culture and Social Stories: From Theory to Practice Our analysis found a series of alignments between existing research and frequently identified aspects of creating and planning transmedia storytelling work. In a reflection of an overarching theme that runs through our findings, the imperative of reflecting culture was consistently mentioned by interviewees as guiding ideation. This focus manifested in descriptions of projects that practitioners had worked on themselves and those made by others that they felt were impactful or memorable. This is a significant finding as it highlights how the target audience sits within a larger cultural domain and for some interviewees served as a means of broadening an audience or attracting the attention of new consumers. The need for storyworlds to draw inspiration from culture is highlighted in Tenderich and Williams’ (2015) transmedia branding model. Tide’s #laundrynight campaign is an example of this perspective—the identification of an everyday tension between doing laundry and watching football unfolded as a light-hearted cultural touchstone that had yet to be identified. This is an example of how brands need to “relegate their message”, as one of the content specialists we spoke to put it, and place the story first. While just one interviewee specifically named the “experience economy” theory as developed by Pine and Gilmore (2019), our analysis noted the desire to move beyond product benefit-focused communication and to craft experiences that were culturally relevant and emotionally impactful. Interviewees commonly viewed gamified approaches as being effective due to the ability of challenges and rewards to immerse the audience in

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a storyworld. However, some practitioners felt the model was dated or often appealed more to those outside the target audience. It could also be argued that focusing on the application of gameplay approaches has the potential to detract from an emotively powerful narrative. One means of evaluating the suitability of a gamified approach or the inclusion of game elements is to focus on the emotional transformation evoked, again a process that circles back to the relevance of theory-informed practice when conceiving a storyworld and its extensions. The ability of transmedia storytelling approaches to either have a social impact or give the brand a voice on a social issue reflects Coombs’ (2019) conception of transmedia storytelling as a valid means of progressing corporate social responsibility initiatives. This perspective also ties into Giovagnoli’s (2011) description of transmedia storytelling projects as expansive “narrative engines” that accommodate complexity. Indeed, Granitz and Forman (2015, p. 42) argue that transmedia storytelling has evolved as an approach for brands because it allows them to tell stories “so big or complex that they cannot be told in one medium”. Based on these perspectives and insights drawn from our findings, it is clear the approach offers brands the ability to engage with social issues, as it can accommodate nuanced rather than superficial forms of engagement with community concerns.

Bringing Narrative and Transmedia Models into Practice When discussing their creative process, a theme emerged to suggest that focusing on an audience insight—“a human truth”—was the starting point for crafting a central narrative. Furthermore, this narrative was ideally “technology agnostic”, meaning it was not developed with one particular platform in mind. Some practitioners discussed their pursuit of “an idea” rather than a narrative. While focusing on the idea first may appear ideal and self-evident, there is scope to problematise this approach in the context of transmedia storytelling; to query if “the idea” in advertising is the same as the “central narrative” when brand storytelling across platforms is the goal. It could be argued that the idea is a creative concept repeated across platforms whereas a central narrative is an evocative transformation communicated differently in each telling; in effect, brand communication becomes less about repeating and more about elaborating.

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Participants did not discuss narrative theories or models as being part of their creative process. That is, however, not to say that these practitioners, as professional storytellers, do not intuitively possess and apply this knowledge. Yet, there is scope to consider how narrative theory—such as Campbell’s hero’s journey (2008), Booker’s (2004) seven foundational plot approaches and Freytag’s (1997 [1863]) narrative pyramid—provide a means of understanding how audiences experience brand stories and draw attention to the importance of narrative transformation. Given this, we argue that embracing narrative theory could assist in “selling in” transmedia brand storytelling to clients and further guiding the creative process. When discussing their ideation processes, practitioners appeared to sit in one of two camps. Some said the narrative emanated from the brand itself “having something powerful to say”, and others identified audience insights as the dominant creative impetus. Such rigid lines of demarcation are not necessarily needed. Instead, it is worthwhile to explore how an engaging narrative can result from a dialogue between a brand’s values and insights about its audience. Authors such as Moin (2020) and Sachs (2012) have covered this territory. However, we can extend this understanding further by emphasising the role of cultural influences to identify a confluence of factors that shape the creative process of this form of brand storytelling. The decision to choose media based on its affordances and the imperative that each should tell a unique story was not mentioned in detail by our participants. This notion is central to Jenkins’ conceptualisation of transmedia storytelling (2010, 2011) and further articulated by Tenderich and Williams (2015) in their transmedia branding approach. Again, this knowledge may be more internalised than consciously applied given that we spoke to highly experienced brand storytellers. There are, however, benefits to be gained from drawing attention to this guiding principle in brand communication contexts. Above all, it justifies investment in content that is unique for each platform as opposed to a “fly posting” method (Leeding, n.d.) of repeating the same message across platforms. In addition, if the transmedia storytelling project aims to build a community or reflect the interests of an existing one, engagement will be dampened with the repetition across platforms as opposed to offering new content and experiences across a storyworld structure. In the words of one of our interviewees:

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“Modern [brand] communication is not so much matching luggage. It is taking that same strategic thread and having it show up differently.” (Chief Creative Officer, Canada)

Towards a Scalable Model of Transmedia Storytelling Previous research has not delved deeply into whether some product categories are better suited to a transmedia storytelling approach than others. However, Giovagnoli (2018) has argued that the “expansive narrative engines” and complexity of transmedia storytelling may be too wide an objective for some brands. Our research indicates that some brands were a more “natural fit” than others if they had existing cultural cache or involved high-involvement or prolonged purchasing decisions. Yet there was a group who still felt that transmedia storytelling could be applied if the brand, no matter what product category it was in or how long it has been in existence, could craft a story to tell that would resonate with the audience. Indeed, this is revealed by the brand Dove which despite being an everyday skincare range has managed to tell and retell a distinctive brand story that resonates with its audiences over the long term. Analysis of our interviews ultimately revealed the utility of transmedia storytelling. While most felt it was best suited to a long-term brand positioning approach that was reflected across all touchpoints, others stated that it also works effectively as a shorter-term and standalone campaign strategy. In an argument that will be further expanded upon in Chapter 12, we argue that the model has a scalability that puts it within reach of all brands if they commit to developing a transformational narrative and seek out surprising and cohesive evocations of that story. The nature of our research—which focuses on the experiences of those who produce transmedia storytelling projects for brands—has identified tensions between communicators and clients. One of the most telling of these was the common belief that it takes a brave client to embrace and commit to an inherently surprising and evocative narrative. This both emerged in the discussion of barriers to creativity and is indicated in participants’ descriptions of transmedia storytelling work they felt was impactful. In the eyes of our practitioners, a transmedia brand strategy will not achieve impact and engagement if it does not express an unexpected story that connects both to the audience (through an insight) and

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is linked to broader cultural cues. This was identified as a difficult process, yet one with “more opportunities” at a time when audiences exist in a highly fragmented media landscape and avoid traditional forms of brand communication. Tenderich and Williams (2015) commonly refer to the need for transmedia storytelling to be disruptive, to evoke radical change in brand communication. Yet another means of considering this based on our analysis is to aim for the unexpected or surprising but still relatable to the audience and the cultural domains they exist within; in other words, to focus on creativity as a means of connecting and encouraging audience co-creation. While media for paid platforms was purchased in advance, often before the narrative was developed or finalised, interviewees commonly said that flexibility and a move away from traditional advertising were common aspects of platform selection and content development. This insight is a contemporary one articulated in the PESO model (Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned) (Hardy, 2018). According to a European senior creative we spoke with, the industry was relying less on paid media and instead placing greater attention on brand content that “cuts through in big powerful ways”. This development was further evident in practitioners’ discussion of impactful campaign examples and points to the possibility of greater investment in compelling organic brand content over paid messaging. Ultimately this translates to less repetition and more expansive story making. Collaborations with creatives or makers were commonly described as a means of building content options and linking the brand’s story to an existing narrative. A desire to experiment was also clearly indicated. For instance, they discussed the metaverse as creating “more opportunities” for developing stories for emerging platforms and world-building. At the same time, more traditional approaches were discussed as sites of innovation with long forms of content, such as documentaries, TV series or films emerging as brand stories.

Conclusion This chapter has explored the planning and creation of immersive brand storytelling projects. We achieved this by considering detailed descriptions of practice and survey data focusing on the creative process, content development and platform selection. In addition, analysis of transmedia storytelling projects that interviewees felt were impactful also contributed

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to our findings. The chapter revealed the utility of transmedia brand storytelling in terms of its potential for any brand that is open to crafting an evocative central narrative. Our analysis highlights that creativity is paramount to developing an overarching narrative that can be extended into a universe or storyworld and that achieving this goal, from the perspective of those who produce this work, requires brave clients that will commit to “saying something powerful”. Indeed, there is a degree of risk as the model is commonly applied in ways that contribute to larger conversations about social issues; an outcome that can be achieved by reframing audiences as communities and focusing on how the brand can “lean into culture” with an authentic and transformational narrative. These findings have allowed us to discuss the interplay between theory and practice to identify ways existing frameworks can evolve to reflect emergent shifts in audience behaviours. Chapter 6 will expand this knowledge by analysing how practitioners feel that audiences engage with storytelling content and experiences and, importantly, methods applied to encourage the often-challenging task of encouraging audience participation.

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Giovagnoli, M. (Ed.). (2011). Transmedia storytelling: Imagery, shapes and techniques. Etc Press. Giovagnoli, M. (2018). Transmedia branding and marketing: Concepts and practices. In R. R. Gambarato & M. Freeman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 251–259). Routledge. Granitz, N., & Forman, H. (2015). Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 38–59. Hardy, J. (2018). Branded content: Media and marketing integration. In. J. Hardy, H. Powell, & I. MacRurdy (Eds.), The advertising handbook (4th ed., pp. 102–122). Routledge. Jenkins, H. (2010). Transmedia storytelling and entertainment: An annotated syllabus. Continuum, 24(6), 943–958. Jenkins, H. (2011, 31 July). Transmedia 202: Further reflections. Pop Junctions. http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html Leeding, G. (n.d.). The secret to great social storytelling. D&AD. https://www. dandad.org/en/d-ad-social-media-storytelling-training-content/ Leo Burnett. (2021, June 23). Leo Burnett stages graduation for “The Lost Class”. https://leoburnett.com/news/leo-burnett-stages-graduation-for-thelost-class Moin, S. M. A. (2020). Brand storytelling in the digital age. Springer. Piccialli, S. (2021). Connect, BTS: An example of innovative transmedia branding to rethinking spatiality and meaning-making. Asia Marketing Journal, 22(4), 9. Pine II, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2019). The experience economy, with a new preface by the authors: Competing for customer time, attention, and money. Harvard Business Press. Sachs, J. (2012). Winning the story wars: Why those who tell (and live) the best stories will rule the future. Harvard Business Press. Scolari, C. A. (2009). Transmedia storytelling: Implicit consumers, narrative worlds, and branding in contemporary media production. International Journal of Communication, 3, 586–606. Scolari, A. C. (2018). Transmedia branding: Brands, narrative worlds, and the McWhopper peace agreement. Semiotica, 2018(224), 1–17. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press. The Drum. (2019, September). Tide: Laundry Night Debate. https://www.the drum.com/creative-works/project/tide-laundry-night-debate WPP. (n.d.). Ogilvy: Carling Black Label Soccer Song for Change. https://www. wpp.com/featured/work/2019/04/ogilvy---carling-black-label-soccer-songfor-change

CHAPTER 6

Audience Participation and “Learning” Transmedia Storytelling

Participation is a defining trait of transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts, yet how practitioners encourage audience engagement has yet to be comprehensively explored. This chapter addresses this gap by analysing the nature of participation from the perspectives of brand storytellers and identifies how they motivate audiences to engage with a transmedia brand story. Our survey revealed most respondents (49.8%) felt that User-Generated Content was the most effective participatory tactic. However, descriptions of practice from interviewees highlighted the merits of various other forms of participation. With transmedia brand storytelling, any communicative entity—physical, analogue or digital—can be a platform, and any platform can be participatory. As such, examples noted in our research included in-reallife events, physical objects (e.g. toys, special edition products, collector’s items), crowd-sourced contributions or experiences, augmented and virtual reality, video games, competitions and sharing content across social media. The breadth of these tactics underscores why “participation” is a helpful term, as it accommodates open-ended and often less structured experiences (Tenderich & Williams, 2015). When attempting to foster participation, interviewees emphasised the merit of creativity and authenticity in motivating action. They also discussed the effectiveness of psychological incentives, as well as simple yet emotionally compelling methods for stimulating content-sharing and encouraging © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_6

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collaborative content creation. In a reflection of broader justifications for applying transmedia storytelling, audience participation was commonly framed as the overarching strategy of giving the audience something of value to contribute or experience. Our findings reveal conceptual links to existing theory and allow us to establish a set of principles for transmedia brand storytelling participation. Further, this chapter considers how practitioners learned about transmedia and immersive storytelling and the extent to which they engage with academic theories and models. These insights enable us to discuss how theory enhances practice and how knowledge of practice can elevate existing conceptual frameworks.

Participation Emerges from Understanding the Audience and Encouraging Creativity When discussing how to encourage audience participation in a transmedia brand story, our interviewees commonly identified “knowing” or “understanding” the audience as a foundational principle. In addition, contemporary audiences were seen as “having a lot more power” and “demanding more and more from brands”—perceptions that further indicate transactional or one-way communication approaches are of diminished significance. The importance of audiences being actively involved in brand storymaking was made clear. An Australian brand voice director saw contemporary audiences not so much as consumers but instead as “collaborators”. For a US-based chief creative officer, participatory tactics had become integral to brand storytelling in the contemporary environment because “people want to engage with brands across many devices, platforms, and they want to participate in the experience rather than just be a passive consumer of the content”. In terms of the benefits provided, a lead planner from Sydney, Australia, felt audience input allowed the brand to start “layering in different messages at different points” to achieve more “multidimensional” storytelling. These perspectives draw attention to the heightened relevance of audience research in ways that move beyond just tracing product or service perceptions. Instead, a more fruitful approach that supports participatory storytelling is to more deeply consider the audience’s everyday lives, values and cultural spheres. While identified as a significant tactical opportunity for brands, some saw audience participation as challenging. For example, a Melbourne,

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Australia-based creative strategist explained that when it comes to being part of a brand story, “a lot of people couldn’t be bothered. They don’t have time between getting to work, feeding the kids, paying the mortgage”. Others noted the need for the continual adaption of approaches “because every campaign is a different world and sometimes it is super easy to engage with people, and sometimes it’s impossible to engage with them” (Creative Director, Netherlands). However, one element commonly discussed as core means of encouraging participation was a “creative appeal” because, in the words of a Netherlands-based Executive Creative Director, “you’re not going to bore people into doing something for you”. He continued: “Once you have that level of understanding [of what matters to the audience] then you apply layers of creativity on that, so you make it as fun, as heartfelt, as dynamic, as colourful as all these, you pull all the levers you can.”

A similar perspective was offered by the following interviewee: “Creativity is key. If you want someone to be interested, to participate, to get excited about something, the piece should be that creative.” (Senior Creative, UK)

Including unfamiliar, unexpected or surprising elements to encourage participation is supported by the previous chapter’s discussion of the importance of developing a novel overarching narrative. These interlinked goals can only be achieved through a deep and ongoing understanding of the audience.

Authenticity and a Sense of Community Foster Participation Authenticity was specifically discussed as another outcome of understanding the audience that underpinned audience participation. A US-based mixed reality agency CEO felt authenticity resulted from “respecting [the audience’s] social roles and social circles”. Another interviewee highlighted the merit of observing and reflecting:

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“Speaking to them in a way that they want to be spoken to and that they feel listened to, they feel understood. And then at that point, I think they’re going to be ready to be engaged with.” (Executive Creative Director, Netherlands)

Brand storytellers also talked through the consequences of audience participation tactics that lacked authenticity. For instance, one senior creative discussed how younger audiences could “smell it” if a brand jumps onto a trend, while an Australian art director and animator highlighted the need for attempts to encourage participation to be well-considered with the following example: “It’s like if a winery says, ‘Make a wine costume, take a photograph of yourself dressed up as a wine bottle, and send it in.’ That just seems stupid, doesn’t it?”

Some interviewees criticised generic approaches that revolved around requests for the audience to “share their story”. At the same time, they commonly noted that any form of participation in a brand story was more of a possibility if the brand had an existing community, which can be considered an ideal outcome of sustained authentic communication. As expressed by an Australian advertising strategy consultant, the process is easier if working for a “cult brand” or if the brand is “confident in owning the space” (Brand Voice Director, Australia) due to having an actively loyal audience. Conditions for building or maintaining a loyal community through storytelling were touched upon. An Australia-based brand storytelling agency founder identified cohesion as a core marker of success by explaining that communicators need a “strong brand narrative because ultimately that becomes your unofficial framework for how to engage with the brand”. He suggested that brands learn to relinquish some control of messaging to encourage audiences to become co-creators: “[As] storytellers, we have to kind of accept the fact that if we do sort of encourage that, you have to relinquish control. And the thing that we all need to bear in mind is that even though we may be sort of stewards of a brand, we don’t actually own the brand. The brand belongs to the people that touch it and engage with it.”

From this, we can propose that the authenticity that supports participation is more likely to occur when a community of consumers exists or

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can be developed, an insight that builds on the need for creative contexts for active engagement.

Providing Something of Value Within the Storyworld and Psychological Rewards Matter While interviewees commonly explained that evoking participation was a challenge and “a hard thing to put a formula on”, the goal of entertaining audiences as a means of achieving this outcome was discussed with, for example, one senior creative from The Netherlands explaining “people feel like they’re being given something of value [to do]… and we’re not just wasting their time”. And in the words of a California-based mixed reality producer: “Giving them a real role and opening the storyworld or the brand experience up and giving them a value-added experience. Giving them something if they’re investing their time that pays off, that validates them, that gives them something meaningful in return. All those are keys to success.”

The inclusion of competitions in transmedia storytelling projects divided interviewees with some suggesting these tactics were often effective while others felt this form of engagement attracted the attention of those outside the target audience or was disingenuous. For instance: “…there’s certain low-hanging fruit, like a contest or a submission. That’s very easy but devoid of a strategy or an insight. It’s just a very hollow transaction.” [Chief Creative Officer, Canada]

And in a similar vein: “I don’t love competition-driven campaigns because I think you end up with a bunch of people that are just driven by wanting to win the prize rather than what you’re actually trying to do.” (Communications Manager, Australia)

Instead, she felt experiential tactics were a stronger means of encouraging participation:

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“So, I think if you give people a great experience, whatever it is, that’s the most critical part to their initial participation and ongoing participation and likelihood to give good word of mouth and share with their own networks. So, yeah, first and foremost, make it a good experience. It would be my key priority.”

Psychological rewards were often seen by interviewees as being an effective pathway with, for example, the use of pay-offs that reward the target audience’s interest as “incentives always work”. This was framed around the idea of acknowledging that the audience is making a time investment when playing a role in the brand’s story: “[I would be] always thinking about what is the reward, and making the reward so much bigger and outweighed by the participation. That would be the question we’re always asking is, is the reward big enough? Is the incentive big enough for the investment that we’re asking for?” (Executive Creative Director, Netherlands)

Gamified approaches were discussed as encouraging participation with an Australia-based communications manager, who predominantly worked in the tourism category, discussing audiences collectively gathering clues or piecing together experiences in ways that suggested crowd-sourced actions. While this specifically connects to one approach, participants commonly saw participatory tactics as an evolving pool of engagement and co-creation options rather than adhering to one particular model. However, a connecting perspective emerged to indicate participatory tactics that encouraged “joy” were fruitful. For example, Nike’s Play New campaign, in which local artists captured the “joy of sport” in content designed to encourage its audience to share and react, was discussed as an example of evoking happiness based on psychological rewards for participation. Overall, forms of engagement and co-creation that rewarded or added value to an audience’s everyday lives were seen as more effective incentives to participate than generic competitions. Yet it should be noted that a section of our interviewees were adamant that competitions and polls still had value, particularly if they were “quirky” or well suited to a specific audience.

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Simplicity and Earned/shared Content Loops Were Emphasised When discussing specific content triggers to encourage participation, simplicity was highlighted as an essential element, with for instance, an Australia-based lead planner noting the importance of giving the audience “very clear instruction about how you want them to engage with a touchpoint”, while a Toronto, Canada-based public relations executive believed “keeping it as simple as possible and limiting as many barriers as we can” was paramount. And in a comparable perspective: “What I’ve found is that the lighter the touch, the more engagement that you’re going to get. Obviously, things that are easier to do will obviously get more engagement.” (Strategist, Australia)

Hashtags were commonly discussed as a means of encouraging audiences to move from one content piece to the next. Regularly communicating with brand advocates was also emphasised, highlighting the significance of straightforward but influential engagement actions. For one of the senior creatives interviewed, the importance of reaching out to brand advocates to be the first to know about new content was emphasised as they become “a channel in and of themselves”. The timings of participatory tactics were rarely discussed; however, the topic was touched upon by an Australian advertising agency account director who, when describing a campaign, reflected: “We didn’t release everything at the start. We had a slow trickle of content and information to retain that engagement .”

A group of interviewees mentioned relationships between UserGenerated Content and traditional or earned media. This was evident in their discussion of attracting the attention of the news media and influencers. According to a Canadian not-for-profit organisation brand manager, paying for influencers to share a message was widespread; however, she felt this “channel” was more effective when the brand had a powerful story that influencers wanted to be part of: “It comes down to having compelling content that moves people emotionally. That is the secret to getting people to share your story without you having to ask them to.”

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While the use of influencers was noted in passing, none of our participants described approaches in which external content makers played a central role in brand storytelling. Links between online and offline activity were emphasised as core elements of transmedia storytelling projects that blended the online world with the real world. In the words of one of our participants who created an immersive campaign for a European alcohol brand that involved transforming a landlocked Spanish city location into a tropical beach destination: “It starts online and finishes in real life, or you start in the street, and you have to go online to follow the campaign … nowadays there are no limitations. You can create whatever you want, which is amazing for a creative.”

It is telling that most interviewees discussed participation-focused examples that involved shared or owned media tactics, with very few discussing paid advertising components when identifying how to elicit audience participation. On this, a London-based advertising agency senior creative explained: “It’s really important for brands to also go beyond just the traditional modes of advertising to reach people these days. Not everyone wants to look at an ad, so what are the creative new ways in which you can use whatever media is out there, and literally anything can be a media.”

Overall, our analysis reveals the imperative of creating simple yet well-considered prompts to encourage audience participation; a principle that works in concert with other elements, including the lodestars of creativity, authenticity, and embedding psychological rewards in participatory content and experiences.

Practice Is Based on “Gut Feeling” and “Osmosis” Interviewees’ discussion of if or how theories were used to inform their practice revealed that transmedia storytelling and immersive approaches were mostly the outcomes of “intuition”, “intrinsic knowledge” or “gut feeling” rather than the application of an established body of knowledge. In the words of a Canadian public relations specialist we spoke with:

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“A lot of what I’ve worked on I can find a way that it resonates with me personally as well … if you can put yourself in [the consumer’s shoes], it’s easier to determine, in my mind, the path forward.”

A similar perspective was offered by another research participant: “A lot of it is based on our sort of intuition, our learnings, our experiences, and sort of what you would term as gut feel.” (Digital Advertising Agency CEO, India)

While some were adamant that there was “no magic model” for social storytelling across platforms, learning from previous projects was idenitifed as a core means of shaping future campaigns. According to an Australia-based brand voice specialist, “[with] most practitioners, you’ll find that every project is an evolution of their last project,” and, he added, are crafted through “trial and error”. For many, considering what other practitioners and brands are producing was identified as a significant influence and, in effect, can be viewed as allowing them to build informal models that were applied in practice: “It’s probably less about theories and it’s more about reading what other people are doing. What other thought leaders in that space are thinking about and talking about as opposed to any kind of academic theory.” (Creative Strategist, Australia)

Any informal or industry models were not “drawn from one core source” and were “a combination of proprietary information, it’s a combination of different white papers that we read”. (Leader Planner, Australia) Case studies and industry publications were also viewed as a core source of guidance for practitioners, as indicated by the following reflection: “We look at a ton of precedent and other case studies and cheat and steal and duct tape from things that have worked and paint it blue when it used to be red and that kind of thing.” (Chief Creative Officer, Canada)

While gut feeling and learning from what is occurring in the industry were largely used to shape transmedia storytelling projects in

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brand communication contexts, a small number mentioned informal or employer theories. For instance, “the truth of the brand” was discussed by an Amsterdam-based executive creative director who explained that he sought to identify why a brand exists and what motivates its employees. “Brand love” was discussed as a core knowledge framework by a notfor-profit organisation brand manager based in Canada: “We tend to look at our content in three pillars. Number one is voltage or brand love. This is a story or a piece of content that purely makes people feel good. So, something that takes their breath away gives them a positive sentiment towards the brand.”

Another informal theory stated as guiding transmedia storytelling practice was “cultural relevance”, which was described as evolving from a clear consumer persona that could be used to guide cohesive content development for different teams working across regions. Only one interviewee mentioned what could be linked to narrative theory with a Canadian chief creative officer explaining: “That’s why you look at Robert McKee’s story about his seven fundamentals of how [storytelling] works and it doesn’t really change based on media. Every medium, done well, follows a certain version of that.”

However, there were indications of an applied understanding of narrative theory as documented in brand storytelling literature, such as Sachs (2012), with a Canadian in-house public relations director explaining the principle that “every story needs a moral”. While participants did not specifically refer to transmedia branding or storytelling theories, many of the elements within these models were discussed, thereby revealing a relationship between theory and practice. Given that the practitioners we spoke to are already developing brand storytelling approaches, internalised knowledge is not surprising. It also suggests that further documenting how theory and practice work together, and presenting this knowledge in a holistic framework, is a fruitful pursuit.

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Ongoing Learning Occurs Through Trial and Error, and Reflection Most participants who took part in our survey said that they learned about transmedia and immersive brand storytelling through online content (32.1%), formal studies (17.1%) or colleagues (13.1%). To gain further insight, we asked our interviewees to tell us how they built their knowledge of brand storytelling methods and strategies applied in their current practice. Given that transmedia storytelling evolved into its current form during the digital media era, it was expected that formal studies would not play a significant role in shaping practice. This was confirmed with only one interviewee saying that knowledge of brand storytelling was gained through formal education. The majority instead discussed “learning by doing” or “trial and error” as the ways in which they built their craft while working on projects. For instance, a Toronto, Canada-based communications agency chief creative officer explained that “you just do it” after first learning “the best way to talk to an audience in a compelling way”. Others talked about learning from mentors or “osmosis”. Observing competitor brands was also mentioned: “[We look at] what are competitors doing, because there’s so much stuff out there. What can you find, like a magpie, that’s working out there in the industry, what hasn’t worked, what do you think you can do better? So I’m all for taking stuff and re-crafting it, reusing it, reimagining it, making it better and bigger.” (Lead Planner, Australia)

When discussing their professional backgrounds, a pattern emerged that interviewees had often worked across various communication specialisations mentioning career trajectories across the fields of journalism, advertising and public relations. The importance of paying attention to other disciplines was specifically noted by the following interviewee who discussed how her agency had restructured to allow stronger collaboration: “We have all this subject matter expertise in all these different arenas that you can pull from to get their POV as you’re developing something and learning while you’re doing it too in terms of what would make sense based on each discipline.” (PR Account Executive, Canada)

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Overall, understanding how practitioners learn and continue to develop their practice reveals the central role of exposure to online content about successful campaigns, learning on the job and mentorship. Interestingly, a background of working across specialisms and a desire to learn from those in other fields further reflect the multi-disciplinary and experimental nature of transmedia storytelling itself.

Complex Storyworlds Take Time to Craft and Cohesively Implement We asked interviewees what they wished they knew at the start of their journey as storytellers to further support the aim of this book as this topic, by inference, reveals what they see as aspects of their current practice worthy of focus. While they offered a wide variety of responses, some of which were quite granular or functional (for example, video editing skills), a theme emerged around temporal factors. This finding surfaced in interviews in slightly different ways, with some practitioners explaining that they wish they had known how much time it takes to craft a transmedia storytelling project. In the words of a Sydney, Australia-based integrated agency lead planner: “I think that’s a really big educational job and, to be really honest, that’s something that we even have to do within our own agency, is educating people, like how long things take to bring people on that journey, because you are not developing an idea and you are not developing a transmedia ecosystem in a silo. You are doing it with so many different people, and you need to get alignment from so many different people.”

The time it took to “sell” the strategy of a transmedia storytelling project was also articulated: “I wish I knew a little bit more about understanding how to sell [campaign ideas] and understanding the investment of time and also client investment of time because that’s a thing that, as agency people, you often overlook.” (Strategist, Australia)

The importance of craft was also emphasised by a Spanish creative director, who highlighted that building expertise in the area needs to be

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mastered over thousands of hours and that producing these projects is a “marathon”. A secondary theme that emerged from our analysis of practitioners’ reflections of their early career knowledge was the integration between various specialisms that the approach required. In the words of a senior Canadian public relations: “One thing I would say and it speaks to the point around craft because for so many brands video content and video storytelling continues to be really the cornerstone of these integrated campaigns: bring the team that’s going to actually produce that creative into the process really early.”

However, this was still noted as a significant challenge to overcome: “We are breaking down perceived notions and perceived ways of working that have been functioning for 25-plus years. I would tell myself to have a lot of patience.”

And lastly, many of the creatives we spoke to felt they wished they had been more adept at strategic thinking at the start of their career to, for example, better understand the importance of “brand DNA and values” (Brand Manager, Australia) when applying storytelling techniques, or to be able to better articulate to the client “why it’s not the best thing to put the brand front and centre” (Content and Creative Director, Australia). As an evolution of previous models, transmedia brand storytelling requires a shift in brand communication thinking, one that emphasises the time it takes to implement the strategy as well as the challenges of explaining that duration and the need for conceptual crafting to the client.

Encouraging Participation and Learning to Tell the Story: From Theory to Practice As is the case with the body of literature on transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts (Giovagnoli, 2011; Sawhney, 2019, 2021; Tenderich, 2014; Tenderich & Williams, 2015), participation was a defining feature emphasised by participants when talking through the strategy. The belief that there was “no formula” for encouraging participation was discussed several times, a perspective that echoes Jenkins’ (2015) understanding of transmedia storytelling practice more broadly.

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This presumption is particularly relevant to participatory tactics as the nature of the contemporary media landscape means that, to varying degrees, most platforms can encourage two-way interaction. Rather than listing all of these templates for success, a more robust approach is to consider an overarching logic or a set of principles developed from our analysis. When identifying the conditions where audience participation can flourish, interviewees again mentioned the importance of brands ceding some degree of control of their messaging. This reflects the progressive academic perspective of “living brands” (Kornberger, 2011) that are shaped by audiences through their sense-making and, if we transfer this understanding to transmedia storytelling, their reshaping, remixing and reacting to a brand or campaign narrative that captures their imagination. One means of achieving this, as discussed by the practitioners we spoke with, is to encourage a sense of joy in creating content, a perspective Gauntlett (2018) has explored in terms of the “everyday creativity” capable of connecting people through craft and community. Thus far, transmedia storytelling literature has focused on the need for brands to evoke an emotional response, with Cronin (2016) by way of Jenkins (2011) stating that participation can be triggered by emotionally relatable content. Adding specificity to this goal by framing experiences around joy or self-expression enhances existing transmedia branding knowledge. Interviewees’ discussion of creating experiences rather than highly polished broadcast modes of advertising suggests an implied application of the “experience economy” model (Pine & Gilmore, 2019). In addition, when outlining prompts for encouraging participation, our interviewees drew attention to simplicity. In effect, they confirm earlier considerations of transmedia storytelling in which Tenderich and Williams (2015) identified the importance of making it straightforward for audiences to participate in content-making opportunities. Our interviewees also stated that achieving participation was more likely when a brand had an existing brand community or was a “cult” brand, a perspective that aligns with established transmedia thinking (Tenderich cited in Jenkins, 2015). Yet this point does raise a potential “chicken or the egg” question—can a community be built through transmedia storytelling or should only established “cult” brands attempt the model? While authors have suggested transmedia approaches are not within reach of all brands (Giovagnoli, 2011; Tenderich & Williams,

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2015), projects outlined by our interviewees indicate the model’s relevance for all product categories. Further, authenticity was noted as central to the story-making process and capable of encouraging audience engagement and co-creation. Both a mainstay of recent marketing literature and widely discussed in scholarship on brand storytelling (Laer et al., 2014; Moin, 2020; Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012; Woodside et al., 2008), the goal of understanding the audience was a priority of the practitioners who took part in our research. Yet more specifically, the fashioning of empathy into a cohesive narrative reflects empirical research by Quesenberry and Coolsen (2019), who conclude that brands with developed narratives that reflect structured narrative arcs achieve more robust audience engagement. While theory was not seen as a core shaping force of brand storytelling practice, some discernible alignments were identified, particularly regarding the need for brands to be more audience-centric when seeking to encourage engagement and content co-creation outcomes. In addition, both the literature and the participants in our study drew attention to the importance of building brand communities and maintaining the authenticity needed in messaging to evoke participation.

Modelling the Audience Journey and Facilitating Conversations Considering how existing models and conceptualisations of transmedia storytelling can elevate practice further builds towards a practitioner-led understanding of the construct. Participant descriptions of participatory tactics across platforms did not commonly describe the process of taking the audience on a journey, except for those who identified relationships between online content and offline experiences. The sprawling nature of participatory experience options does not necessarily accommodate a universal approach to guiding the audience’s journey. However, considering their platform use behaviours is vital as a means of situating entry points, links between content and directions for audience action. It is likely that as seasoned brand storytellers, the practitioners involved in our research intuitively plot out audience movements using internalised models drawn from experience. At the same time, there is value in modelling this process in ways that accommodate reflective practice and knowledge building. As established in Chapter 3, an anchor or “mothership” story approach

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highlights a transmedia storytelling approach with new content extensions radiating off an origin story or central narrative. This approach, developed by Jenkins (2006), establishes a storyworld structure that, in turn, gives audiences reasons to engage as they become more immersed in the narrative. Jenkins also discusses a “chunking” approach that is more sequential and linear, one that can be mapped out as a journey, as explained by Pratten (2011). Both models reinforce the value of telling unique self-contained stories rather than merely repeating the same story across different platforms and, in effect, “drip feed” the audience. Rutledge (2018) has focused on psychological transformation as the audience moves across the storyworld, a paradigm that reinforces a focus on how the audience experiences the storyworld and is given reasons to contribute. Narrative transformation through the application of deliberate story structures is another means of achieving emotional responses that motivate participation. In passing, a few of our interviewees referred to gamification as a storyworld framework. The application of theoretical insights has the potential to highlight how this technique evokes a sense of spontaneity and immersion, as well as how gameplay experiences function to support an overarching storyworld narrative (Costa-Sánchez, 2014; Giovagnoli, 2011). As mentioned, there is no universal audience journey template to guide every project. Still, these three models all indicate the merit of having an overarching structure to guide how a storyworld expands over time and encourages participatory experiences. Detailed descriptions of specific participation tactics were not commonly brought up in our interviews beyond the desire to create a community and in other instances to build “fans” of the brand. While not developed for transmedia storytelling purposes, Kozinetz’s (1999) identification of four categories of audiences—tourists, minglers, insiders and devotees—is a useful starting point for understanding who contributes to a transmedia brand storyworld. Guidance on why audiences are motivated to participate could also assist practice through a consideration of Hayes’ (2011) transmedia hierarchy of needs, a model that places selfactualisation—which includes the ability of the audience to contribute original content to a storyworld—at the pinnacle of transmedia audience actions. Beyond developing content that connects to the audience emotionally, the goal of sparking conversation has been covered in scholarship. For instance, du Plessis’ (2019) case study analysis of Lego revealed how prosumers are encouraged to take the lead in dialogue across platforms, while Tenderich and Williams (2014) apply the “markets

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are conversations” perspective of The Cluetrain Manifesto to transmedia branding. Our interviewees did not commonly frame their practice in terms of seeking to create conversations; however, this technique was indicated in the examples of work they admired. Given this, there is scope to emphasise our perspective of “markets are communities” to accommodate shared expression and joy in the context of transmedia storytelling. Just as the brand story articulates brand values, a conversation amplifies shared beliefs from a personalised audience perspective. These discussions do not need to be controversial. Tide’s #laundrynight is an example of how an everyday life experience can playfully articulate aligned brand and audience values. A challenge for practitioner-based research is the possibility that many models and informal theories are internalised and applied yet not necessarily fully articulated in a research setting. This acknowledgement aside, we feel the weaving in of scholarly considerations of transmedia storytelling has a distinctive ability to elevate how participatory tactics are identified and implemented. While the sprawling nature of participatory content experiences does not accommodate a singular approach, the application of audience journey models as discussed above provides logical and functional cues for maintaining audience engagement.

Towards a Reduction in the Practitioner and Academic Gap Our analysis of participatory tactics in transmedia storytelling contexts reveals a series of new perspectives on contemporary brand communication practice. Firstly, creativity was seen as integral to encouraging participation. Creativity does not emerge from thin air but rather from building on a novel variation of what exists in the cultural domain. The need to avoid “jumping on a trend” was mentioned, highlighting the need to avoid overly derivative content triggers. But in addition to creativity, the goal of encouraging audiences to participate by giving them something of value they can either experience or contribute towards within a brand storyworld introduces an important guiding principle for audience participation. When discussing participation, it was common for our participants to explain how their looping of offline and online experiences as opposed to producing work that only focused on co-creating or sharing digital content. This finding emphasises the importance of inreal-life experiences as impactful brand communication “platforms” that

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are central to the model and perhaps are achieving even greater currency in the post-COVID-19 period. Participant descriptions of what they wished they knew when they first started developing brand stories revealed that the practice requires a significant time investment to craft a central narrative for a storyworld and execute immersive content and experiences. This finding ultimately underscores one of the central challenges of the approach. However, it also highlights why, when applied in a considered way, transmedia brand storytelling can be so compelling and memorable, as identified in the case studies to come in Chapters 8–11. Our interviewees also commonly discussed the need for integration amongst specialisms and continuous learning from those in other specialisations as integral to success, a finding that further guides the development of our transmedia brand storytelling model for practice. Nevertheless, it was interesting to note that many of the practitioners we spoke with had worked across various communication specialisms—a theme that suggests an emergent post-disciplinary age of organisational communication. Moreover, our analysis found that practitioners rarely engage with academic theory on brand storytelling in their practice, suggesting a practitioner-academic disconnect. Nyilasy and Reid’s (2007) review of scholarship on this divide in marketing concluded that on–going “miscommunication” was the result of how academic research was produced and distributed as well as an unwillingness of practitioners to attend to scholarly knowledge. Our research indicates practitioners apply informal or industry theories, and some established models developed by marketing scholars, such as integrated marketing communication, have been absorbed into practice. As a newer construct, transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts has yet to filter up from tertiary education into practice, as IMC has after originating in the 1970s (see Kitchen & Burgmann, 2010). However, another means of closing the divide is to move beyond predominantly examining consumers and analysing completed campaigns in academic research. It is vital to focus on the lived experiences of social storytelling practitioners to build a dialogue between industry and academic researchers, which is, of course, the aim of this book. The insights drawn from our analysis of interviewees’ discussion of participatory brand storytelling tactics ideally work towards a quest for industry practice to be further supported by academic research on how to engage contemporary audiences, many of whom expect brands to

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display authentic and even humanistic traits in our increasingly fragmented media landscape. Importantly, our findings offer new knowledge on the importance of creativity as a key component of developing an overarching narrative, storyworld content and the prompts that encourage participation in its many varied forms across platforms, old and new.

Conclusion This chapter has traced a definitive connecting line between participation in a transmedia brand story with narrating building processes that build on a detailed knowledge of the audience and their cultural spaces. It reveals that creative, authentic and emotionally driven narratives shape participation but can also be encouraged by action prompts that balance simplicity with emotional resonance and community building. Drawing from our findings, we argue that participation is evoked by joy and repertoires of self-expression that evolve from the shared values of the brand and audience. User-Generated Content was seen as important, but not the only form of participation. The merit of developing participatory extensions within a storyworld was seen as useful but also an ongoing communicative function, as it was capable of “making [the audience] care, but you’re only going to get them to care temporarily” (Content and Creative Director, Australia). As this perspective indicates, brand storytelling is ultimately a perpetual communicative technique. Our exploratory research introduces principles on how practitioners understand and encourage participation. This is certainly not an easy or formulaic process. However, identifying how practitioners feel they have succeeded helps advance knowledge of transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts. While there is scope for further research into how practitioners map out the audience journey, these findings reveal a series of alignments between models and practice as well as participation strategies that progress broader transmedia storytelling goals. It marks a departure from IMC and brand storytelling paradigms by highlighting the need for marketers to share stewardship of their brands when crafting emotionally resonant stories, which our research participants viewed as both a challenge and a necessity. Additionally, the chapter has highlighted the use of informal and industry theories that in many instances reflected academic constructs. Analysis of practitioner perceptions also highlights the fundamentally collaborative nature of immersive brand experiences and the need for this

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integration to occur from the start of a transmedia storytelling project. This developed understanding of how practitioners learn and apply social storytelling practice allows us to focus on the final component of the construct and the focus of Chapter 7: the evaluation methods used to determine the efficacy of transmedia storytelling in practice.

References Costa-Sánchez, C. (2014). Transmedia storytelling, an ally of corporate communication: #Dropped by Heineken case study. Communication & Society, 27 (3), 127–150. Cronin, J. (2016). Teach students to communicate a brand story with transmedia storytelling. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(2), 86–101. du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192. Gauntlett, D. (2018). Making is connecting: The social power of creativity, from craft and knitting to digital everything. Wiley. Giovagnoli, M. (Ed.). (2011). Transmedia storytelling: Imagery, shapes and techniques. Etc Press. Hayes, G. (2011, February 11). The transmedia hierarchy of human needs. Personalize Media. https://www.personalizemedia.com/the-transmedia-hie rarchy-of-needs/ Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press. Jenkins, H. (2011, July 31). Transmedia 202: Further reflections. Pop Junctions. http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html Jenkins, H. (2015, October 1). Engaging with transmedia branding: An interview with USC’s Burghardt Tenderich (Part One). Pop Junctions. http://hen ryjenkins.org/blog/2015/10/engaging-with-transmedia-branding-an-interv iew-with-uscs-burghardt-teindrich-part-one.html Kitchen, P. J., & Burgmann, I. (2010). Integrated marketing communication. In J. N. Sheth & N. K. Malhotra (Eds.), Wiley international encyclopedia of marketing (pp. 1–23). Wiley. Kornberger, M. (2011). Brand society. Cambridge University Press. Kozinets, R. V. (1999). E-tribalized marketing?: The strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption. European Management Journal, 17 (3), 252–264. Laer, T., de Ruyter, K., Visconti, L. M., & Wetzels, M. (2014). The extended transportation-imagery model: A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ narrative transportation. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 797–817.

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Moin, S. M. A. (2020). Brand storytelling in the digital age. Springer. Nyilasy, G., & Reid, L. N. (2007). The academician–practitioner gap in advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 26(4), 425–445. Pine II, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2019). The experience economy, with a new preface by the authors: Competing for customer time, attention, and money. Harvard Business Press. Pratten, R. (2011). Getting started with transmedia storytelling. CreateSpace. Rutledge, P. (2018). Transmedia psychology: Creating compelling and immersive experiences. In R. R. Gambarato & M. Freeman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 350–363). Routledge. Quesenberry, K. A., & Coolsen, M. K. (2019). Drama goes viral: Effects of story development on shares and views of online advertising videos. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 48, 1–16. Sachs, J. (2012). Winning the story wars: Why those who tell (and live) the best stories will rule the future. Harvard Business Press. Sawhney, M. S. (2019, April 5). What You Need to Know about the Newest Frontier of Brand Storytelling. Kellogg Insight. https://insight.kellogg.northwest ern.edu/article/newest-frontier-transmedia-storytelling Sawhney, M., Goodman, P., Sawhney, M., & Goodman, P. (2021). The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling. Kellogg School of Management Cases, 1–18. Singh, S., & Sonnenburg, S. (2012). Brand performances in social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4), 189–197. Tenderich, B. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2014). Transmedia branding. Eimo. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press. Woodside, A. G., Sood, S., & Miller, K. E. (2008). When consumers and brands talk: Storytelling theory and research in psychology and marketing. Psychology & Marketing, 25(2), 97–145.

CHAPTER 7

Evaluating Transmedia Brand Storytelling Experiences

The topic of evaluation in relation to transmedia storytelling and immersive campaigns has never been an in-depth area of exploration in scholarly literature. The subject usually only makes an appearance when the discussion centres on the entire campaign lifecycle (Ferreira, 2015; Phillips, 2012; Pratten, 2015). Aside from these instances, the topic of measurement is rarely presented as a hugely important focus of research in the transmedia literature in its own right. Additionally, there is a scarcity of literature focusing on the evaluation of transmedia storytelling specifically. Why this is the case is purely speculative, but it may be due to campaign evaluation not being perceived as creative as building and implementing campaign storyworlds that inspire audience participation. Yet, for transmedia storytelling and immersive campaigns to keep improving, evaluating their success (or failure as the case may be) can assist in providing important insights monitoring when campaigns are underway as well as offering a post-mortem once they conclude. When the topic of transmedia evaluation is discussed in the literature, this analysis usually involves the proposal of a transmedia framework that practitioners “should use” to accurately capture campaign performance in terms of audience engagement, and the audience’s journey throughout the campaign’s storyworld (Dena, 2009; den Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018; Jenkins et al., 2013; Pratten, 2015).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_7

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Although there is a scarcity of academic research exploring different approaches to transmedia storytelling campaign evaluation, this is not to say that creative practitioners do not measure their transmedia storytelling and immersive efforts in the field. Our research demonstrated that this is far from the case. In fact, our findings suggest that creative practitioners have very clear views and processes when measuring the transmedia storytelling campaigns and immersive experiences they deliver as part of their working lives. Whether these align with the theoretical approaches to transmedia storytelling campaign evaluation is the core focus of this chapter. This chapter aims to investigate transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences through the lens of measurement, comparing the perspectives and practices of scholars and professionals working in the field to identify similarities and gaps and what these mean to the accurate (and useful) methods of evaluation in a transmedia context. Firstly, this chapter will revisit some of the commonly presented theoretical approaches to transmedia storytelling campaign evaluation identified in the scholarly literature (Ferreira, 2015; den Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018; Jenkins et al., 2013; Pratten, 2015). Next, the chapter will share the results from our practitioner interviews and survey sample of professionals working in the fields of advertising, marketing, public relations and communication relating to the topic of approaches to evaluation of transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences. With both sides presented, theory and practice, key areas of alignment and disparity will be discussed and implications to practice proposed.

Analysis of Transmedia Storytelling Theory While the measurement and evaluation of transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences has not been a leading area of enquiry in the academic literature, there are some common theoretical approaches that are often cited such as Pratten’s Five Stages of Audience Engagement (2011, 2015 p. 93; Gambarato, 2013; Hackley & Hackley, 2021; du Plessis, 2019), also, Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) (Davies, 2017; Ferreira, 2015; Miller, 2014), and den Buysch and van der Kaa’s Toggle Switch Model (2018) (Goico, 2014; Pratten, 2015). When analysing the limited scholarly literature available on the topic of transmedia measurement, the strong focus on audience engagement and the audience’s journey through a campaign’s storyworld is most

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apparent, explored through the following theoretical evaluation frameworks. It must be noted that locating sources in the transmedia literature focusing on other aspects of evaluation has proven to be most challenging.

Theoretical Frameworks to Evaluate Audience Engagement While there has been brief mention by transmedia scholars regarding the importance of setting strategic goals as part of the campaign planning process, little discussion has occurred in the literature regarding how to evaluate if they have been achieved (Phillips, 2012; Pratten, 2015). Much greater emphasis has been placed on audience engagement. The following theoretical frameworks focus solely on measuring various levels of effort contributed by the audience as they interact with campaign content and move around its storyworld. Pratten’s Five Stages of Audience Engagement (2011, 2015, p. 93) One of the audience engagement measurement tools highly cited in transmedia literature is Pratten’s Five Stages of Audience Engagement which was introduced in the first edition of his text: Getting started with transmedia storytelling (2011) and also included in the second edition (2015 p. 93). Pratten builds on Forrester Research’s (2007) “four measures of engagement with media content, involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence”, to make it more applicable within a transmedia storytelling context. Pratten’s rationale underpinning the refinements to the Forrester Research’s four measures is to include not only how the audience is interacting and/or contributing to the campaign, but to include ways of capturing how the audience feels about the campaign and their communication to others about it (Pratten, 2015). With this in mind, Pratten proposes the following audience engagement measures: “Attention Evaluation Affection Advocacy Contribution” (Pratten, 2015, p. 92). Table 7.1 from Pratten’s, 2015 text explains the five stages of audience engagement and the various metrics that could be used to evaluate each stage. This evaluative framework guides measurement activities through a scale of engagement requiring minimal effort, such as first discovering the campaign and viewing content which could be measured using relevant

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Table 7.1 Pratten’s five stages of audience engagement (2015, p. 93) Stages of Discovery development

Experience Exploration

Level of engagement Content type Goal for your Content

Attention

Evaluation

Affection

Advocacy

Teaser

Trailer

Target

Participation Collaboration

Find me Fan comes to the site and consumes lowinvolvement, free “teaser content”

Try me Fan increases engagement and consumes free “trailer content”

Talk about me Fan tells friends

Be me Fan creates new content

How

Be relevant

Be credible

Love me Fan spends money and decides that what I offer delivers on the promise, is entertaining and is worthwhile Be exceptional Purchases, ratings, reviews, comments, Blog posts, Twitter follows, Facebook likes, joins community

Be spreadable Repeat purchases, subscriptions, memberships Online: re-Tweets, forwards, embeds, satisfaction polls and questionnaires Offline: Focus groups, surveys

Be open

Measurement Views, hits, time spent per view, number for content viewed (per channel and content) e.g. emails, blogs, videos, Twitter etc.)

Clicks, downloads, trials registrations

Contribution

Uploads, remixes, stories written, collaborations, number of fan moderators for forum, events held, other UGC

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metrics such as views or website visits, right through to audience engagement actions requiring the greatest level of effort such as User-Generated Content or collaborating with other audience members to create and/or moderate an online community. This focus on a scale of audience engagement from low effort to high effort relates directly to Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) from her text A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms . Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) According to Phillips (2012, p. 2014), 80% of engagement originates from 20% of the audience and because of this campaign tactics should be balanced between both depth and scale, and evaluated accordingly. This means that audience activities that require minimal effort, in line with those proposed by Pratten (2011) such as watching a video trailer or visiting a website will appeal to a greater segment of the audience who demonstrate more passive levels of engagement with campaign content and its storyworld. This audience segment is denoted in Fig. 7.1 as passive, but could also be labelled in the “Discovery” stage of engagement in Pratten’s model (2015, p. 93). The next stage of Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) relates to a higher level of effort and engagement which also aligns with Pratten’s “Experience” engagement stage. This stage represents some form of conversion whereby an audience member has committed and followed through with some form of action (e.g. a purchase, registration, sharing content, etc.) but the effort level is still mid-range. Finally, the highly engaged tip of Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) denotes extreme levels of audience engagement that require the greatest amount of effort such as User-Generated Content, creating fansites, collaborating with other audience members to solve puzzles and unlock parts of the campaign. The “highly engaged” fall within Pratten’s “Exploration” engagement stage and “Participation” and “Collaboration” engagement levels (2015, p. 93). These scales of audience engagement provide an evaluative framework by which relevant metrics can be organised and implemented to track the performance of a transmedia storytelling or immersive campaign experience in this respect (Phillips, 2012; Pratten, 2015).

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Fig. 7.1 Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104)

The evaluative frameworks presented thus far in this chapter propose approaches to measure the level of audience engagement with individual content pieces (or performing specific tasks). An important deficiency with both theories is that they do not track the movement of the audience through a transmedia brand campaign’s storyworld. Both do not mention how to evaluate the efficiency of audience members crossing platforms throughout a campaign. Pratten (2015, p. 93) raised this in his introduction of den Buysch and van der Kaa’s “Toggle Switch Model” as a way to gauge which parts of the storyworld were working better than others and evaluate the audience’s journey through the transmedia or immersive campaign experience. den Buysch and van der Kaa’s Toggle Switch Model (2018) The Toggle Switch Model as a framework to measure transmedia experiences has been in development for more than a decade. Its first mention was in a blog post by Goico (2014) that shared the first iterations of the Model presented at the Conductrr Conference along with the results of

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its evaluation by 12 experts from academia and industry. Next, Pratten (2015) mentioned the Model in his book and his work with den Buysch and van der Kaa to address the issue of measuring audience engagement with transmedia experiences. den Buysch and van der Kaa’s latest version of their Toggle Switch Model was proposed in the Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies (2018). Essentially, Buysch and van der Kaa explained to Goico (2014) that there are three important aspects of a transmedia campaign: “the storyworld, the individual audience member’s behaviour in comparison to others the experience of the storyworld at various stages of the audience journey.” Buysch and van der Kaa identified the challenge in evaluating these components and the catalyst for the development of their Toggle Switch Model. In their 2018 chapter, Buysch and van der Kaa (p. 465) also refer to Bole (2013) and the six metrics and analytic tools he recommends to help understand the impact of stories that unfold across multiple platforms. These are “(1) narrative attribution, (2) conversion and pathways, (3) segmentation format feedback, (4) quantifiable impacts, (5) engaged loyalty, and (6) audiencecreated enhancement” (Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018, p. 465). According to Buysch and van der Kaa (2018) Bole’s (2013) metric of “narrative attribution” can identify which part of the storyworld converted a specific audience member. This knowledge can then be used to further refine and streamline the conversion process. Similarly to Phillips (2012) and Pratten (2015), Buysch and van der Kaa, (2018, p. 466) also mention a scale of audience engagement ranging from “Lurkers”, what Phillips (2012) identifies as “Passive” audience members to “Spoilers”, “a very active group of people that seek to know everything that can be known about a campaign” (Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018 p. 466) or as Pratten (2011) refers to as being in the “Participation” and “Collaboration” engagement levels (p. 93). The similarities with the various evaluative approaches to transmedia and immersive campaign experiences is apparent when comparing the scales of audience engagement. However, Buysch and van der Kaa (2018, p. 466) proposed that the Toggle Switch Model differs because it addresses the deficiencies of other evaluative approaches, because it: “measures engagement and classifies the user, transforms “raw” data into meaningful insights; tracks the user journey; tracks the connection between different channels (on- and offline)” (see Fig. 7.2). Buysch and van der Kaa (2018, p. 467) explain how the model works when transmedia storytelling campaign managers record every time an

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Fig. 7.2 den Buysch and van der Kaa’s Toggle Switch Model (2018)

audience member interacts with a part of the storyworld. Listing all points of interaction enables these campaign touches to be structured in “chapters, scenes, and beats” so that the journeys of audience members can be tracked and “hotspots of engagement” can be identified Buysch and van der Kaa (2018, p. 467). Campaign creatives determine the points of interaction to be tracked. Buysch and van der Kaa (2018, p. 467) provide examples of touchpoints such as: “interacting with characters, solving puzzles, sharing content with friends, or viewing content on specific channels like YouTube or blogs.”

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While the Toggle Switch Model proposes a relatively sound way to track the journeys of individual audience members, it does not explain how this evaluative approach could be implemented at scale.

Transmedia Measurement Tools Similarly, there has been a scarcity of research and discussion in scholarly transmedia literature exploring the specific tools and software practitioners use to evaluate transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences. Specific mention of tools and software could only be located in a Doctoral thesis by Ferreira (2015) which listed Conductrr, now a crisis simulation platform (Conductrr, 2022), Storycaster (mentioned by Nuno Bernardo, 2014) (Sapo, 2013) and Google Analytics (2022). It must be noted that specific software was not a topic of enquiry in our practitioner research and was not a subject raised by our survey or interview samples as the following sections explore.

Analysis of Practitioner Responses Results recorded from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 creative practitioners and an online survey of 256 professionals working in marketing, advertising, public relations and communication sectors across Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, the United States and South America presented a range of approaches to transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign evaluation. Some results directly align with key themes in the scholarly literature, however, there are some stark differences as will be examined in this section (du Plessis, 2019; Evans, 2019; Pratten, 2015; Tenderich & Williams, 2015).

Interview Results While there were a wide range of approaches to evaluation identified by the practitioners interviewed for our study, there were also some common methods used to measure the performance of the transmedia storytelling and immersive campaigns delivered by the sample.

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Most Preferred Focus of Evaluation: Achievement of Campaign Goals/ Objectives/KPIs and Return on Investment (ROI) The most prevalent theme identified in the interview data was the strong focus on measuring if campaign goals and objectives were met and Return on Investment (ROI) in relation to revenue, sales or donations (if the practitioner represented a nonprofit organisation) directly resulting from the campaign. Nearly all practitioners interviewed (21) mentioned the importance of measuring performance against the goals and objectives set at the beginning of the campaign development process as well as the impact campaign tactics had on the client’s bottom line in the form of revenue or ROI. All interviewees were posed the question: How do you evaluate transmedia storytelling and immersive brand experiences? A UK-based practitioner responded: “It depends on the objective. If the objective is to just get people to know your brand, it’s very difficult to say. But if the objective is to get people to buy something or change a behaviour, you can always measure that. And the way that I measure it is, the amount of money spent and the amount of behaviour changed or action done, according to that. That’s how I judge it.”

The focus of establishing clear goals, objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from the outset to assist with evaluation was also a common theme present in the interview data. An Australian practitioner stated: “Brand business objectives are essential. What is at the heartland of what we want to achieve, whether it’s a transformational shift in perception, whether it’s a double level increase in market share to a particular cohort, it could be the awareness , it could be that quite simply in terms of raising awareness .There are those established goals that I think every campaign needs to ladder up to.”

However, some practitioners interviewed explained that not all campaign goals and objectives are solely tied to increasing sales and revenue. A creative practitioner on the Dove–Real Beauty campaign shared:

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“[Evaluation] was different depending on what the goal was, because the goal wasn’t always to sell something. Often, the goal was not to sell something often. The goal was to get women to bring their children to self-esteem workshops. The goal was to offer help with eating disorders. The goal was obviously to sell product, but that wasn’t the reason for everything.”

This variation in performance metrics was also a common theme identified in our interviews with practitioners, yet the focus on measuring if original campaign goals and objectives were achieved (whatever they were) remained a strong focus. An Australian practitioner working in Amsterdam explained: “There’s always different metrics involved, that again, varies from brief to brief. Sometimes it’s just measured in sales, sometimes it’s just measured in recall. I mean, sometimes it’s just how many people watched your film or engaged with your idea. Those metrics change across every brief. So I don’t think there’s any one way to measure it.”

With the priority of evaluating the performance of transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences against campaign goal, objective or KPIs clearly communicated by the practitioners interviewed, the next preferred approach to measurement focused more on audience engagement and platform performance, and how these metrics supported the achievement of the overall campaign goal. This approach was explained by an Australian practitioner in the following way: “We’ve got a very clear set of KPIs and they’re media KPIs , but they’re across our owned and earned and paid channels, but they also go into areas like engagement . And we really delve into that.”

This approach focusing on goal achievement first, followed by audience engagement and platform performance (and how it supported that goal achievement) was confirmed by another Australian practitioner interviewed for this study: “Well overall, did that campaign perform right? Did it achieve the overall objective? And then when you start evaluating what contribution each of those touchpoints have, based on the assigned metrics, and that’s when you can start going, ‘Well, hang on. Did this help achieve that overall outcome?’ Because you’re almost going, ‘What is your campaign ambition? How are you going to

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get there? How is that then going to come to life through channels?’ and then going, ‘Well, this channel will help deliver you X within that campaign’.”

Next Preferred Focuses of Evaluation: Audience Engagement and Channel Performance From the interview sample of 21 practitioners, 13 identified audience engagement and channel performance as important components to evaluate transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences as explained by one interview participant: “We look at the engagement , we dissect that and understand where it sits in terms of positive neutrality or negative.”

Audience engagement was identified as important across a wide range of industry sectors, including tourism: “For us, we measured success, firstly, on the numbers of businesses who participated. That’s a key metric for us, in terms of tourism businesses who were engaged with what we’re doing.”

This approach was confirmed by a Canadian practitioner working in the nonprofit sector: “All the engagement metrics (are important), social engagements and so on. We’re pretty serious when it comes to measurement .”

As well as being a priority for practitioners working with commercial businesses: “If you’re selling a product, how many people within that audience size are actually engaged with what you are selling.”

Next, the focus on platform performance was highlighted as an effective way to evaluate the health of transmedia storytelling and immersive campaigns. Practitioners highlighted the importance of understanding which content and platforms provided the greatest support in helping to achieve overall campaign goals, objectives and KPIs, to keep refining

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their practice for future campaigns. A practitioner based in Los Angeles shared their perspective: “Campaigns are often evaluated by channel. We look at performance of the creative based on where it was run and who it was targeting. The same message might have done well in a slightly different format for another platform but not resonated with another. Evaluating by channel can help you narrow in on what tools in your tool belt work and which are not worth investing in again.”

The practitioners who highlighted platform performance as essential to effective evaluation were strongly focused on online or digital platforms. None of the practitioners interviewed mentioned performance measurement of offline channels such as events or in-person immersive experiences. There was some focus on how gamification was used to evaluate performance within transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences. Explaining the approach to evaluation in a UKbased campaign, one practitioner said: “The levels of progression when we moved into gamification told us how engaged people were, how many places they visited.”

The creator of a scavenger hunt type campaign for the tourism sector in Australia shared the benefits and challenges of measuring gamified campaigns: “One of the difficulties and challenges that comes with gamification is ultimately, for it to work, the businesses have to think it worked. One of the challenges we faced was that gamification made that immersive digital space so autonomous that they (the audience) could turn up, they might make a purchase, they might answer the questions and play the game and move onto the next place, like it ticked every box that we want, but the businesses involved could not initially see the data.”

Adding to the topic of challenges relating to transmedia storytelling evaluation, one practitioner highlighted the challenge of working with clients to unequivocally link campaign activities to increases in audience engagement metrics.

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“Is there a spike in SEO? Is there a spike in searching while you’re doing the campaign? I think it’s just the standard you work closely with the client eventually to be like, “We can only do so much. We need you to tell us what you’re seeing on your end to be able to provide the backend metrics in terms of were there certain sales that correlated? Did you see a certain lift in just traffic to your website?”

Additional Evaluative Methods Awareness With the three most commonly used approaches to transmedia storytelling and immersive experience campaign measurement identified within the practitioner interview data: achievement of goals/objectives/KPIs, audience engagement and platform performance, there were other less popular methods of measurement mentioned. These included “awareness” with four practitioners mentioning this metric: “Some clients just want pure awareness , so then you tally up all the impressions and you’re like, ‘Here’s how many people saw it’.”

Yet, practitioners based in Spain and the United Kingdom highlighted how, although not easily measurable, “awareness” can take many forms. Explaining the impact of a BMW campaign when they saw children in the street using the hand motions from the television advertisement as part of their play, the Spanish-based practitioner said: “We didn’t pass anything, quality checks, nothing, but the client believed firmly in that idea, in that positioning because it was the first campaign of the new BMW. So it was an important moment, but the client took the risk. They are still using that claim, love to drive, which is amazing. They started waving your hand out of the window. They didn’t even show a car. They show you the experience of driving. So yeah. I don’t know.”

Similarly, a London-based practitioner shared their experience working on a campaign launch for Nike Women—India where a campaign song became popular with audiences and was played around the world. “We did a track called Da Da Ding, to launch Nike in India for women. And that song, when I moved to Amsterdam two and a half years later, was played in a workout studio that I was at. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is

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insane.’ And that track, which Nike made, we had a two and a half minute music video for it. And Nike was like, ‘We don’t have the money to put this on TV. Let’s just make it, let’s just put it out. We’ll have a launch moment when we put it out there.’ That went so viral that music channels started playing it for free, so we didn’t even have to pay for it. So music channels were literally running our advertising for free and it was on TV around the world.”

Impressions Impressions was also a metric identified by four interviewees (two based in Canada and the others in Australia) as being an important way to measure campaign performance: “Success for PR has always been measured on the number of impressions , which don’t really mean anything at the end of the day. We will measure media impressions , influencer impressions .”

Brand Tracking or Brand Health Interestingly, “brand tracking” or “brand health” was mentioned by only three interview participants as being an essential area of measurement in the evaluation of transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences over the longer term. This approach was highlighted by two Australian and one Canadian practitioner. An Australian practitioner mentioned their work with luxury car brand, Porsche: “When it comes to brand tracking, we also are incredibly cognizant that it’s not going to be one thing that shifts the dial. If you want people to think that Porsche is a contemporary brand, you don’t do one campaign and then see a shift. It needs to be a whole selection of things that gets rolled out consistently. And you want to measure it over a year or two years or three years. There’s a huge amount of short-termism in the industry. That’s true.”

A Canadian practitioner in the nonprofit sector explained how a range of metrics are important to consider when delivering transmedia storytelling campaigns and how they work together to improve overall brand health.

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“...it can’t just be about awareness or just be about sales or business results. The best transmedia storytelling campaigns are integrated campaigns, actually are going to deliver both. Your brand health is going to increase. That means, top of mind awareness , affinity, likelihood to recommend those types of metrics are going to go up. But, it’s also driving the bottom line and selling more products or in our case, driving more donations. So, that’s the sweet spot is the intersection between the brand love and the business results.”

There were a range of alternative metrics and evaluative methods mentioned within the practitioner interviews including “buzz”, “recall” and “emotional impact” as core metrics, but these were not strong themes within the data. The presentation of results from the practitioner interviews clearly demonstrate the three most commonly used approaches to transmedia branding and immersive campaign experience evaluation are the achievement of campaign goals/objectives/KPIs including ROI, audience engagement and platform performance. These findings both differ and align with the results from the survey data. The similarities and disparity between data sets will be further explained in the following section.

Survey Results Within the overall survey there was one question that related directly to the evaluation of transmedia storytelling campaigns and immersive experiences. The question was stated thusly: How do you evaluate immersive brand experiences, such as transmedia storytelling? Four options were presented that were developed from analysis of the practitioner interview data. These options were: • Evaluating if the strategic goals and objectives have been achieved. • Evaluating reach and engagement on the platforms used throughout the campaign. • Tracking the audience’s journey throughout the campaign. • Using an audience engagement/participation model. An option to identify another evaluative approach was also included with an open text field and more than one option could be selected to ensure that participants had the opportunity to choose all options that applied to their professional practice.

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From the 256 survey participants in this study, 119 (46.3%) identified evaluating reach and engagement on the platforms used as their most preferred method of evaluating transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences. The next favoured method of evaluation was tracking the audience’s journey throughout the campaign with 39.68% of survey participants (n = 102) selecting that option. The third most preferred method of measurement of the survey sample was evaluating if the strategic campaign goals and objectives have been achieved with 97 (37.74%) participants choosing that approach. Using an audience engagement/participation model was the approach preferred the least by the practitioners surveyed with just over a quarter of participants 26.07% (n = 67) selecting the option. This finding in itself highlights that while evaluating audience engagement is important to the survey sample as demonstrated with the most popular evaluative method selected focusing on reach and engagement, the use of theoretical models to evaluate this activity was not a commonly used practice. Six participants selected the “Other” option but did not provide any details of alternative methods of evaluation to the options provided in the survey. With three commonly cited transmedia theoretical evaluation frameworks presented and results from practitioner surveys and interviews conferred, it is essential to discuss the deeper meaning behind each, and their key implications to the practice of creating and implementing transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences (den Buysch and van der Kaa, 2018; Pratten, 2015; Phillips, 2012).

Discussion The aim of this chapter was to explore approaches to evaluating transmedia storytelling experiences in theory and practice. When practitioners were asked to identify their methods, there was a distinct variation between the interview and survey samples. The creative practitioners interviewed demonstrated a very clear preference, placing campaign goals/objectives/KPIs including ROI as the top priority in relation to evaluation. Yet, the achievement of campaign goals was placed last in the four options presented to the survey sample. The discrepancy between samples may be for a range of reasons. Firstly, the practitioners interviewed for this study were quite senior in their careers and

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were selected using purposive sampling based on their work on high profile campaigns. These included campaigns for the following brands: Airbnb, Why So Serious? The Dark Knight, Volkswagen, Playstation, Nike and Dove. Purposive sampling was used to source interview participants to ensure data was collected from the practitioners most relevant to our research topic (Moyo et al., 2022). These practitioners had proven experience working on transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences (as listed on their LinkedIn profiles, brand, campaign and award websites). All practitioners interviewed either currently worked in advertising or marketing agencies (as management or staff) or worked as freelancers on campaigns or in training emerging professionals in the field. In contrast, our survey sample was recruited through the survey platform Qualtrics, with the requirement being that participants needed to currently work in Advertising, Marketing, Public Relations or Communication sectors. Whereas the interview participants definitely had experience working with transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences, this characteristic could not be stipulated with the survey sample as this would have made the recruitment process extremely lengthy and challenging. Instead, the survey was used to gauge a larger group of practitioners’ attitudes and perceptions of the key findings from the interviews. These differences between samples may be a factor between the variance in the evaluation approaches ranked as most preferred by each practitioner group. Possibly, the practitioners ranking campaign goals/ objectives/KPIs including ROI as their top evaluative focus have direct client experience and understand the crucial part they play in the ongoing sustainability of an agency’s business success and reputation within the industry. Reach and engagement may be the first priority for practitioners in more production-related roles (e.g. content producer, social media manager, etc.) where their own professional success is inextricably linked to the performance of the content they create. This is in contrast with those practitioners working directly with clients where the success of the client/agency relationship is reliant on meeting the client’s expectations such as campaign goals, objectives and ROI. While meeting client expectations was the first priority for the majority of interview participants, the same also rated audience engagement and platform performance (including reach) as their second priority. The high ranking of evaluation relating to audience engagement and platform performance only confirms its importance in measuring the success (or failure) of transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences.

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The reason for this may be because identifying the content, platforms and experiences with which the audience responds favourably (and in the way intended by campaign managers) is ultimately linked to the overall success of the campaign. One could argue that campaign goals, particularly those related to conversion, rely on the audience performing a desired behaviour, such as purchasing a product, entering a competition, or collaborating on specific tasks to unlock experiences to move through the campaign’s storyworld. Focusing on how the audience has engaged with the campaign and its included platforms (and how well the content/ experiences are reaching the audience on those platforms) helps provide campaign managers with a deeper insight into why an overall campaign goal was (or was not) achieved. In short, the overall campaign goal, objective or ROI is the what, but evaluating audience engagement and platform performance can provide an understanding of the why. Tracking the audience’s journey across platforms was ranked third in importance as a preferred evaluative method with the survey sample, but was not a key theme in the interview data. This was also the case with evaluative methods relating to offline experiences. Interview participants focused more on online experiences when discussing evaluation. This may be because audience engagement and platform performance is less challenging to track in a digital environment, but not impossible to track offline. Yet, one of the most predominant themes present in the practitioner interviews and survey sample was that using an audience engagement/ participation model was not a common practice. In fact, the non-use of theoretical models and frameworks was a significant theme in the interview data overall. Five out of the 22 (23%) practitioners interviewed said they referred to theoretical models and frameworks as part of their practice. However, none of the theories mentioned relate specifically to transmedia scholarly literature, nor anything related to the evaluation of transmedia storytelling or immersive campaign experiences. The few theories mentioned overall in the practitioner interviews included approaches such as content pillars, research conducted by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, and gamification (CHO, 2020; du Plessis, 2017; Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, 2022). Comparing the results from the practitioner interviews and surveys with the academic literature explored within this chapter highlights similarities and differences. First, audience engagement is a core priority in theory and practice. Pratten’s Five Stages of Audience Engagement

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(2011, 2015, p. 93), Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) and den Buysch and van der Kaa’s Toggle Switch Model (2018) focus on evaluating audience engagement and journey throughout the campaign’s storyworld. As explored, audience engagement and platform performance was the first priority of the practitioner survey sample and second for the practitioners interviewed, despite practitioners not specifically mentioning any of the evaluation frameworks commonly cited in the transmedia scholarly literature. This may be due to a lack of awareness of the existence of such frameworks. Only one practitioner interviewed (and 17% of the survey sample) learned about transmedia in a formal educational setting such as university. Alternatively, while campaign goal setting is mentioned in popular texts such as Pratten (2015) and Phillips (2012), an in-depth framework to evaluate whether campaign goals/objectives/KPIs have been achieved is not offered despite our interview data emphasising this as a key priority for practitioners. This gap between theory and practice is evident in this contrast. Interestingly, synergy can be identified between theory and practice in one of the interviews whereby a practitioner discussed how they evaluated gamified experiences which provided a similar explanation to how the Toggle Switch Model works. The practitioner said, “Think of Jumanji, a board game but in your app. And so you had to go and visit, answer all these... crazy places, roll dice, collect prizes. And you progressed through. So those levels of progression when we moved into gamification told us how engaged people were, how many places they visited.”

Compared with Pratten’s (2015, p. 94) explanation: “...we can track each audience member’s progress through the world – each point of interaction represented by a switch that starts in the off position and is toggled on as an audience member interacts.”

It is suggested that a form of the Toggle Switch Model could actually be presently used by practitioners to measure the audience journey through campaign storyworlds but this is occurring as a natural part of their practice without them overtly knowing and applying the model (den Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018). This may be most relevant when using apps to gamify campaign activities and audience participation. A limitation already identified with the Toggle Switch Model in the way that den

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Buysch and van der Kaa (2018) describe its manual recording of each individual audience member’s journey is its inability to be scaled to record the interactions of a large audience without it being too labour intensive. However, building the functionality to automatically record and evaluate audience engagement data within an app, as described by the interview participant above, may pose a possible method to explore. This discussion of theory possibly being identified in practice also leads to the question of whether practitioners are applying other evaluative theoretical frameworks from the transmedia literature instinctually as a normal part of their practice, without being overtly aware they are doing so.

Key Implications to Practice The analysis of theoretical and practical approaches to the evaluation of transmedia storytelling experiences undertaken in this chapter has provided some insight into the topic but has also raised additional questions that require further research. With our current research, the practitioners interviewed and surveyed did not mention any of the evaluation frameworks explored from the literature in this chapter. To provide a deeper understanding of the subject, further research could be undertaken whereby practitioners are provided with the theoretical approaches presented in this chapter to ascertain if they can recognise any of their features within their own evaluative processes. Next, it would be interesting to investigate practitioners’ views regarding the practical application of the theories, and how they perceive their relevance in measuring the performance of contemporary transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experiences. Understanding practitioners’ perceptions of specific evaluation theories, how they might rework them to use in their own practice, or even if they would use them at all (once aware of their existence), is an area requiring further investigation. den Buysch and van der Kaa (2018) conducted similar research with a panel of industry experts and scholars in relation to their Toggle Switch Model. The results were favourable, but the study lacked a follow up to gauge how many of the sample actually adopted the model for use in their own practice. With rapid evolution of technology and platforms available, the further research we are proposing will provide a greater understanding of how relevant the theoretical approaches explored in this chapter are to our current everchanging environment. One certainty is that meeting client expectations

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and providing positive campaign experiences for target audiences have the greatest impact on professional practice in relation to the creation and delivery of transmedia storytelling and immersive brand experiences (Norton & Kovacs, 2017).

Conclusion The aim of this chapter was to investigate transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences through the lens of measurement, comparing the perspectives and practices of scholars with professionals working in the field to identify similarities and gaps and what these mean to the accurate (and useful) methods of evaluation in a transmedia context. The chapter first explored a range of approaches and tools proposed in the transmedia storytelling and branding literature (den Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018; Ferreira, 2015; Jenkins et al., 2013; Pratten, 2015). Through this analysis, it was discovered that these proposed approaches to measurement were largely focused on audience engagement, and how audience members move through a transmedia brand storyworld throughout the course of a campaign. Examples of these theoretical approaches to evaluation were evident in Pratten’s (2015) process of measuring the five stages of engagement and den Buysch and van der Kaa’s (2018) Toggle Switch Method. Next, the chapter presented primary research findings gathered from a series of interviews with creative practitioners and from survey data with professionals working in advertising, marketing, public relations and communication roles. Interestingly, there was a degree of disparity when comparing both samples. While the survey sample identified reach and audience engagement as their most preferred approach to measuring campaign performance, creative practitioners interviewed for this book identified the achievement of campaign goals/objectives/KPIs including ROI followed by audience engagement and platform performance. With both perspectives presented, theory and practice, it was clear that there are synergies in both camps. Audience engagement and the function of a campaign’s storyworld is of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the field. It was also apparent that versions of some theoretical frameworks such as the Toggle Switch Method are being used by practitioners to measure performance of gamification platforms, but this is occurring organically with practitioners’ knowledge of the theory (den Buysch & van der Kaa, 2018).

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Yet, the most fundamental finding derived from the analysis of theory and practitioner data is this, in a commercial sense, while theoretical evaluative frameworks and practical approaches to audience engagement and functional storyworlds can help to provide a more comprehensive insight into a transmedia storytelling or immersive campaign experience, when working with clients in the field, the most important metric is what they were aiming to achieve with the campaign. It is this knowledge that will demonstrate the true success or failure of a campaign. All other metrics will provide an understanding to the client of why the final outcome occurred. Successfully achieving clients’ campaign goals is integral for creative practitioners to succeed in the field, the most important performance metric and implication for practice.

References Bernardo, N. (2014). Transmedia 2.0—How to create an entertainment brand using a transmedial approach to storytelling (pp. 70–73). BeActive Books. Bole, R. (2013). Going old school: Telling digital stories in analog media. www. innovation-series.com/2013/06/14/going-old-school-telling-digital-storiesin-analog-media/. Accessed 29 Sept 2022. CHO, I. H. (2020). A study on the combination of transmedia and gamification and the structure of game design. Journal of Digital Convergence, 18(4), 433– 438. Conductrr. (2022). Conductrr. https://www.conducttr.com/. Accessed 29 Sept 2022. Davies, H. (2017). Towards an ethics of alternate reality games. Digital Studies/ Le champ Numérique, 6(3). den Buysch, E. O., & van der Kaa, H. (2018). A metrics model for measuring transmedia engagement. In The Routledge companion to transmedia studies (pp. 464–472). Routledge. Dena, C. (2009). Transmedia practice: Theorising the practice of expressing a fictional world across distinct media and environments [Doctoral Thesis]. University of Sydney. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christy-Dena2/publication/256600225_Transmedia_Practice_Theorising_the_Practice_ of_Expressing_a_Fictional_World_across_Distinct_Media_and_Environme nts/links/587aedf208ae4445c0630c74/Transmedia-Practice-Theorising-thePractice-of-Expressing-a-Fictional-World-across-Distinct-Media-and-Enviro nments.pdf. Accessed 28 Sept 2022. du Plessis, C. (2017). The role of content marketing in social media content communities. South African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), 1–7. du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192.

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Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. (2022). How Brands Grow. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. https://www.marketingsci ence.info/how-brands-grow/. Accessed 2 Oct 2022. Evans, E. (2019). Understanding engagement in transmedia culture. Routledge. Ferreira, S. A. M. (2015). Location based transmedia storytelling: Enhancing the tourism experience [Doctoral dissertation]. Universidade do Porto (Portugal). https://www.proquest.com/docview/1927624254?pq-origsite= gscholar&fromopenview=true. Accessed 28 Sept 2022. Forrester Research. (2007). Marketing’s new key metric: Engagement. www. forrester.com/report/Marketings+New+Key+Metric+Engagement/-/E-RES 42124. accessed 29 Sept 2022. Gambarato, R. R. (2013). Transmedia project design: Theoretical and analytical considerations. Baltic Screen Media Review, 1, 80–100. Goico, N. (2014). How to measure transmedia experiences. Conducttr Blog. https://blog.conducttr.com/how-to-measure-transmedia-experiences. Accessed 29 Sept 2022. Google. (2022). Google analytics. https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/. Accessed 29 Sept 2022. Hackley, R. A., & Hackley, C. (2021). Advertising and promotion. Advertising and Promotion, 1–424 Jenkins, H., Green, J. B., & Ford, S. (2013). Spreadable media: Creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York University Press. Miller, C. H. (2014). Digital storytelling: A creator’s guide to interactive entertainment. Routledge. Moyo, T., Proches, C. G., Mutambara, E., & Singh, U. G. (2022). The Nexus between Twitter, as a social blog, and social capital in corporate reputation behaviour for the Zimbabwe telecommunications industry. Gender and Behaviour, 20(1), 18827–18851. Norton, K. E., & Kovacs, M. H. (2017). Human and business success factors for transmedia design collaborations. Media Industries Journal, 4(2), 44–61. Phillips, A. (2012). A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms. McGraw-Hill Education. Pratten, R. (2011). Getting started with transmedia storytelling. CreateSpace. Pratten, R. (2015). Chapter five: Understanding the audience—Measuring engagement. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 90–95). McGraw Hill. Sapo. (2013). Storycaster: uma história para todas as plataformas. Exame Informatica. https://visao.sapo.pt/exameinformatica/noticias-ei/software/201312-16-storycaster-uma-historia-para-todas-as-plataformas/. Accessed 29 Sept 2022. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press.

PART III

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Campaign Case Analyses

CHAPTER 8

Case Study One: SickKids Airbnb (Canada)

From its humble beginnings in an 11-room home in downtown Toronto and when opened 1875, SickKids has evolved to be Canada’s largest children’s hospital and research-intensive facility focused on improving children’s health (SickKids, 2022a). While the hospital expanded rapidly over time, its Critical Care Unit did not have the funds, resources or room to be expanded and updated with modern facilities. Some infrastructure in the Unit was built in the 1950s and the floors could not withstand the weight of modern medical machinery such as MRI technology. Therefore, MRI machinery had to be stored in the basement of the dilapidated hospital resulting in child patients feeling anxious about having to go down into what they perceived to be a “scary” part of the hospital (Fig. 8.1). Additionally, the original layout included ward style rooms with up to six patients in each, vastly different to the individual patient rooms of the standard modern day hospital. Sandra Chiovitti, Director of Public Relations at SickKids Foundation explained, “The standard right now is, all patient rooms should be individual and private, but ours are ward style. So, they’re so out of date that there’s four or six patients in critical care in one room. And, staff trip over things because it’s so packed. There’s no room for both parents at the bedside.”

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_8

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Fig. 8.1 SickKids Hospital, Toronto, Canada

However, the cost was hefty to update the existing Critical Care unit to align with contemporary hospital standards. In a bid to raise enough funds to support the building of a brand new hospital facility, SickKids Foundation set a bold fundraising target of $1.3 billion, at its time, the largest fundraising goal ever set in Canadian history (SickKids Foundation, 2017b). To achieve such an ambitious target, the SickKids Foundation needed to develop an innovative, unexpected and disruptive campaign to not only attract the attention of its current donor base, but to disrupt and change the perceptions of segments of the Canadian public who had not previously donated. While the SickKids Foundation had been extremely successful in sharing the lifesaving work of its medical staff and its researchers, the general public was not aware of the facilities and conditions staff, patients and their families experienced unless they witnessed them first hand. This is when the SickKids Foundation delivered a very specific but open brief to Erin Banting, Vice-President of No Fixed Address Inc. a Toronto-based advertising agency (No Fixed Address Inc., 2022). “Here’s our issue, a massive perception issue,” Banting explained as she retold the story of receiving the initial brief from SickKids. “And, we

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need you guys to create a huge spectacle in order to circumvent it, get around it, and help people understand.” According to Banting, SickKids Foundation had discovered through their own market research that 85% of consumers were aware of the organisation, but also perceived the organisation to be well-funded and that there were more urgent causes that required their attention and fundraising dollars. SickKids and No Fixed Address Inc. joined forces to smash these perceptions and raise the $1.3 billion dollars required for a new hospital with a groundbreaking transmedia brand storytelling immersive experience to drive donations on a scale never achieved before in Canada.

How the SickKids Airbnb Campaign Originated SickKids and the creative team from No Fixed Address Inc. needed to change perceptions and donor behaviour on a large scale. In order to do this, it was necessary to expose to the general public the harsh realities of the current facilities at SickKids hospital. Clearly they could not open the hospital up for the general public to tour the facilities for ethical reasons and to avoid putting patients, staff and visitors at risk, but they needed another way to communicate this message to a widespread audience. For the creative team, it soon became apparent that they had to manage the needs of the hospital with the perceptions of the public without putting either in danger. Banting explains the balancing act that her team had to strategically navigate, “It was a really fine line to balance, because obviously the hospital never wants people to seem like, “Oh, we don’t want to see you unsafe. We don’t want people to not want to come here.”

“So from that strategy we worked with different creative teams to come up with a bunch of just little what-if ideas in order to close that gap of perception and reality,” Banting explained. To disrupt and to gain the attention of the general public, No Fixed Address Inc. pitched the concept of partnering with Airbnb to list an immersive experience where people could pay to spend time in the cramped and outdated conditions at SickKids Hospital. The listing on its own was enough to generate interest and media coverage (Ngabo, 2019). Then, the idea was to invite the media, high profile sports people

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and social media influencers to experience the immersive activity so they could create and share their own content with their large audiences of followers, while also featuring in content produced by SickKids Foundation to share on their official channels, to amplify this message to a far-reaching audience. The SickKids Foundation loved the concept and work began on making it a reality. As Banting shared, while the SickKids Foundation originally approached No Fixed Addressed Inc. through a public relations lens for help to solve this perception problem with prospective donors, the need to have a far-reaching impact was apparent, and therefore, required something more than traditional PR or publicity. “Just knowing if we wanted to create something large, we needed to pull another element,” said Banting. “We went to strategy development where our insight was really around the gap between perception and reality.” Through this strategy development process it also became clear that a behind-the-scenes approach could be an effective way to educate, inform and ultimately change the donation habits of prospective donors. “In order to do that, we needed to pull back the curtain and help people understand what it was like to walk in the shoes of patients, doctors, staff, while they’re in the walls,” explained Banting. “What they’re used to seeing is all the medical advancements that are out in the news and everything that people are doing.” The SickKids Airbnb campaign aimed to show donors and prospective donors that medical staff were amazing despite the current infrastructure at the hospital, not because of it. Chiovitti explained the excitement at the concept of joining forces with Airbnb to deliver a fundraising campaign that was the first of its kind. “Partnering with Airbnb, the real Airbnb to showcase was, how old and outdated and cramped the space is for the critical care unit,” said Chiovitti. “And so, it was transmedia in that we created the actual physical activation.” However, with such a groundbreaking concept for a fundraising campaign, it was not a smooth creative process in the development of SickKids Airbnb.

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Challenges Faced As SickKids and the creative team began to unpack and develop the campaign concept, they were presented with a range of challenges. Firstly, the team had to develop a way for participants to gain a lifelike experience of a SickKids ICU hospital room without it negatively impacting the day-to-day operations of the hospital. An actual hospital room could not be taken away from current patients to facilitate the immersive experience because it could literally result in lives being lost. Next, the SickKids Airbnb immersive campaign concept attracted scrutiny and negative attention from the parents of former patients and the media (Ngabo, 2019). The concept was labelled as “disrespectful to families who needed services at the hospital”, “shocking”, “voyeurism and exploitative” (Ngabo, 2019). Some parents also found that the experience reminded them of the tragedy of losing their child (Ngabo, 2019). Therefore, SickKids and its creative team walked a tightrope to ensure the experience could cut through, shock and educate the general public who were not aware of the hospital’s outdated facilities while still being sensitive to patients and their families while not disrupting the lifesaving work of the hospital.

The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Solution and Planning Process To achieve this, a hospital boardroom was assigned to the project so that it could be converted into a replica of an ICU without negatively impacting hospital operations. The room used for the immersive campaign was located in a part of the hospital that was too old to be used to provide clinical care for patients. That fact in itself supported the case for a new facility. “They have this open space that they can’t even use,” explained Banting. Once the space for SickKids Airbnb was confirmed, extensive research was undertaken to ensure that it would be an immersive experience as true to life as the real thing. Banting and her team conducted 30 hours of interviews to ensure they had every detail of a SickKids ICU room recorded before designing one in the hospital’s boardroom to list on Airbnb.

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“We created a paediatric intensive care unit down to the tape on the floor after interviewing staff, patients, and doctors, going through the hospital, taking photos, capturing everything,” Banting explained. The goal of the project was not only to create a replica of a paediatric ICU room, but to develop a truly immersive experience along with it so participants would gain a truly sensorial understanding of what patients and their families undergo when children are being provided with care at SickKids. This required the creative team to consider the sights, sounds, tastes and action that would take place in this hospital room. It was decided the experience would last for three hours to provide participants a true taste of the SickKids experience. Providing participants with minimal space and the consequences of that was a priority. “Unlike most hospitals, just based on the lack of space that SickKids have, there would normally be four to six families in a room. And that would mean sometimes you’re hearing, witnessing horrible things another child is going through, like the stress that people feel,” said Banting. Providing the true-to-life experience in this immersion involved exposing participants to realistic scenarios whereby they witnessed the day-to-day exchanges between hospital staff, patients and their families. Showing the realities of what really happens in an ICU ward with multiple families cramped within it became an essential part of the immersion. “When I say immersive, I mean live action,” explained Banting excitedly. This live action involved medical staff behaving as they would in a paediatric ICU. “We trained staff and nurses to come in and act out scenarios that they would normally act out in training simulations.” In addition to the live action being played out before them, participants could also hear pre-recorded sounds over the Public Address system that added even more to the anxiety, panic and stress evoked by the immersion. “There were the different whistles and code blues that you would hear over the PAs while you’re in this hospital and we created a three-hour audio show working side-by-side and in-hand with creatives as they were making these decisions.” The replica ICU room was fitted out with three beds so that three participants (and their families) could experience what it is like for a child patient and their family to be treated at SickKids. While extensive research, time, effort and meticulous planning were involved in the

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Fig. 8.2 SickKids Airbnb listing

lead up and implementation of the SickKids Airbnb immersive campaign experience, its goal and campaign story was designed to be simple (Fig. 8.2).

The Campaign Narrative The campaign narrative was developed in a way so that it would be accessible and understood by a wide range of people. Essentially, it was about providing the opportunity for participants to walk in someone else’s shoes. In this case, the shoes of a patient and their family in a SickKids ICU room. “We wanted to let someone actually live it,” said Banting. “That’s the main narrative, but what we ended up doing was working directly in a partnership with Airbnb to deliver that.”

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This opportunity to live the experience was reflected in the key messages used to communicate about the campaign and its immersive experience. Using terms such as “eye-opening” and advising in its Airbnb listing that visitors will have “…little privacy or comfort…” during their stay helped to convey the true realities of what people working and being treated in this environment experience daily (Ngabo, 2019). Banting explains the rationale behind why the Airbnb listing was written in this particular way, “The Airbnb listing was written in a way that shone a light on that perception versus reality like, ‘Amazing staff. Great care,’ but you won’t sleep a wink. That kind of language played into the tone.”

The campaign’s overarching narrative was conveyed extremely well on its Airbnb listing because of its contrast against accommodation promoting its luxurious features and surroundings and the use of the term “eye-opening” clearly communicated the overall aim of the campaign, to change perceptions, minds and donation behaviours. With the Airbnb listing and the immersive ICU experience as the central platforms in the campaign’s Storyworld, these were extremely effective in amplifying the key messages across a range of other platforms.

The Campaign’s Storyworld SickKids and the creative team fromvarious platforms No Fixed Address Inc. were extremely strategic in how they selected and time the to create the Storyworld for the SickKids Airbnb campaign as the following description explains.

Airbnb Listing The Airbnb listing of the immersive ICU experience was the first platform that was used to publicise the event. Partnering with a global brand such as Airbnb helped to increase the campaign’s reach and visibility to new audiences. Currently, Airbnb has 150 million users and hosts on its platform, therefore, this partnership helped SickKids to reach a whole new audience of prospective donors rather than relying solely on its own channels (Meyer, 2022) (Fig. 8.3).

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Fig. 8.3 SickKids Airbnb immersive experience

Immersive Experience The replica of the SickKids paediatric ICU was a platform that was the central generator of media coverage and content for social media and other digital platforms. It truly was the centrepiece in the crown of this campaign’s Storyworld. As explored, the experience provided participants with three sensorially intensive hours to provide a realistic first hand glimpse of the hospital’s outdated facilities and infrastructure. Campaign creators worked tirelessly to provide participants with a hyper realistic immersive experience as Banting explains: “I was up for 36 hours going through this, and there was a tonne of work in the lead up, even creating the audio tracks. Again we’re very intentional about everything,” she said. “We engaged a past patient’s mother who also was an actress who had stayed in the paediatric intensive care unit. She was the voice actor for our audio recordings. Every decision was really intentional to ensure that it was true to the experience of so many people and just to ensure that it was done respectfully as well.”

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However, there was also a version of the immersive ICU experience available to donors. Chiovitti shared: “We created an experience for donors to come and capture their own content and experience it themselves after the media and influencers were successful.”

Traditional Media Traditional media outlets across Canada were invited to provide coverage of the immersive SickKids Airbnb experience and its high profile participants, to raise awareness of the fundraising campaign and educate and change perceptions of its audiences in relation to SickKid’s need to build a new hospital. The campaign called on journalists from print media, radio and television outlets to cover the campaign.

Social Media The campaign produced and shared content from the immersive SickKids Airbnb experience across SickKids’ one official channels including Facebook (SickKids Foundation, 2022c), Twitter (SickKids Foundation, 2022d), Instagram (SickKids Foundation, 2022e), YouTube (SickKids Foundation, 2022f) and LinkedIn (SickKids Foundation, 2022g). In the lead up to the campaign launch, SickKids also shared advertisements on its social media channels promoting the Airbnb listing. Chiovitti said: “We created small little social ads that were driving to that experience. And all of it was very much for a stunt,” she said. “We didn’t care if anybody booked the experience. It was purely to get the word out there. The price tag on the experience itself was $16,744 because that was the 24-hour operating cost of that room.”

Additionally, the campaign involved a number of high profile sportspeople, celebrities and social media influencers who were invited to participate in the immersion first hand and were encouraged to produce and share their own social media content to their extensive follower base to help educate and change perceptions about the state of SickKids facilities and infrastructure. Campaign organisers were very strategic in their use of high profile people and influencers to ensure the campaign’s story

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could reach previously untouched audiences who could be inspired by their message being delivered by someone they already knew and trusted.

Campaign Video A camera crew was on site throughout the immersive ICU experience to capture the action and reactions of influencers and media participating at the time. This footage was edited into a series of videos that was shared across the web and SickKids social media channels. Chiovitti discussed the process: “We had a camera crew shooting a video for us. We had media onsite, so actual journalists on site, capturing it as well for editorial news content. And then, once the video was produced we also put that out on paid social media.”

Website The SickKids Foundation website was also used to share video content and news from and about the campaign (SickKids Foundation, 2022h).

Campaign Launch The campaign launch ran for a duration of 36 hours whereby media and high profile sportspeople, celebrities and social media influencers were invited to participate in the three-hour immersive experience. This was an extremely intense period for both campaign organisers, and participants, yet it was a highly successful way to generate content to amplify the campaign story and fundraising goal across traditional and digital media platforms and outlets. Banting explained the launch process: “We had them (media and high profile participants) go through the three hour experience. We invited them in, go through the live show. We created content out of it. So we had pieces for each of them, so we could pitch them out.”

The content was not only captured on site, it was edited in a makeshift editing studio in the room next to the immersion to save time in the production and approval process.

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“We edited it all in the next room beside the live experience overnight,” Banting said. “We had the client on site to approve videos overnight.” The first delivery of the experience was overnight with high profile people such as American basketballer, Fred VanVleet who at the time played for the Toronto Raptors and had a connection to the SickKids hospital because his children were born in the city (Fig. 8.4). Content was captured and edited with this first round of participants and approved by then before leaving the facility so that campaign organisers could begin leveraging their reputation and large following to share the SickKids fundraising messages. With three beds available in the replica ICU room, the campaign organisers had to be extremely selective of who they invited in during the first stage so that they could capitalise on their following as much as possible to amplify the campaign story. “We ended up inviting three different people that all could attract a different audience in the news media,” Banting said. Fred Van Fleet’s participation in the first immersive experience attracted the interest of sports fans and journalists; an audience that usually would not be interested in SickKids.

Fig. 8.4 Mid-experience

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Another high profile person selected was from Canada’s Bachelor franchise to tap into and capture the interest of audiences who follow pop culture. Again, this decision was a well-considered and strategic move by campaign organisers. “One had volunteered at SickKids in the past, and her father was a paediatric surgeon,” explained Banting. The final tactical element of the first immersive experience involved a media reporter from one of Canada’s highest rating television programmes who captured their experience, produced a segment and reported it back to their show; again targeting a completely different audience segment than the other two participants. “So each one of those people gave us an opportunity to tell a different story and different experience that would broaden the message as much as possible.” The next delivery of the launch was a smaller experience for social media influencers so they could create their own content and share it across their channels. Next in line were the major media outlets of Toronto who were invited to experience the immersion first hand. “We invited all the major media in Toronto to come and experience this for themselves as a true representation of the day in a life of staff or patient that is living in this hospital,” said Erin. “Not in a sensationalised way, and not to discredit or make anybody feel vulnerable in terms of their own experience. The aim was to show that this is the reality, and this is why this hospital needs the money.” Encouraging Toronto’s major media outlets to experience the immersion was a highly successful move that generated coverage not only across Canada, but also internationally. “It received so much media coverage,” said Chiovitta. “Fast Company called it a world changing idea. And, it just really was a breakthrough, because it was pretty bold and daring to do that, to invite people to come sleep over at night in the hospital.” The 36 hour long launch was described by Banting as “…the longest 36 hours of my life”. However, the length of the actual launch was extremely intensive, the meticulous organisation required to make it a success was equally as laborious. Not only the creation of the immersion but the careful coordination of journalists, high profile participants, social media influencers, video production and editing professionals was essential to successfully implement this campaign.

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Each Platform’s Unique Contribution Every platform in the campaign’s Storyworld and every individual invited to experience the SickKids Airbnb immersion was selected with careful and strategic consideration to help amplify the campaign story and reach the widest audience possible. SickKids Foundation and No Fixed Address Inc. aimed to achieve more than inspiring current donors to assist in raising funds to build a new hospital. They wanted to reach completely new audiences who would not ordinarily talk about SickKids with their friends and family. “Every single decision was very intentional to help tell the narrative and then was disseminated across a variety of channels,” Banting explained. This created content was then facilitated by SickKids own channels and provided media friendly video and sound bytes to send to additional media and to boost on their own social media channels too. The immersion became the central point from whence the campaign message spread. “It was a catalyst for the conversation and was as gangbusters as it could be in 36 hours to try and get the word out there and get people talking about it.”

The Airbnb Listing The listing on Airbnb’s website was titled: “An Eye-Opening Stay at SickKids” and described a 3-hour immersive experience that cost from $2393.00 per person (the actual cost of three hours of hospital care in an ICU) (Ngabo, 2019). This listing added to the campaign story by announcing the campaign, providing contrast to the usual promotional listings by explaining the current issues with SickKids facilities and infrastructure, while providing the general public with the opportunity to experience it first hand in exchange for a comparable donation. This was the beginning of the campaign.

Immersive Experience The immersive ICU experience was the cornerstone of the campaign that facilitated a range of storytelling and User-Generated Content that enabled the sharing of the campaign story through a diversity of voices to a wide range of audiences. Each voice further advocated on behalf of

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SickKids to verify the campaign story, demonstrating how hospital staff, patients and their families had to deal with outdated infrastructure on a daily basis.

Traditional Media The clever use of high profile sportspeople, pop culture celebrities and journalists attracted the interest of a plethora of media outlets across Toronto, Canada and internationally. Media reports about the immersion and the fundraising campaign by journalists predominantly helped to promote the donation drive to support a new hospital and added credibility by endorsing the campaign as newsworthy. However, as previously mentioned, not all reports were positive, yet even the negative reports still helped to promote the campaign.

Social Media The inclusion of a range of social media channels enabled content before, during and after the campaign to reach SickKids current follower base, as well as providing the ability for followers to share SickKids Airbnb content to their own connections, who may not be aware of the cause. Inviting social media influencers to experience the ICU immersion added to the overall campaign story by providing further evidence of the outdated SickKids facilities and infrastructure. With influencers on site to create their own content, the campaign story was communicated organically through them to their followers (again, audiences who may not ordinally discuss SickKids). Chiovitti paraphrased some of the influencer’s content as posting content such as: “We are staying at the SickKids Airbnbto experience what it’s like to be in a cramped, critical care unit while there’s a code blue going off or while there’s a procedure happening at the bedside or while there’s a family going through trauma.”

The inclusion of influencers in the campaign provided yet another voice to the conversation and facilitated the use of User-Generated Content so that previously untouched audiences could be exposed to the first hand experiences of high profile social media users whom they follow and trust,

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thus increasing the amplification of the campaign story, fundraising goal and reaching new audiences of prospective SickKids donors.

Website The website contributed to the campaign story by acting as a central hub for information whereby media and prospective donors could visit to read more about the campaign or to watch videos produced at the ICU immersion featuring well-known sports people and celebrities. This repository of information acted like an anchor of official information endorsed by SickKids and most importantly provided a simple and secure way for donations to be collected and processed online.

Audience Participation SickKids Airbnb provided only a few ways for audiences to participate in the campaign. The main aim of the campaign was to change perceptions with audiences who knew about SickKids but had not previously considered donating to support the hospital. The campaign relied mostly on organic and earned media (Lombardo, 2019). User-Generated Content was largely encouraged and facilitated via social media influencers to educate their own followers. Aside from that, audiences had the option of sharing content about the campaign, but this was not a direct call-to-action. The audience also had the option of purchasing the SickKids Airbnb experience, but as previously stated, the listing was more about attracting attention, starting conversations and generating media coverage than actually selling it. After analysing the SickKids Airbnb campaign it is clear that the three main forms of participation it aimed to evoke from audiences were: 1. Discussion about the campaign and their gap in perception regarding SickKids facilities and infrastructure and the reality of their outdated condition. 2. A perception change to a deeper understanding of how hospital staff provide care to patients and their families under the current cramped and antiquated conditions. 3. A change in behaviour resulting in funds being donated to assist SickKids to reach its $1.3 billion goal to build a new hospital.

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This form of participation was strategically devised and implemented to ensure the new audiences reached throughout this campaign were very clear about what it meant to support SickKids, reducing confusion and incidents of slacktivism in the process. Slacktivism is defined as “..all types of small, symbolic online support of a cause (token support) whilst meaningful support can be quantified in larger measures, financial donations, and in offline spaces” (Guillard, 2016, pp. 2111–2212). Thereby, campaign organisers had to be extremely careful in navigating audience participation through the stages of the classic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) marketing model that can be identified within the action of this campaign. It could be theorised that as the SickKids Airbnb progressed, prospective moved through the following stages: firstly, awareness of the current conditions, then taking an interest in helping to update them, to a desire to assist which then transformed into the action of a monetary donation (Strong, 1925). Without this clear call-to-action, the audience only just learning about the conditions at SickKids Hospital may have felt they were participating, contributing to and supporting SickKids by only sharing content from the ICU immersive experience rather than making a donation. This was extremely well executed on behalf of SickKids Foundation and the No Fixed Address Inc. creative team (Fig. 8.5).

Evaluation The SickKids Airbnb fundraising campaign relied on two key metrics to evaluate its success. Overall, the campaign aimed to help raise $1.3 billion for a new hospital, and next its goal was to attract new donors. The campaign was hugely successful on both fronts with SickKids Foundation and No Fixed Address Inc. delighted with the results achieved. Banting explained the impact of these conversion metrics. “I think there was a 27% increase in donations after the campaign window, and of those people donating, 28% were new donors. They had never donated to SickKids before,” said Banting. “That helped us to realise that we were expanding the bubble. We were doing what we intended to do, break down that perception and have people reconsider SickKids as a cause to donate to.” While vanity metrics such as reach, impressions and other engagement measures were recorded across traditional and media platforms within the

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Fig. 8.5 Results from the SickKids Airbnb Campaign

campaign’s Storyworld, it was the increase in donations and new donors that were the most important forms of evaluation that demonstrated the success of the campaign. Overall, the campaign achieved a 27% increase in donations (D&AD, 2020).

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory to Practice Speculation may arise over the presence of transmedia brand storytelling theories in the Airbnb SickKids immersive campaign, yet when interviewing its creators, these were not proactively included in its design or delivery. Firstly, the three practitioners interviewed (two from SickKids Foundation, Sandra Chiovitti, Director of Public Relations and Kate Torrance—Vice-President Brand Strategy and Communication, and Erin Banting from No Fixed Address Inc.) were not aware of the term “transmedia” before receiving an invitation to participate in an interview for

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this book. Two practitioners admitted to Googling the term to prepare for the interview and the third responded when asked about their use of the word “transmedia”: “We don’t use that word or that phrase here at all. I don’t know if other Canadians have said that.”

However, for the practitioners behind this campaign, their creative process has a solid structure and process working between the organisation and creative agency, with Chiovitti describing it as “fairly traditional.” “Our brand strategy team at SickKids Foundation will write the brief and brief our agency. Our agency will then brainstorm with their own team. They then rewrite a creative brief, which is an interesting process,” she said. “They write a creative brief and then present it back to us to make sure that they’ve interpreted it correctly and it’s what we’re hoping the direction will be.” The next stage involves the creative agency returning for what is called a “tissue session.” “These are their preliminary concepts and ideas. They usually come back with three creative concepts that we then select based on what we think is the strongest and has the most potential for what the job is to do for the year. And over the course of the last year or two, we’ve been much better at making it a more integrated process with the PR agency and our creative agency.” From the creative agency’s perspective, the creative process begins with gaining a solid understanding of the brief presented by the client. Banting explains, “It would all start with strategy in terms of understanding what is the human truth, the insight, and that could take shape in many forms. For us, in the context of the SickKids Airbnb campaign, it was about the brand, about the perception versus the reality of the brand,” she said.

Once the brief is understood within the creative agency, a process ensues of identifying the main possibilities and angles the campaign could take. “You would work alongside, quote-unquote, a conceptual creative to come up with some what-ifs, shallow holes, ways of obtaining the brief, ideally super shallow in terms of here’s a few what if and a few sentences

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to help articulate what we’re trying to say, and then a bunch of them shallow and wide effectively,” Banting explained. The many possibilities are streamlined to only a few and the concepts further developed to present to the client who will select which one/s require even more defining in terms of audiences, platforms and the most effective techniques to bring the campaign to life. “From there normally bring a few to the client to show them some range of thinking, hone in on one from there and then develop a full integrated rollout plan,” said Banting. “What are the right ways to bring this to life? And then develop that total rollout plan. It goes through the entire soup to nuts of how the idea would come to life. And then from there get approval and go.” The creative process explained from both client and agency perspective has been a commonly identified course of action within the practitioner interview data for this book. When selecting platforms to create campaign storyworld, each of the three practitioners interviewed had similar but varying approaches. One practitioner decided on the campaign concept first, who the audience will be and then the most relevant platforms to reach them. Another practitioner from the SickKids Foundation commented that video was a platform that is always included in their campaigns and after the video concept has been decided, then the platforms it will be featured on are decided, and the video finessed to suit them. “Video storytelling is a cornerstone,” they explained. “Knowing that right out of the gate, we start looking at the platforms and tactics that are going to create the best opportunity for that particularly longer form storytelling.” Audience insights determine the most relevant platforms to share the video, which takes into consideration emerging platforms and the amount of time target audiences are spending on each. Once the platforms have been determined, detailed planning is conducted from the outset so that campaign videos are produced to suit the different lengths and platform specifications, rather than attempting to edit them to suit after footage has been recorded. When compared to the interview and survey data, placing a type of content before audience identification and platform selection is an alternative approach that has not been mentioned by anyone else in both practitioner samples.

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The other approach to platform selection was also a consistent theme in the interview findings. It seems that budgetary requirements can be the very first stipulation in the process of platform selection. Next, can be the outcome that is trying to be achieved with that budget, depending if it is to build awareness or drive conversions. However, as with the most common theme in the interview data, identifying the audience is an essential stage in platform selection. “Everything should be grounded in the audience, especially where marketing is now,” said Banting. There were also differing but similar approaches to the most effective way to evaluate the success of campaigns. However, it is important to note that again, the practitioners behind SickKids Airbnb do not use any of the transmedia storytelling campaign evaluation methods posed in the literature by scholars such as Pratten (2015a, p. 93) who recommended approaches such as the Toggle Switch method. For Chiovitti, conversion metrics and a wide range of vanity metrics are important to understand campaign performance. “There’s a debrief on conversions, reach, impressions, fundraising results. So, business results for the quarter….also video views, all the engagements, social engagements and so on. We’re pretty serious when it comes to measurement.” Yet other factors relating to overall brand health were also identified as important, such as top of mind awareness, affinity and likelihood to recommend. “The sweet spot is the intersection between the brand love and the business results.” For Banting, the key measurement is the achievement of campaign objectives followed by the number of impressions and an increase in positive sentiment. Both approaches support the overall results in this study. The most predominant evaluative method present in the practitioner interviews was campaign goal achievement and nearly 50% of the survey sample (46.3%) selecting reach and engagement as the most effective form of transmedia brand storytelling campaign measurement. Audience participation is a vital part of SickKids fundraising strategy. Without donors the hospital would not exist. However, the tactics used by SickKids were not directly aligned with the findings from our interviews and survey. This may be due to the organisation functioning in the nonprofit sector rather than being a commercial brand. The techniques

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used by SickKids to emotionally connect with the audience to inspire them to either share content and/or donate are usually delivered through high quality storytelling sharing the real life experiences of patients, their families and hospital staff. “...the formula is to show children who are really sick and really in active treatment and to really show the struggle story and the need, that really helps people.”

Storytelling from the patient’s perspective, is also a key driver in audience participation for SickKids. “When there is a letter or a postcard that is written by a patient or it looks like it’s handwritten or it’s a personal message from a real patient, suddenly the community starts mailing things to our office.”

There is also a strong focus on responding to the target audience promptly, with an entire team dedicated to the task and another team whose mission is to deliver peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. Peerto-peer fundraising has been identified as an extremely effective way to encourage audience participation in attracting donations (Sepehri et al., 2021). According to Banting (another key theme in our research), providing simple and accessible communication and opportunities for the audience to participate is essential to attract the response brands aim for. Banting explains the importance of this in both respects. “Keep it as simple and as streamlined as possible. Try to communicate the key messages within 10 seconds and then find a really strong motivator (for that participation), keeping it as simple as possible and limiting as many barriers as you can.”

Along with the majority of the interview research sample, specific transmedia storytelling theories or models were not used to develop campaigns for SickKids. Again, references to using intuition or “going from my gut” were used instead; a common method used by the practitioners in our study (Pratten, 2015b, p. 146). However, the use of “content pillars” (specific topic categories for social media content) is an approach used by the organisation (du Plessis, 2017). These categories include: “Brand Love, Credibility and Impact.”

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The practitioners behind SickKids Airbnb interviewed for this study all learned about developing transmedia storytelling campaigns (although not overtly) while working in the field and being mentored by more senior staff. Again, in line with the key findings from this study, the practitioners interviewed for this chapter were not formally trained in transmedia storytelling or immersive campaign development.

Conclusion This case study demonstrated how transmedia brand storytelling was used to develop and deliver a highly immersive campaign experience to increase donations and attract new donors for the SickKids Foundation in Canada. The case explored how partnering with a global brand such as Airbnb, delivering a true-to-life immersive experience to generate content and media coverage, as well as leveraging the influence and following of carefully selected high profile participants can amplify key messages and inspire action from new audiences to achieve strategic outcomes.

References D&AD. (2020). SickKids Airbnb. https://www.dandad.org/awards/professio nal/2020/231781/sickkids-airbnb/ du Plessis, C. (2017). The role of content marketing in social media content communities. South African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), 1–7. Guillard, J. (2016). Is feminism trending? Pedagogical approaches to countering (Sl) activism. Gender and Education, 28(5), 609–626. Lombardo, C. (2019). SickKids and Airbnb let you book an ICU. Strategy Online. https://strategyonline.ca/2019/09/19/sickkids-and-airbnb-let-youbook-an-icu/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Meyer, S. (2022). Airbnb statistics and host insights [2022]. The Zebra. https://www.thezebra.com/resources/home/airbnb-statistics/. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. Ngabo, G. (2019). SickKids’ Airbnb campaign to have donors ‘check in’ to ICU met with criticism. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ 2019/10/03/sickkids-airbnb-campaign-to-have-donors-check-in-to-icu-metwith-criticism.html. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. No Fixed Address. (2022). SickKids Airbnb. https://nofixedaddressinc.com/ case-studies/sickkids-airbnb. Accessed 27 Sept 2022.

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Pratten, R. (2015a). Chapter Five: Understanding the audience—Measuring engagement. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 90–95). McGraw Hill. Pratten, R. (2015b). Chapter Seven: Content strategy. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 137– 178). McGraw Hill. Sepehri, A., Duclos, R., Kristofferson, K., Vinoo, P., & Elahi, H. (2021). The power of indirect appeals in peer-to-peer fundraising: Why “s/he” can raise more money for me than “I” can for myself. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31(3), 612–620. SickKids Foundation. (2017b). SickKids launches $1.3 billion fundraising campaign to build a new hospital, https://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/ aboutus/newsandmedia/news2017octsickkidscampaignbuildnewhospital. Accessed 23 Aug 2023. SickKids Foundation. (2022a). SickKids launches $1.3 billion fundraising campaign to build a new hospital. https://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/ aboutus/newsandmedia/news2017octsickkidscampaignbuildnewhospital. Accessed 25 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022b). About SickKids. https://www.sickkids.ca/en/ about/about-sickkids/. Accessed 25 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022c). Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/sickkidsf oundation. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022d). Twitter. https://twitter.com/SickKidsNews. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022e). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/sickki dstoronto/. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022f). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/Sic kKidsInteractive. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022g). LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/ the-hospital-for-sick-children/?trk=tyah. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. SickKids Foundation. (2022h). SickKids Foundation. https://www.sickkidsfoun dation.com/. Accessed 26 Sept 2022. Strong, E. K. (1925). Theories of selling. Journal of Applied Psychology, 9(1), 75–86.

CHAPTER 9

Case Study Two: VFR Campaign—Wander Geelong and the Bellarine (Australia)

Greater Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula are situated approximately a one hour drive from Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The City of Greater Geelong is recognised as being the gateway to the collection of towns dotted along the Bellarine Peninsula. The entire geographical region boasts a population nearing 270,000 people (forecast.id, 2021). Known for its natural wonders and picturesque seascapes, Greater Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula was often perceived as an ideal destination for a quick weekend away from the bustle of city life in Melbourne. The region has long held a strong reputation as a foodies’ paradise with an eclectic range of award winning wineries, breweries, restaurants and farm-to-table dining experiences adding to the region’s appeal. Also known as a family friendly destination, the region has long been perceived as a welcoming place for parents and children to visit for a day-trip or longer during the school holiday season. Yet, with its natural beauty and culinary appeal, the region was not attracting the visitor numbers its local tourism board, Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine, knew that it could muster, even before the global pandemic impacted the tourism industry. This case study will demonstrate how in-depth research conducted by Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine to better understand exactly which market segment was visiting the region was the most important stage of the transmedia brand storytelling campaign development process. It was this © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_9

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valuable research that helped to identify the target audience, tap into their preferences and motivations and then leverage this knowledge to create a highly successful, immersive and interactive transmedia brand storytelling campaign that supported the achievement of organisational goals by significantly increasing the numbers of visitors to the Greater Geelong and The Bellarine region. It was the strength of this initial research that guided the development of the campaign away from what could be deemed as a traditional tourism promotion in the hope of attracting people without an existing connection to the region to visit from locations within Australia and internationally to having a comprehensive insight gained from a thorough situational and environmental analysis to be much more strategic and efficient in its approach.

Research Identifies Both the Problem and a Possible Solution The main driver for a campaign of this type to be developed was to attract greater numbers of people to visit the amazing locations on offer within the region, but more importantly to increase the frequency of visitation (and dollars being spent) at local businesses. Without successfully attracting international tourists, the region and its business community were missing out on a significant proportion of the possible revenue on offer compared to more popular locations in the state of Victoria such as Melbourne City and Phillip Island (Visit Victoria, 2021a, 2021b). To provide context, Melbourne attracted 35.8 million international and domestic visitors per year (Visit Victoria, 2021b) compared with 5.1 million visitors to the Greater Geelong and The Bellarine region (City of Greater Geelong, 2018). Previous campaigns aimed at enticing international tourists to the region were not as successful as anticipated and with a minimal budget allotted for campaigns, the team at Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine knew that a truly innovative approach was required to attract greater numbers of people to visit locations and businesses in the region while meeting budget requirements. Solid academic research formed the first stage in better understanding the problem of low visitation rates to the region. A researcher in the field of tourism and management from Federation University in Ballarat, Victoria, called Associate Professor Elisa Zentveld was instrumental in identifying a previously untapped market, what is now known as “visiting friends and relatives”. Before this research, a tourist was often identified

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as someone who was foreign to a location. However, Zentveld’s (nee Backer’s) research identified that visiting friends and relatives accounted for nearly 50% of tourism dollars spent in the region. “This is what the visiting friends and relative market was worth in terms of real visitation numbers. So that was the seed that was planted that kind of stemmed into everything that it is today,” explained Ed Jones, Accounts Director at Pace Advertising, Marketing & PR who collaborated on the campaign with Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine. “Zentveld (nee Backer’s) pioneered this area of tourism marketing research in Australia.” Pace Advertising, Marketing & PR was one of the first agencies to leverage the opportunity to engage with this previously unengaged market. “We happened to be the first agency to actually pick that up and say we need to be doing something with this. We were doing a little tourism marketing at the time, but we now do a lot, which stemmed from these practices,” Jones explained. The team at Pace presented the opportunity to leverage this previously untapped market to tourism boards and associations around Victoria to educate them that this was a real phenomenon, but it took some convincing because it was such a fresh approach. “It’s not a 1% of the market that we can go and address. We worked in some areas like the Nillumbik Shire which is north, like Greensborough and out north east of Melbourne,” said Jones. “It accounts for 75% of their visitation marketing. It’s phenomenal.”

Targeting the Untapped Market at the Kitchen Table Extensive research was also undertaken by Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine highlighted a key problem. Current tourism campaigns and promotions were not attracting significant numbers of international visitors. In fact, the study suggested that less than half of people visiting the region were travelling from other states around Australia and even fewer visitors were spending time in the Greater Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula region when touring Australia from overseas locations. While many organisations may have perceived the low visitation rates from interstate and international tourists as discouraging and a significant challenge to be overcome, particularly with a limited budget, Tourism Greater

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Geelong And The Bellarine approached the situation from a completely different angle. Acknowledging that the visitation data highlighted international and interstate visitors were in the minority, the research findings also demonstrated that a significant proportion of visitors were travelling to the region to spend time with friends and family already residing in the area. Rather than diverting the budget to attract greater numbers of interstate and international visitors, Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine instead decided to leverage the opportunity of what was already happening and engage with people visiting the region to see their loved ones who were residents. The aim was to encourage this specific segment of visitors, then referred to as Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR), to spend time exploring and experiencing the many attractions of the region rather than only visiting the homes of the people they were there to see. As Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine Marketing Manager, Tracy Carter explained, “We wanted to encourage these visitors away from the kitchen table to explore our region while they were here.” However, the aim was to not only get VFR to tour the region, but to engage with local businesses and spend money while they were there to inject much needed cash flow into the local economy. Yet, changing deeply ingrained visitation habits and behaviours was not going to be a simple task. Again, Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine clearly identified the opportunity present in the process of people coming to the region to visit friends and family by leveraging the existing relationship that attracted them there by positioning residents as super hosts and equipping them as local tour guides. However, Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine understood that achieving this required more than advertising a few day trips and promotional offers. To attract people away from the comfort of their loved one’s homes needed much greater incentives and rewards delivered through highly interactive and immersive experiences that were easy and fun for visitors and hosts to participate in, as well as being family friendly and rewarding for local businesses to contribute to. This is when it was agreed, although without specifically stating it, that a transmedia brand storytelling approach was required as a helpful solution to encourage people from within the state of Victoria to visit their friends and relatives and participate in what would soon be known as the Wander Geelong and The Bellarine campaign, a gamified scavenger hunt that rewarded local residents and their visitors for visiting specific areas of the region and

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its participating businesses all while competing for prizes, and creating positive experiences and memories throughout the course of the journey.

The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Solution The transmedia brand storytelling construction of the Wander Geelong and The Bellarine campaign was extremely well-considered although its organisers may not have realised at the time that it fell within the bounds of transmedia brand storytelling. The overall brand narrative for this campaign was to present the region as a place of undiscovered attractions with the term “wander” used to encourage visitors and their local hosts to explore them. One of the key components of the campaign’s success was its positioning of the “visitor” as the hero of the campaign story and the local friend or relative as their guide. By doing this, they created a team based on familiarity who could experience new adventures together. “The idea for us with the entire campaign was to get local people out, doing activities, and exploring all of the places they hadn’t been before,” Tracy Carter explained. The campaign aimed to attract greater numbers of visitors to the region as a first step and then encourage visitors and their hosts to explore the local attractions during their stay. To achieve this, the campaign provided resources to local residents to help to train them as tourism ambassadors. The idea behind this was the assumption the more locals experience the region, the more likely they would be to show it off to family and friends. “That was the real idea of the campaign,” Carter explained. “In tourism and destination marketing, you can often get caught up in branding or only telling stories about places to go and things to do. It can be challenging to be tactical, because we’re selling a region not a tangible product. We deliberately wanted to make sure this was a tactical campaign that drove people to take action.” The campaign employed a strong and compelling narrative across multiple platforms that appealed to audiences by providing a range of immersive experiences to suit the different engagement levels of the participants. “The campaign had to be kind of playful, it had to be kind of fun, it had to be familiar to a very diverse age group, from children all the way through to retirement,” explained Jones.

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To successfully achieve this, campaign organisers used their in-depth research to meticulously plan every aspect of the unfolding storyworld in collaboration with local business owners to ensure that visitors and their local guides would have a positive and seamless experience.

Generating Collaboration: A Crucial Component of the Campaign Planning Process Collaboration with local businesses was a crucial element in the successful facilitation of this campaign. The aim of the campaign was not only to encourage residents to become tour guides for their visiting family and friends to explore the region, but to include local businesses in that itinerary and spend money as part of their participatory campaign efforts. However, to make this a reality, campaign organisers needed to attract buy-in from business owners operating the region. Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine is a member-based organisation with approximately 500–600 local business members who pay a fee to be part of the tourism organisation, which can include collaborative marketing opportunities. “We thought this Visiting Friends and Relatives campaign was a really terrific opportunity to work together,” said Carter. “All of the businesses featured in the campaign have bought in at various levels. That was something in the strategy that we said, “We need to have buy-in opportunities for the businesses.” One of the key aspects of the campaign was to inspire people to take action and drive the audience through the doors of the participating businesses. However, for the campaign to be attractive for local businesses these actions had to be measurable so that local business owners could monitor their return on investment. “This need for meticulous evaluation and measurement is how we landed on the idea of a gamified digital scavenger hunt with prizes and awards that encourages contribution and participation through prizes and rewards for the audience,” Carter explained. Local business owners were provided with different participation options based on their level of investment. If a business signed up to be an official site as part of the scavenger hunt, staff there had to host an interpretive or connected piece of information for the audience to interact with to help them to continue to the next stage of the journey.

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“The audience needed to visit a specific business to collect a clue or complete that section of the quest,” Carter said. “At the time, businesses were displaying posters with augmented reality functionality. The audience had to be able to walk into the business and understand where they could solve the clue.” Buy-in from local business owners was strong once they understood that they knew the campaign would drive people through their doors. However, converting the audience into paying customers was the responsibility of the participating business. Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine assisted with this conversion by embedding specific deals at various points throughout the campaign. These offers were communicated directly to participating audience members. “For example, if there was a winery as a participating business in the campaign, they may offer a two-course lunch on weekdays and we would communicate that deal only to people participating in the game,” Carter explained. The collaboration between participating businesses laid the framework in planning the audience journey implemented in the Wander Geelong and The Bellarine campaign.

The Campaign Narrative The brand storyworld narrative communicated throughout this campaign was very simple and effective: “Not all those who wander are lost… Are you ready to wander and win?” (Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine, 2018). The campaign used the imagery of an Alice in Wonderland white rabbit (Carroll & Tenniel, 2001) as an identifiable and familiar character to attract attention to the campaign story. As part of the campaign narrative, the audience was invited to join the “quest, solve virtual puzzles, and games”, as a call-to-action to encourage participation (Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine, 2018). While the white rabbit’s familiarity was an effective mechanism to attract and build a relationship with the audience, it did not play a central role as a hero or guide in the story. As explored, the visiting friends and relatives played the pivotal character role as the hero of the story with their host as their archetypal guide. This characterisation is clear when considering the use of terms such as quest to describe the audience journey clearly depicted on the campaign map as illustrated in Fig. 9.1. Also, the tagline “Not all those who wander are

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Fig. 9.1 Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula

lost” could be interpreted as a direct reference to the audience who are not new to the Greater Geelong and Bellarine region, but now have a clear purpose (e.g. the quest) to inspire them to act and explore the area with the reward of winning prizes as their reward for making such effort to participate. The story was communicated through both online and offline platforms which added to the immersive impact of the campaign.

The Storyworld (Platforms and Their Unique Contributions) The storyworld consisted of digital and offline platforms that were leveraged to drive activity between the two spheres of online and offline, creating a propinquital loop that helped the audience become more engaged and committed to completing the quest the more they participated in it (Sutherland, 2016).

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Digital Platforms The Campaign App In terms of specific platforms, the campaign app was the platform of the campaign that fed participants important information and enabled them to participate in the various tasks of the campaign by facilitating and recording their activity. For example, the app provided a map of the selected sites for the audience to visit (see Fig. 9.2), allowed the audience to check in at each location and to participate in any other competitive tasks such as quizzes, tests and riddles to earn prizes. The app also counted and recorded the points each audience member accrued over the course of the campaign, which also allowed campaign managers the ability to monitor how well participants were interacting with the storyworld and navigating the audience journey they had created. However, in earlier iterations of the campaign, this was not the case. “A much earlier version of the campaign used a tear-off map, but it was more like a scavenger hunt where participants had to go to a playground and write down the colour of the slide and things like that,” explained Carter. “The campaign evolved to being more digital because then it was obviously more measurable for us” (Fig. 9.3).

Fig. 9.2 Campaign App promotion

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Fig. 9.3 The audience campaign journey

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine commissioned Pace Advertising, Marketing & PR to develop the app specifically for the campaign. “They (Pace) already had experience working in that space. So, we were really led by their expertise in that area,” Carter explained. The remaining digital platforms used in the campaign were already part of the Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine’s marketing mix. Social Media Campaign managers used a specific local Visiting Friends and Relatives Facebook page that was already in existence but was separate from the official organisational page. “We tried to keep that quite separate from our communications that were focused outside the region,” said Carter. “We tried to talk on our Geelong page in a way that made local people feel they were part of the

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inner sanctum, almost like they were part of the in-gang. They get all the in-jokes. We were able to tailor that communication in small ways.” Instagram was another social media platform used in the campaign. The profile existed previously and was used as another touchpoint for the audience to interact with campaign content that had been integrated across the other platforms being used. Landing Page The campaign landing page, located at WandertoWin.com.au, was created to outline the key messages and important campaign information including how to download the app, the quest map (see Fig. 9.2), participating businesses, points awarded for each visit, the overall prizes on offer and the competition’s terms and conditions. “That was it for digital. It was quite conservative and fairly modest but it was in those digital spaces where most of the engagement occurred. Facebook, at that point in time, had very obvious market share. Very obvious,” Jones explained. However, campaign managers originally thought participating business owners would be the key advocates driving the campaign over digital platforms, but they were mistaken. “What we quickly learned were the participants, the locals, they were the advocates for the campaign,” said Carter. “We also knew from their behaviour and where their engagement was. In the first instance, we were sending emails out, and we had our little mini website and our Facebook page.”

Email Direct Marketing In addition to social media and the campaign landing page, Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine had an extensive email database they leveraged to help launch the campaign to generate initial interest and prompt participants with special offers at various times throughout the campaign period such as in the lead up to school holidays. Using email marketing in this way also helped to reduce campaign costs and reinvigorate relationships with local people already connected with the organisation.

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Offline Platforms Participating Business Locations The quest locations were also each a platform in the campaign storyworld. This is where participants became completely immersed in the locations from the region that had been recommended on the app. After seeing the location on the map, the audience would then visit and complete tests, quizzes and games based on their knowledge gained from their experience during their visit. These offline experiences were the key ways the audience could accrue points or win prizes within the app which facilitated the propinquital loop, the blend between online and offline environments that continued to drive action between the two (Sutherland, 2016). Sometimes these offline experiences at participating business locations involved a completely immersive experience that engaged all of the senses, for example, with free food samples, music and scents that added to the overall adventure for the audience.

Posters Hard copy posters hung on the wall at participating business locations were also a crucial communication platform in this campaign. The poster contained important questions or tasks to be completed as part of the specific stage of the quest and a QR code so the audience could check in to verify their visit within the app. Without engaging with the posters, the audience’s visit and participation there could not be recorded resulting in them missing out on the points and prizes associated with that location.

Audience Participation The digital aspects of the campaign assisted in it successfully capturing the family market, particularly during the school holiday periods. “Definitely making it digital was how kids kind of connected with it (the campaign) in a bigger way, and they’re often better at operating the phones than the parents are,” explained Carter. “That was a key part of the transition from those older versions of a scavenger hunt into an immersive digital experience.”

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In addition to the app where the audience could participate in games, quizzes and activities to accrue points and win prizes, the campaign managers encouraged the audience to use the standard organisational hashtag: #visitgeelongbellarine to document their experiences on the quest and share them via their social media profiles. “We tried to get participants using our hashtag while they were out having these great times because that was the other part of it,” explained Carter. “Whilst the campaign and the game was about getting people out, we also wanted that to feel really normal, like going out to have lunch somewhere on the coast, that’s a cool thing to do anyway, and you’re just kind of playing the game as a side, but it got competitive.” Many audience members became highly competitive in their quest to win competition prizes that had been donated by the participating businesses. This increased level of engagement in the campaign created some unforeseen challenges for campaign organisers, even when the audience’s campaign journey around the immersive storyworld was tested well before the campaign launch. “We experienced some challenges at times in terms of keeping on top of glitches and participants’ questions being answered with the correct information,” said Carter. “This required vigilant monitoring to effectively manage this high level of participation.” In addition to the promise of prizes, campaign organisers used an additional tactic to encourage increased audience engagement rates: small tangible rewards for visiting each business. This practice is directly in line with Phillips (2012) who recommends that every time you ask the audience to make an effort in your campaign, you must reward them for doing so. Positive reinforcement of effort encourages continued participation and helps keep the momentum of the campaign going. This tactic also helped safeguard the campaign from waning due to diminished interest. “Participating businesses offered something to the visitors, whether it was cheese and wine. We packaged in freebies to enhance that experience,” Jones said. “There was always something on offer when they turned up. They didn’t have to just swipe a credit card when they got there, make a purchase. They were always rewarded and we never forced them to make a purchase; they were just rewarded even more so if they did.” From previous research, campaign managers knew the audience liked prizes and bonuses on top of the prizes offered as a reward if they made the effort of completing more rigorous tasks,

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An additional tactic used to increase audience engagement and participation was the strategic release of important campaign information that could assist the audience with their quest. “We didn’t release everything at the start. We had a slow trickle of content and information to retain that engagement,” Jones explained. This release of information was determined by specific events such as school holidays, long weekends, weather, a local business or product launch, etc. Audience participation was also measured (and forecast) according to the amount of money they were spending on average at the participating businesses. “We knew that the average value per day for a day visitor was $30, $35, and then we knew they did an average of 15 businesses or 15 locations. So we were able to therefore evaluate, we’ve got this many people participating, they spend on average this much money across this many businesses,” Jones explained. However, the biggest challenge for campaign organisers was trying to appeal to a wide range of audience demographics, particularly in relation to age. “There was a massive age discrepancy, massive age demographic and the evolution of digital trying to work to grey nomads and retirees all the way down to people that it was much more intuitive for.”

Yet, analytics from digital platforms (social media, web and the app) indicated audience engagement was extremely high. “It went crazy,” Jones said. “The numbers went through the roof, however, one of the difficulties and challenges that comes with gamification is ultimately, for it to work, the businesses have to think it worked. One of the things that’s not the errors that we made, but one of the challenges that we faced was that gamification made that immersive digital space so autonomous. The audience could turn up, they might make a purchase, they might answer the questions and play the game and move onto the next place. Yet, because they weren’t walking in and handing in a hard copy coupon to the person behind the counter, the digital metrics didn’t seem real to some business owners, because they seemed intangible,” Jones explained. Overall, the audience participated by sharing User-Generated Content (UGC) using the #visitgeelongbellarine hashtag, completing the tasks

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within the campaign app and visiting the participating business locations to check in via the app, gather clues, receive free samples and products as rewards and often making purchases from the businesses during their visit.

Depth and Scale One of the fundamental factors behind the campaign’s success was its meticulous balance between depth and scale in relation to the levels of immersive experiences provided to its audience (Phillips, 2012). The map locations and activities recommended to the audience to participate in the quest were presented in a way that was attractive to die-hard enthusiasts keen to complete every task of the competition and to more casually inclined participants. To appeal to both audience segments, campaign organisers created what they termed “subregions”, small clusters of locations and tasks that could be completed as part of a singular day visit to the area. This provided a more workable option for participants with limited time. More enthusiastic participants could visit more of these subregions and complete their associated activities if they were so inclined, which satisfied their desire for a deeper and more immersive experience. Campaign organisers also crafted specific experiences and activities to suit families attempting to occupy their children’s attention and imagination throughout the school holiday period, which in turn, attracted greater numbers of participants. “Those little geographic subregions gave people a day out, and particularly in the school holidays,” Carter explained. “We offered some free activities with prizes. Parents could hand their phone over to the kids, and see their excitement about finding the clue. It definitely ticked a lot of boxes in that way.” By truly understanding the audience’s needs, the campaign managers were able to successfully create immersive experiences balancing depth and scale that appealed to the highly engaged, engaged and passive audience segments (Phillips, 2012).

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Evaluation While the campaign did not utilise any of the theoretical transmedia storytelling measurement methods explored previously in Chapter 7, for example, the Toggle Switch Model (Goico, 2014) or the various audience engagement measurement models (Pratten, 2015a) campaign managers leveraged the digital footprint created by participants throughout their use of the Wander Geelong and The Bellarine app. Campaign managers also surveyed participating business owners and participants during and after the campaign to gauge their perceptions of the campaign and if it was something they would engage with again in the future. Additionally, the campaign app tracked the audience’s whereabouts as they visited the recommended locations on the digital competition map and checked when visiting the participating businesses. This ability to collect visitation data proved to be extremely beneficial for Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine as it provided solid evidence to share with local business owners regarding the number of people the campaign was bringing through their doors. If participating business owners were unsure of the campaign’s effectiveness, Carter could use the app analytics to clarify the situation. “We can say, ‘Well, we can see that you’ve had 250 people through the doors, because we can see that they’ve all solved the clues’, that trackability and measurability was extremely helpful.” The app’s data collection capabilities were also imperative in identifying the competition winners. “The person who had the most points at the end of the campaign won. However, there were several participants who completed the whole thing by visiting every location and undertaking every suggested activity. The winner was randomly drawn out of this group (of superfans) who received the major prize,” Carter explained. The data collected from the app also allowed campaign organisers to identify and select winners of spot prizes throughout the campaign based on levels of participation. With audience participation evaluation aside, Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine also used a number of other key metrics on which to measure the campaign’s success. “We measured success on the numbers of businesses who participated,” said Cater.

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“That’s a key metric for us, in terms of tourism, the businesses who engaged with what we were doing.”

The overall campaign budget was set at $60,000 AUD and 25% of the budget was provided by local business owners. “That level of buy-in from local industry was a great thing for us,” explained Cater. “It enabled us to boost all of the campaign activities and promotion.” Participant numbers were also a key focus in evaluating the campaign’s success. As stated, the app provided rich audience data and insights, however, the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine adopted a triangulated approach by incorporating additional data collection methods into their approach to campaign evaluation. “We were also able to identify through surveys how many clues had been sold at the various locations. By surveying participants, we knew what group size they were travelling in, and we knew how many days they’d spent out doing the quest,” explained Carter. “We were able to multiply this information with what we knew the stats were around the daily spend of a day visitor”.

This evaluation method allowed campaign managers to differentiate between day visitors and overnight visitors. “This data allowed us to complete some multipliers and determine, for this campaign, we spent $50,000, and the impact was hundreds of thousands of dollars based on getting people out and about and encouraging them to spend at local businesses at the same time.”

These campaign evaluation methods provided a range of valuable audience insights with the data gathered clearly indicating the campaign to be highly successful in generating greater visitation rates within the region and revenue for the local economy.

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory to Practice The practices and perceptions of transmedia brand storytelling and immersive brand experiences expressed by the managers of the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine’s Visiting Friends and Relatives

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campaigns were very much aligned with the overall practitioner interview and survey data in this study. Both interviewees from this campaign did not use the term “transmedia” in their working lives, however, the term “immersive” was commonly used by Jones. Similarly, both practitioners professed to not relying on theoretical frameworks and models from the transmedia storytelling or branding literature on which to support their campaign development processes. Interestingly, Carter referred to drawing on intrinsic knowledge and “going with your gut” as the cornerstone of campaign development. This phenomenon was also a common theme in the wider interview data and one also referred to in the literature by Pratten (2015b, p.146) as the first stage in his recommended “Five Stages of Platform Selection.” Alternatively, while Jones also attested to not using theoretical concepts and frames to underpin his practice, he expressed that instead his decisions were largely based on data. “I’d like to say there’s this magical model that we lean on but it is not… a lot of it is data. 90-something percent of it is data.” In addition to using data to inform decision making, Jones also shared that from an agency perspective, personal anecdotes relating to tourism experiences also played a part in the decision-making process involved in the planning of transmedia brand storytelling campaigns and immersive audience experiences. In terms of the creative process, Carter explained that for her when working with an agency to develop a creative campaign concept, the efficiency of this collaboration rests on how specific and detailed the brief is from the beginning of the partnership. However, once briefed, allowing creative agencies to feel free to explore different concepts and ideas is paramount to the creative campaign process, as is testing the ideas they produce. Carter said, “Agencies are the experts at creativity. So, really empowering them to go wild. This is how much money we have. This is what we need to achieve. Go as crazy as you want, and we can work backwards from there and see what can actually be done within the budget and what’s achievable. So, that’s probably a part of the process, and then really testing. We do a lot of testing as we go through things as well. That’s consumer testing and focus groups and things like that, depending on how big the project is and how heavily resourced it is. There’s no greater way to go forward with confidence than knowing that you’ve tested that.”

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Platform selection methods also aligned these campaign creators with the majority of practitioners explored in this study in terms of audience research informing the most appropriate platforms to include. As there were two main audiences in this campaign, business owners and local tour guides, campaign platforms were selected based on the most effective platforms currently used, with the app developed in the second iteration of the campaign to capture activity of both parties to better streamline communication and activity data. As explored in this case study, audience participation involved a scavenger hunt featuring online and offline components with a competition element whereby participants battled to visit the greatest number of locations. This form of audience participatory technique was a key theme in terms of preferred methods to encourage audience contribution raised by practitioners in our interview data. However, competitions and offline events were ranked third (27.3%) and fourth (19.06%) respectively as the most effective tactics in encouraging audience engagement/participation in an immersive brand experience in our survey data. With the discrepancy between interview and survey data aside, the incredible levels of audience participation in the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine’s Visiting Friends and Relatives campaign provide solid evidence of its success with its target audience. The combination of knowledge and experience from the agency, Pace and Carter, and their teams provided the perfect synergy to create a highly effective transmedia brand storytelling tourism campaign. Both practitioners learned about the transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign experience on the job, similar to the majority of practitioners interviewed in this study. The comparison of approaches used by the creators of the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine’s Visiting Friends and Relatives campaign with the interview and survey data in this study demonstrates a common theme whereby traditional theoretical models from the literature are not overtly used, platform selection is based on audience research and intrinsic knowledge. While the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine’s Visiting Friends and Relatives campaign is an excellent example of transmedia storytelling and a collection of immersive campaign experiences, its creation is not directly derived from “transmedia storytelling” in its scholarly or theoretical sense.

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Conclusion This case study demonstrated how transmedia brand storytelling can support a highly successful tourism campaign to return tangible results that impact an organisation’s bottom line. The analysis of this case study highlighted three key factors that played a significant role in the campaign’s overall success. Firstly, in-depth research is an absolutely essential part of the planning of the transmedia brand storytelling campaign. In this case study, initial research was the key in identifying the target audience. Rather than taking a traditional approach and focusing campaign efforts and tactics on attempting to attract interstate and international visitors to the region, the Tourism Greater Geelong And The Bellarine along with partners, Pace Advertising, Marketing & PR, conducted extensive research to identify which demographics were already visiting the area to attempt to encourage greater numbers from this population to follow suit. This was an effective approach because it involved focusing effort and resources on a group who were already familiar and warm to the idea of spending time in Greater Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. Instead of trying to appeal to a disengaged audience unfamiliar with the region, the research undertaken for this campaign leveraged the relationships that Victorianbased residents already had with friends and family members living in the region as the main reason to visit, with the scavenger hunt competition as an added extra. Therefore, utilising research to identify the most appropriate target audience is paramount. Next, selecting a campaign character that would resonate most with the target audience was also another key to the campaign’s success. In this case, the campaign character was a natural extension of the process that identified the target audience. With the audience research identifying that the largest group of people visiting the region do so to spend time with friends and family, positioning local residents as the campaign character, fulfilling the role of guide was a clever tactic on behalf of this campaign. Finally, adopting a scavenger hunt approach that was highly accessible for local businesses, residents and visitors to participate in and using technology to both support and track campaign activity was another ingredient that led to the success of this campaign. The combination of online and offline components provided audiences with a truly immersive experience, rewarded participants for their efforts, attracted greater

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numbers of visitors to the region and into the local businesses; results that supported (and surpassed) the campaign goals and objectives. Therefore, a strong emphasis on research, the correct campaign characters and ensuring accessibility it attained through the correct combination of platforms in the campaign story universe were the fundamental components underpinning the success of the Wander Geelong and The Bellarine (Australia), Visiting Friends and Relatives Campaign; key takeaways that could be considered by practitioners in the implementation of current and future campaigns.

References Carroll, L., & Tenniel, J. (2001). Alice in Wonderland. Scholastic. City of Greater Geelong. (2018). Tourism—A billion dollar industry. https:// www.geelongaustralia.com.au/visiting/news/item/8d57f75a28c7e89.aspx. Accessed 10 Dec 2021. Goico, N. (2014). How to measure transmedia experiences. Transmedia Storyteller. https://blog.conducttr.com/how-to-measure-transmedia-experiences. Accessed 6 July 2021. I.d. Community. (2021). City of Greater Geelongpopulation forecast. https://for ecast.id.com.au/geelong/population-summary. Accessed 10 Dec 2021. Phillips, A. (2012a). Section III—Structure. Chapter 11: Fine tune for depth or for scale (not both). In A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms (pp. 103–110). McGraw Hill Professional. Phillips, A. (2012b). Section III—Structure. In A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms (pp. 119–149). McGraw Hill Professional. Pratten, R. (2015a). Chapter Five: Understanding the audience—Measuring engagement. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 90–95). McGraw Hill. Pratten, R. (2015b). Chapter Seven: Content strategy. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 137– 178). McGraw Hill. Sutherland, K. E. (2016). Using propinquital loops to blend social media and offline spaces: A case study of the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge. Media International Australia, 160(1), 78–88. Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine. (2018). Wander to Win! https:// www.wandertowin.com.au/. Accessed 13 Dec 2021. Visit Victoria. (2021a). Phillip Island insights. https://corporate.visitvictoria. com/resources/regional-insights/phillip-island. Accessed 10 Dec 2021a. Visit Victoria. (2021b). Melbourne insights. https://corporate.visitvictoria.com/ resources/regional-insights/melbourne. Accessed 10 Dec 2021b.

CHAPTER 10

Case Study Three—Sachin: A Billion Dreams (India)

Indian digital marketing firm, Everymedia, a leader in promotional campaigns for the Bollywood film industry was approached with a new challenge; the marketing of a film-length documentary (Fig. 10.1). Generating interest and excitement with an audience for a documentary feature film would not be a simple undertaking particularly with audiences who were used to the more colourful and action-packed genres more frequently released across cinemas in India. Yet, the subject of this documentary focused on a high profile person that had captured the hearts and minds of people across the country, which is why Everymedia accepted the challenge and designed a highly successful transmedia brand storytelling experience for their client. The biopic centred on the journey of cricketing legend, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, considered by many as one of the greatest cricketers of all time. One of Tendulkar’s major claims to fame was being the first cricketer to score 100 centuries (100 runs in a single innings) in international play (Britannica, 2021). Given his first bat at 11 years of age, Tendulkar became India’s youngest international test cricketer in 1989 at age 16 (Britannica, 2021). Sachin: A Billion Dreams documents Tendulkar’s life from a young restless child with a dream to be a world famous cricketer through the many challenges he faced in his personal life to achieve his goal of being one of history’s most celebrated sportspeople. This case study explores the way in which Everymedia used

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Fig. 10.1 Sachin—A billion dreams movie poster

the methods of transmedia brand storytelling to firstly build the audience’s interest in a movie-length documentary to generate ticket sales and generate a high level of audience participation as an integral component of the campaign’s success.

How the Sachin: A Billion Dreams Campaign Originated The campaign for Sachin: A Billion Dreams originated from a meeting with the documentary film’s producer, Ravi Bhagchandka who founded the production house 200 Not Out Cinemas (P) Ltd. Bhagchandka successfully secured the rights to produce the documentary and selected Everymedia to be the agency to develop and launch the campaign to support the documentary’s release. For Gautam Thakker, CEO of Everymedia, the huge star power of the documentary’s central character was a clear indication of the potential success of this campaign. “Ravi, who ran a production house, managed to get the rights for the documentary. Sachin is of course the biggest cricketing icon we’ve had for many, many years. I mean, the man is a legend in his own right,” Thakker explained. However, while the central focus on the film was certain to capture the hearts and minds of the Indian public, the genre of the movie

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posed an obvious challenge that Thakker and Everymedia did not usually experience with other types of Bollywood movies. “Unfortunately what happens is when you use the word documentary, it’s always seen as non-entertaining content in that sense,” Thakker said. “One of the initial thoughts was, ‘Hey, look, you’ve got access to all of this amazing content out there. Why not package it in a form and put it on a medium that everybody understands?’” Thakker recommended that Bhagchandka initially bypass television as the medium to first broadcast the documentary, even though this was the most traditional outlet for documentary content in India at the time. Streaming services were also in their infancy. Instead, for the greatest opportunity to generate revenue from a documentary with such a beloved public figure, Thakker knew that cinema would be the most effective medium for the film. “Netflix and Amazon were in fairly nascent stages at that point in terms of acquisition in India,” said Thakker. “Theatrical revenue was and still is the biggest in that sense.” With the distribution medium selected and confirmed, Bhagchandka appointed the services of Everymedia who were industry leaders in the promotion of movies across India. However, Everymedia’s success had previously been with movies fitting within the various genres associated with Bollywood cinema. Developing and implementing an immersive campaign for a movie-length documentary would be a new challenge for the agency, and one that they relished.

Challenges Everymedia Faced with Developing the Sachin: A Billion Dreams Campaign There were key two problems identified by Thakker and his team at Everymedia during the research and planning phases for the Sachin: A Billion Dreams transmedia brand storytelling campaign. As mentioned, generating audience interest in a movie-length documentary was initially perceived as problematic because this specific genre was not overly common in the scope of Indian cinema. Audiences were used to more traditional genres of film, particularly within the context of Bollywood cinema. Campaigns promoting movie releases generally centred on purely fictional narratives involving already established (and/or up-and-coming) actors whose following and reputation could be leveraged in the promotion of the movie. Furthermore, the movie generally fits within an

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entertainment context such as a musical, drama, comedy, etc. Sachin: A Billion Dreams is a documentary that is 2 hours and 18 minutes in length. The duration of this movie was perceived as a huge ask for audiences to see in a cinema when compared to the more lively, colourful and action-packed films they were more used to viewing. Another significant challenge identified by the creative team at Everymedia was appealing to a wide audience within the Indian population who may not have the money to pay for a movie ticket at all, let alone use what small amount of money they may have on going to see a documentary; one of the least preferred film genres, as discussed. However, these key problems did not deter Thakker and his team of creatives at Everymedia from aiming high in terms of what they attempted to achieve in a relatively tight timeframe. “The idea was to create maximum noise in about 10 to 12 weeks in terms of doing everything that was possible,” Thakker explained. “Of course we wanted to reach out to a billion people but that doesn’t practically happen.” With the campaign goals set high, Thakker and his team knew they had their work cut out for them in not only generating a reach of one billion people, but then converting a significant percentage of that reach into ticket sales. However, strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation helped to support the campaign to perform successfully. “It was a fairly lofty ambition,” Thakker explained. “But, in a country like India where 60% of the country lives below the poverty line, there’s no way you can convince them to spend money they don’t have to walk into a theatre to watch this, but for a documentary, it did fairly well in terms of the numbers.” It is clear that the star of the documentary was the key factor responsible for overcoming the barriers of film genre and reduced movie ticket purchasing power in the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign. Sachin Tendulkar was a huge drawcard, sports royalty and beloved by the Indian public who were happy to see him on the big screen in any movie category and to pay for the privilege if their finances would allow. Having such a high profile and adored drawcard for audiences definitely helped the campaign to be successful, but it still required a carefully planned and executed transmedia brand storytelling solution to attract, excite and engage audiences enough to go to see the film.

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The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Solution Utilising a transmedia brand storytelling approach to promote Sachin: A Billion Dreams began with extensive research to gain an in-depth understanding of the product, possible barriers to negatively impact ticket sales, the audience and the platforms and tactics to build a unique and effective storyworld to attract and excite the Indian public throughout the campaign. This research was the essential practice that began the campaign’s meticulous planning process.

The Planning Process The planning process for this campaign commenced with the concept of “A Billion Dreams ” being identified as the pivotal hook for the overall campaign’s creative concept. The “billion” figure was confirmed by Thakker as being symbolic of the number of cricket fans in India. Including this figure in the title of the campaign with the word “dreams” involved the audience in a highly emotive way from the outset. “That’s where the genesis of this entire thing started,” explained Thakker. “So, when they came to us, we actually came up with a campaign saying ‘A Billion Dreams ’ because for India to win the World Cup or anything to do with cricket, the whole aspiration aspect of it is around having a billion people follow it in that sense.” The tagline of “A Billion Dreams” helped to provide a key focus for a consolidated marketing communications strategy to be developed and implemented in an immersive storytelling context. “The campaign came up with a unified communications strategy, saying A Billion Dreams. With everything we did around the campaign, that became our filtering line,” said Thakker. With the key campaign concept confirmed, Thakker built a team of creatives to develop and implement the transmedia strategy to support the documentary film. “With the core concept, then you crack the strategy. There is a Digital Manager, and there’s a Vice President of Strategy and Communications that comes into play,” detailed Thakker. The campaign required a highly experienced creative and analytics team to build the storyworld for the campaign and ensure that both content, and the audience experience flowed easily across the carefully selected platforms included in the final immersive operation.

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“There’s a whole bunch of analysts, people who look at content across platforms, people who collect analytics, so they look at data and then there are the whole creative designers and so on and so forth and everything that comes in.” Thakker deployed a team of approximately 12 specialists from Everymedia to work on the campaign for Sachin: A Billion Dreams, but he remained the core driver of the campaign. “So you’re looking at roughly with me, eight to twelve people on an average working on a project in that sense,” he said. “And then of course I suppose I become the escalation point and sort of the strategy guy because I’ve been doing this for donkey’s years now.” However, Thakker’s level of involvement centres on particular campaign milestones. “My involvement is the highest during the trailer, up to the trailer coming out. And then it’s towards the release week when I get really deeply involved with the campaign,” he explained. Thakker explained that these particular campaign points provide key audience data that can help the campaign be tweaked to better suit audience preferences. Data analysis at these points is essential to the overall success of the campaign. “The idea is to look at sort of consumption patterns and trends in terms of how people are consuming the trailer or anything else that might come out,” Thakker explained. “My personal belief is that if you’re going to do something of a large scale like Sachin, you either go big or you go home. The idea was to go big. The idea was to sit there and come up with almost like an online offline immersive experience built around audience preferences.” It was clear that analysis of data gathered through online platforms played a pivotal role in the planning and refining of the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign which was a key component of its success.

The Campaign Narrative The overarching narrative developed to promote this documentary was simple, “a billion dreams”. The billion not only represented the aim of the campaign to reach one billion people across India, it attempted to tap into the hearts, minds and dreams of each one. Marrying Sachin’s name with “A Billion Dreams ” connected him directly with the Indian population, suggesting that he was the vehicle to fulfil the collective dream of a nation

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Fig. 10.2 Thumbnail from the official teaser

to win the World Cup. In a sense, the title of the documentary positioned Sachin as the hero through whom the Indian public could trust to live vicariously through to achieve their goal. The narrative in this campaign was extremely strategic by involving the audience from the outset and further displaying Tendulkar as a national hero, but also a man of and from the people. The campaign narrative is not only inspirational, it could be deemed as aspirational and accurately reflects the film. With the Sachin: A Billion Dreams confirmed as the perfect story for this campaign, the Everymedia team began to focus on assembling a storyworld to reach one billion people across India while inspiring audience participation that converted into movie sales (Fig. 10.2).

The Campaign’s Storyworld The overall aim of the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign was to create a huge sensation to capture and maintain attention of the Indian public by building a storyworld that was as far-reaching and immersive as possible, involving both online and offline platforms. “In the case of Sachin, the idea was to try and make it as big as possible. The idea was to combine the physical and the big screen in that sense,” Thakker said.

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The campaign combined a highly functioning website that fulfilled the purpose of being an information repository throughout the campaign, social media activities and offline tactics with the aim of capturing the audience’s attention across India in both online and in their day-to-day physical environments. “In the first instance we had a website where people could register their interest in watching the trailer and keep up to date with everything,” Thakker said. “And then we had this huge moving billboard that was put up on a truck, which went all around the country as much as possible.” Additionally, static installations were created to provide audiences with a tangible in-person experience with the documentary and pique their interest in buying tickets to see the film upon its release. Some of these installations were so successful that they remained as permanent fixtures. “We had an entire installation that was built in Bandra, with Sachin’s words inscribed on it which is still there to date. It has become like a landmark of sorts,” Thakker explained. Furthermore, the campaign also tried to capture the attention of Indian cricket fans in their natural habitat by setting up stalls outside sports stadiums to target the audience when they were primed for their favourite sport. “All the cricketing venues were sort of booked and sort of we put up stands there too.” Exclusive merchandise was also developed that was sold on site at these stands and used as prizes in a range of competitions to encourage audience participation in the campaign. These competitions are explored further in this chapter. Yet, the use of merchandise to promote a movie in this way is not a common occurrence in India, yet Thakker decided to look to the West to innovate, take a risk and make it happen for Sachin: A Billion Dreams taking inspiration from movie franchises such as the Avengers and Disney. “Transmedia is fairly new in India,” said Thakker. “The ability to marry the licensing merchandising model to a piece of content, has been around for a while, but it’s been very fragmented. So unlike the West we’ve not really cracked it. The beauty of Disneyfying anything, and to have Disney and the Avengers is that you have toys, games, rides, T-shirts and caps and all sorts of merchandise out there that is married into ticket sales.” “Everything is used as either promotional material or as a revenue stream. India does not yet completely have the hang of it yet. We’ve kind

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of cracked the toy space, but gaming not so much. We’re still getting there in terms of other licensing and merchandising deals, but in this case, we tried to make it happen as quickly as possible.” In addition to the other offline platforms used throughout the campaign, Thakker and his team put their efforts behind the organisation of a star-studded event to promote the premiere of the film. “In the release week we organised a big show, like a big premiere, where we got the entire Indian cricket fraternity to come down and Sachin hosted the event,” said Thakker. The guest list to this premiere event was not limited to cricketing stars. “We had a bunch of actors come down and there was a lot of influencer marketing that was happening as well. The numbers were very healthy. The overall ticket sales recovered the entire sort of cost of production and the cost of marketing to a large degree.” However, this overall success relied very heavily on selecting the correct platforms for this campaign. Building the campaign’s storyworld involved a very calculated approach grounded in research. From conducting extensive audience research, campaign managers realised that they could achieve this by focusing specifically on the platforms that were used by the majority of the audience. Rather than cramming their storyworld with multitudes of platforms in an attempt to reach as many people as possible, Everymedia’s in-depth understanding of the Indian public provided them with the sound ability to be extremely strategic in their efforts. Furthermore, adopting a quality over quantity approach to building the storyworld was only half of the reason for their success in this campaign. Timing was also key as Thakker explains. “When it comes to the business of movies, the communication is fairly top down in that sense. And then conversation becomes a part of it because as a brand we don’t want to be seen as too aloof or too arrogant in that sense. So there’s a thin line that we sort of tend to work on, but in terms of cross-promoting, I mean, it could be an Indian thing only, but Indians tend to stick to one platform as opposed to sort of being multi-platform specialists in that sense.” Yet, limiting the storyworld to a select few platforms did not constrain the campaign’s success. “There’s an entire generation of plus 35s who still like Facebook and that is their primary mode, so they’ll be comfortable with Facebook or they’re comfortable with Twitter and Instagram. It’s always out of the

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three, four platforms in the country and people generally only pick one or two. It’s a fairly strange phenomena,” explained Thakker. Furthermore, the timing of information being released on each platform was found to have a crucial part to play in generating interest and engagement with the audience. “Interestingly, we ran a study in India, and we found the biggest spike in social media usage came around 10:00am, 10:30am. And for us it was a bit of a puzzle saying, What’s happening at 10:30 across India for people to start accessing Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and everything?” When Thakker and his team drilled further into the data, they uncovered why mid-morning was when the majority of their audience was using social media. “We figured that half the people in this country end up accessing social media once they’re sitting in office. So the first thing you do is you get to the office at 9:00am, 9:30am, and India as a country starts fairly late. It starts at nine o’clock, unlike the West where you’re up by six o’clock and you’re at work by 8 o’clock or 8:30 depending on what the office times are,” he explained. “So take the first one hour to access emails and answer whatever, 10:00am, 10:30am is the sweet spot for them to take a break and access social media, and the audience does so again during lunch, and again around four o’clock in the afternoon. Then pretty much after eight, nine o’clock with social media times, a lot of Instagram Reels and whatnot are being accessed around from nine to two o’clock in the morning.” Therefore, timing played a crucial part in the overall success of the campaign in terms of the information to release according to the documentary’s release date and the time of the day when the audience would most likely be accessing social media to be able to consume and interact with the content. A further explanation of the platforms used in the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign is as follows (Everymedia, 2019) (Fig. 10.3).

Campaign Launch The campaign commenced with a teaser launch that included a threeday countdown executed through three different movie posters that were shared online via the websites such as the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) and social media platforms including Twitter and YouTube. This

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Fig. 10.3 Image from the launch event

activity created the initial online conversation and buzz about the film from media, influencers and cricket fans.

Interactive Campaigns After creating the initial buzz about the campaign, a series of interactive tactics were implemented to increase audience participation and build momentum in the lead up to the documentary’s premiere. These activities included: • #LiveMoreWithSachin In collaboration with Digibank this activity asked fans to share their favourite Sachin videos and the best entries were used in the final documentary. • #100Days100Centuries For 100 days in the lead up to the documentary’s release, a different image showcasing facts and trivia about the 100 international centuries scored by Sachin were shared online (Fig. 10.4).

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Fig. 10.4 #LiveMoreWithSachin competition

Offline Events In addition to the other offline activities and events already mentioned, a further event was organised that involved the cast from the movie and a song launch. The event was live streamed via Facebook and covered with live tweets across Twitter. This provided access to fans who were unable to attend the event in person. The song launch included “Hind Meri Jind” and the Sachin anthem, composed by the maestro A.R. Rahman.

Contests to Generate Audience Engagement These activities are explored more deeply further in this chapter. However, contests were largely executed on social media using the following hashtags #ThankYouSachin, #SachinSachin, #DilSeSachin were

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conducted to amplify the online conversation and audience engagement around the film.

Videos with Cricket Stars to Promote the Film Thakker and his team engaged with other cricketing legends who played on the same team or against Sachin Tendulkar and produced short videos with each sharing their stories of playing with Sachin. These videos were released online in the few days before the film’s release to further increase momentum and audience interest in seeing the documentary.

Each Platform’s Unique Contribution In true transmedia brand storytelling style, each of the platforms used in the promotion of Sachin: A Billion Dreams made a unique contribution to the overall campaign. Each platform’s contribution is outlined below with commentary from the campaign director.

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) The social media platforms used in the campaign allowed for important promotional content to be delivered, competitions to be facilitated, traffic to be harnessed to the website and for conversations between the creative team and the audience (and dialogue between audience members) to take place. “Twitter of course remains the perception management tool that we have in terms of reaching out, conversing with people now,” explained Thakker. “In India, anything that you do with content tends to revolve around these platforms in that sense as well as Instagram, then everything else is secondary.” However, the creative team at Everymedia ensured they leveraged the specific features of each social media platform used in the campaign instead of taking a homogenous approach to each one, another factor confirming Sachin: A Billion Dreams was distinctly transmedia brand storytelling. “There should be a different content strategy for each platform,” said Thakker. “Facebook, you can get away with pretty much anything in that sense. Instagram has to be a lot more visual. With Twitter, you have to

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condense it into those 140 characters and try to explain whatever else it is with an image.” Thakker takes a dim view of fellow practitioners working in the space who take a one-size-fits-all approach to social media content. “Lazy agencies or lazy marketing people will just put the same content out there everywhere and hope that it gets picked up,” he said. “I have never believed in that as a strategy. I think you should be tweaking it for each platform as much as possible. That’s what works. That’s what we have done across the board, not just Sachin but for everything, every movie that we’ve ever promoted. We’ve always avoided the trap of replication across platforms.”

Campaign Website The campaign website became a hub of information for audience members to visit to catch up on various aspects of the campaign that they may have missed on social media. It also allowed the audience to subscribe to a mailing list to receive exclusive content and promotions direct to their email inbox.

Email Marketing Email newsletters allowed one-to-one communication with the audience to attract attention and prompt engagement. Including exclusive information and invitations via email helped to further strengthen relationships with the audience and increase buy-in to maintain momentum throughout the campaign.

Traditional Media Coverage Traditional media coverage also played a key role in reaching audience members who may not be regular social media users and to share extra information about the campaign. The public relations activities and publicity generated in the traditional media in relation to the campaign added further endorsement as this complementary information was being communicated by a third party outlet not connected directly with the movie. “A lot of stories were generated, PR stories were created and they were disseminated to the various news portals out there,” said Thakker.

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“I think we generated almost 60-odd stories about the campaign. We also managed about 3,000-odd links on an ongoing basis in terms of news, information, in terms of stories of behind the scenes, listed deals and so on and so forth and everything in that sense.” The main idea with leveraging traditional media outlets was to create conversation and buzz about the movie premiere. “The idea was to get people talking about the film,” Thakker explained. “Anything that you do from a marketing perspective tends to have momentum, so Newton’s Laws will come into play when it is marketing as well. So anything that you do has a positive momentum or a negative momentum in that sense. The idea was to generate as much positive momentum and get people talking about it.” With social media, the website, email marketing and traditional media all working together to generate word-of-mouth for the campaign in different ways, Thakker knew the campaign itself would take on a life of its own. “If you can create that word-of-mouth engine on any piece of content including Sachin from a marketing perspective, you can put your feet up throughout the campaign and not worry about the outcome of it,” said Thakker. “Then you know if you’ve hit your stride and so in your gut, you know that you’re going to come out a winner in this campaign. However, the minute a campaign tends to turn negative, there’s no amount of money that can save it. And Indians are fairly perceptive in that sense when it comes to content.” This is why Thakker and his creative team were meticulous in their planning and execution across each of the platforms in the campaign’s storyworld. More than being media-savvy, the Indian public are highly adept in their perception of film quality. Transmedia storytelling campaign creatives promoting movies in India walk a fine line to not disenchant what can be described as a somewhat unforgiving public. “Indians have been making movies for the last 100 years. They’ve been watching movies for the last 100 years. They know, they can smell just looking at the trailer saying, ‘Is this something I want to watch or not watch?’ So the rejection rate of content is fairly high in India compared to other countries,” explained Thakker. “I think audiences in other countries are much nicer. Indians can be vicious if the content is not right. They will go on every possible digital platform and troll the movie to such an extent that the star won’t be seen outside his house for weeks to come. So the idea is always to build positive momentum around any campaign,

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create that word of mouth engine, get people talking about it. And then I think that’s what largely worked in the case of Sachin.”

Offline Events In addition to the pop-up stalls selling merchandise outside cricket stadiums, that provided fans with the opportunity to take a piece of the film home with them in the form of memorabilia (and to display their support by wearing a piece of clothing featuring branding from the film), the central campaign event was a star-studded movie premiere. This event was highly exclusive and did not involve the general public. However, it was live streamed and covered across the campaign’s social media platforms to provide the audience with a behind-the-scenes view of the action. This approach removed any risks associated with bringing the public in contact with high profile people while still making the audience feel involved. “We are an elitist society,” said Thakker. “You have your actors and your bigwigs sitting in one section of the theatre. Then you have the media, and then you have the general public. We learned that model from Hollywood premieres at the Chinese Theatre. You have the fans on two sides. You have VIP access for the actors and the people in the business and so on so forth. And of course the media you invite to everything because you want to get as much press coverage as possible. You want people to think that it’s a successful event in that sense.” Thakker was very clear about why the general public’s participation in the face-to-face event was kept to a minimum. “We usually avoid any situations where you’re bringing a legend in close contact with the people, because security barricades can break, it could be anything,” he said. “Let’s be honest, we’re not exactly known for our well-behaved personalities over here. People will break through and so the last thing you want is a stampede in a closed environment.” Yet, while in-person interaction with the high profile people involved with the film was not encouraged, there were a range of other techniques used by Thakker and his team to encourage and generate extremely high levels of audience engagement, contribution and participation.

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Audience Participation Audience participation can be a challenging aspect of a transmedia brand storytelling campaign, particularly when its momentum relies on the audience’s involvement to propel its action forward. The audience, and their response to the actions within a story universe, can be a highly unpredictable factor that can make or break an immersive experience. While some campaigns find it challenging to attract and sustain the audience’s attention, in the case of the transmedia storytelling campaign supporting the release of Sachin: A Billion Dreams, the subject matter of the documentary and the audience demographics were perfectly matched to reduce any risk of this occurring. “It’s fairly easy to get people involved in cricket. We figured out that if you gamify anything on the planet, it will work in that sense,” explained Thakker. Audience participation in this campaign relied strongly on a series of gamified activities that were highly appropriate to the cricket-loving public of India and that also appealed to the competitive nature associated with sports-minded people. These competitions largely involved the audience being asked to share their favourite Sacchin moments across social platforms, predominantly on Twitter, using the hashtags, #ThankYouSachin, #SachinSachin, #DilSeSachin which helped to increase buzz and engagement throughout the campaign (Everymedia, 2019). “We gamified the entire aspect and we went to the people to ask them, saying, ‘What’s your favourite Sachin moment? What was your favourite batting that he did? What was your favourite moment in sports?’ And we got people to start talking about it,” explained Thakker. “The idea was to run competitions saying, ‘Find who’s the biggest Sachin fan ever’ in that sense. So anytime you’re bringing in an element of competition or you’re bringing in an element of gamification, you can run multiple contests and get people to do this.” Therefore, appealing to the public to compete against one another to prove they were Sacchin’s biggest fan struck a collective nerve and resulted in millions of people across India vying for the title and generating extensive levels of User-Generated Content across social media promoting the documentary in the process. In addition to a series of competitions to encourage audience engagement, the campaign also utilised exclusive merchandise to generate

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participation from Sachin fans, the group most likely to buy tickets to the documentary. “One of the things that we always do across all movies is we run merchandise,” Thakker said. “We do giveaways as a sort of competition. For example, ‘Answer these top five questions.’ It’s like our own private version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? If you have the right piece of content, it’s fairly easy in terms of gamifying and getting people to be involved in it.” Prompting engagement with the lure of exclusive content was another form of gamification used throughout the campaign along with the strategic use of hashtags. However, this stage occurred after the audience was already invested in the campaign. “Once you’ve got the crowd gathered, you have to point them in a certain direction, so Twitter actually comes in quite useful,” said Thakker. “We ran a whole bunch of giveaways using various hashtags so that people would get involved, get it trending and everything in that sense. And we are fairly good at trending stuff, especially with a famous celebrity involved.” Once the giveaways of exclusive movie merchandise instigated the dissemination of User-Generated Content, campaign managers set to work sharing, retweeting and repurposing users’ posts to help to build and strengthen their relationship with the audience and their connection to the campaign. “We were actually fairly generous in terms of retweeting and sharing. So anything that the people came back to us, not only did we reshare it or retweet it, we also created interesting articles saying that Sachin’s top three fans have created this iconic moment and that’s goes out as a PR story with a few Twitter handles thrown in so it makes the consumer feel that he’s part of a process in that sense, that he’s part of the entire sort of marketing universe,” Thakker explained. This approach also generated traditional media coverage of UserGenerated Content, which was not a common occurrence in the Indian press. “It was also one of the first few times we were doing it because to convince the media to pick up non-celebs and put them into an article is always a bigger challenge, but they picked up on it and now it’s pretty much become standard practice,” explained Thakker. Many of the audience participatory techniques used in the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign were implemented for the first time, but

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now have become standard practice within other campaigns executed by Everymedia. “A lot of the things that we implemented on the Sachin campaign have become basic hygiene for us now. So the idea for us in today’s day and age is to keep innovating in terms of what we do, because everything that you’re seeing on that campaign, now happens as a standard practice across all of our campaigns,” said Thakker. Therefore, while the subject matter of cricket had huge market appeal within the movie-going Indian audience, participation was prompted by appealing to the emotions of Sachin’s fan base to share their most treasured moments and to prove their devotion to their hero for the chance to win exclusive merchandise and exposure from their content being shared on official channels. These techniques were highly effective ones that contributed to the success of the overall campaign.

Evaluation Similarly to the campaign explored in Chapter 9, evaluation of the success of the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign did not include any of the theoretical measurement methods explored previously in this text, for example, the Toggle Switch Model (Goico, 2014) or the various audience engagement measurement models (Pratten, 2015a). In fact, indepth evaluation of immersive experiences was not conducted as part of this campaign. Instead, more traditional measurement practices were implemented to evaluate overall campaign performance in a cinematic marketing context. The managers of this campaign remained extremely client focused and fixed on the main goal the client was aiming to achieve working with the creative team at Everymedia. First and foremost, Thakker’s most important Key Performance Indicator was ensuring the client, the documentary’s producer, was satisfied with the campaign. “I think if the producer’s happy and he’s paid me on time, that’s a successful thing,” explained Thakker. However, the broader measure of success was overall ticket sales, movie viewings and other revenue generated by the sale of the documentary as these were the fundamental drivers of the campaign. “Identifying ticket sales, identifying sort of viewership numbers, that’s the success metric in that sense,” clarified Thakker. “If the producer can sell the content at a higher rate and has made an ad, you know you’ve

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won the battle so to speak, and those are the numbers you would look for.” Therefore, viewership numbers, ticket sales and secondary sales were the metrics used for evaluating this campaign. Yet, Thakker also alluded to the measurement of sentiment surrounding the movie as another metric of success to evaluate campaign performance. “And of course overall if you manage to create a positive environment and momentum around the product, that’s when you know you’ve kind of won the battle,” he explained. Interestingly apart from revenue raised by the movie, those behind the campaign did not mention any other metrics used to evaluate campaign performance. Metrics from the specific platforms were not identified and measurement of the effectiveness of the overall storyworld for the audience was not included. However, a page on the Everymedia website cited the mammoth figure of “1 billion impressions” during the week the movie was released (Everymedia, 2019). This suggests that the transmedia brand storytelling components of this campaign were more a means to reach the overall goal of generating ticket sales rather than them being a focus on evaluation. There are benefits and disadvantages to this approach. Firstly, by not evaluating the transmedia components of the campaign, campaign managers can miss vital data that can assist in continuous improvement of future campaigns. Alternatively, only focusing on measuring the core campaign goal, such as ticket sales, reduces the need for extra resources to undertake more in-depth and complex evaluation and simplifies the KPIs for both the creative team and the client.

Key Outcomes and Learnings Many of the key outcomes for this campaign have already been stated. The campaign achieved its initial goal of reaching one billion people and generated enough ticket sales to cover production and marketing costs. Additionally, the movie won two awards at the 11th Tehran International FICTS Festival in 2018 (Best Director of a Long Documentary, the Special Award for the Best Film in the Long Documentary section and an honorary diploma) (Press Trust of India, 2018). Overall, a vital learning gleaned from this campaign was the use of User-Generated Content (UGC) being shared on official accounts, being picked up by traditional

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media outlets and even used in the documentary as a way for super-fans of Tendulkar to be able to directly contribute to what other fans would see in the final version of the movie. This was also a highly strategic way to gain an in-depth insight into what the audience really wanted to see. As Thakker mentioned, these tactics were highly innovative and new at that time and were used in all future campaigns developed and delivered by Everymedia.

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory to Practice Again, Thakker’s understanding and engagement with transmedia brand storytelling in the context of storytelling and branding was not unlike the other practitioners interviewed and surveyed in this study. While it was clear that Mr. Thakker understood the concept, he did not mention his use of the term in his everyday working vernacular when developing immersive campaigns for Bollywood movies such as Sachin: A Billion Dreams. Interestingly, Thakker mentioned never using any theories or models to inform and assist in the campaign creative process, because he felt they did not exist. When asked about this, Mr. Thakker replied: “There are no models and I’ve been trying to hunt for one across the board for a while in that sense.” Instead, he mentioned relying on “…intuition, our learnings, our experiences, and sort of what you would term as gut feel”. This again, supports a key theme present in the practitioner interview data whereby structured models and theoretical frameworks were largely shunned instead for the less tangible and more abstract use of intuition to inform the campaign development process. This aligns with Pratten’s notion of “Going with your gut,” as a formal step in the storyworld design process (2015, p. 146). Thakker also did not approach the campaign creation process with a structured process. Instead he focuses on the product developed as a result of collaboration by bringing together a group of 12 people from various creative professional backgrounds. This approach allows each creative practitioner to merge their own process within a collective collaborative space with the combined goal of producing a high quality campaign. Additionally, and similarly to other themes highlighted by this research, Thakker also includes in-depth audience data analysis to inform various components of campaigns such as platform selection and tactics as part of this collaborative campaign creation process to create the biggest impact for the 10–12 weeks, the

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average duration of the campaigns he and his team manage. Thorough data analysis occurs when a movie trailer is released to either confirm campaign decisions already made or to pivot to meet audience preference if there is mis-alignment. “We examine consumption patterns and trends in terms of how people are consuming the trailer or anything else that might come out,” Thakker explained. Audience research informs the platform selection process undertaken by Thakker and this also supports a key theme present in the survey and interview data in this study. Thakker explained that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are three popular social media platforms in India, which is why they were selected for the Sachin: A Billion Dreams campaign. At time of writing, the top three most popular social media platforms in India are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (not including messenger apps) (Statista, 2022). However, Instagram has risen to popularity over the past few years since the ban of TikTok (Perez, 2022). Due to their popularity with audiences, these platforms are a core part of the campaigns he creates. “So in India, anything that you do with content tends to revolve around these three platforms in that sense, and then everything else comes secondary,” he said. Thakker’s key focuses in terms of audience participatory techniques are via competitions and gamification. This preference has been developed over many years of experimentation and is directly in line with the results of the survey and interview data. Competitions and incentives rated as the most prevalently used technique identified by practitioners who were interviewed to encourage participation from the audience with gamification not rating as highly. However, results from the survey data differed from the interview findings with gamification (in the form of crowd-sourcing to solve puzzles and unlock campaign stages) ranked as the second most effective way to encourage audience contribution, and competitions ranking last. Yet, according to Thakker, the Indian public responds positively to gamification elements of the transmedia brand storytelling campaigns he has delivered. He stated: “We kind of figured out that if you gamify anything on the planet, it will work in that sense.”

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As explored previously in this chapter, Thakker’s main metrics when evaluating the success of his campaigns are purely based on conversion. His most pressing metric is a happy client with ticket sales and views following swiftly in second and third place, which aligns with the findings from the interview data. The majority of practitioners interviewed for this study identified the achievement of the campaign goal, revenue and sales as the most important metrics in transmedia brand storytelling campaigns. Alternatively, the survey data highlighted reach and engagement and tracking the audience’s journey as the most common ways participants evaluated their campaigns. Thakker’s entry into the world of transmedia campaigns has evolved with his professional experience. Similarly to other practitioners interviewed and surveyed for this book, Thakker did not learn about the approach in a formal way as part of his university education. With an undergraduate and a Masters degree in Technology and Systems and an MBA, transmedia storytelling was not included in this formal training. A love of movies and a strong desire to communicate them to a wide audience is what fuelled Thakker to begin his company, EveryMedia, and this is where he learned about transmedia storytelling. His training came from innovation and experimentation to develop practices that changed the movie promotion process in India. “I’m a guy who took a hobby and made it into a company,” Thakker explained. “And it just so happens that I became good at it and everything else just followed. I love the idea of getting up in the morning and saying, ‘There’s a new piece of content. How do I take it up to a hundred million people or two hundred million people in that sense?’ And we enjoy the process of it.” This analysis has highlighted once again the similarities between creative practitioners from around the world in the design and delivery of a participatory storytelling campaign, particularly in their non-use of theoretical models, their strong reliance on audience research and data to inform key components of transmedia brand storytelling and immersive experiences and their process of honing their skills through practice rather than through formal training.

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Conclusion This case study explored the transmedia brand storytelling campaign developed by Indian marketing agency, Everymedia to promote the release of the movie-length documentary about sportstar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, called Sachin: A Billion Dreams. The campaign leveraged the huge appeal of Tendulkar and an extremely well-designed and executed storyworld to overcome a range of challenges that presented an initial barrier to enticing audiences to buy tickets to see the documentary in cinemas. On the contrary, the creative team, headed up by Everymedia CEO, Gautam Thakker, devised and implemented new, innovative tactics to encourage audience participation and contribution throughout the campaign and well after the movie’s release, techniques that became industry best-practice. Sachin: A Billion Dreams achieved its overall goals of meeting its ticket sales target and reaching one billion people across India by tapping into the collective hearts and minds of a cricket-loving nation and making them feel part of Tendulkar’s journey from a child with a dream to international sporting royalty.

References Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2021, May 4). Sachin Tendulkar. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/ Sachin-Tendulkar. Accessed 24 Jan 2022. Everymedia. (2019). Sachin: A billion dreams. Available at: https://www.everym edia.world/sachin-billion-dreams/. Accessed 25 Jan 2022. Goico, N. (2014). How to measure transmedia experiences. Transmedia Storyteller. Available at: https://blog.conducttr.com/how-to-measure-transmediaexperiences. Accessed 6 July 2021. Perez, S. (2022). Instagram, still benefiting from TikTok’s ban in India, again became the top app by downloads in Q4. TechCrunch. Available at: https:// techcrunch.com/2022/01/12/instagram-still-benefitting-from-tiktoks-banin-india-again-become-the-top-app-by-downloads-in-q4/. Accessed 18 Sept 2022. Pratten, R. (2015a). Chapter five: Understanding the audience—Measuring engagement. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 90–95). McGraw Hill. Pratten, R. (2015b). Chapter seven: Content strategy. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 137–178), McGraw Hill.

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Press Trust of India. (2018). ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ wins two awards at Tehran International FICTS Fest. Hindustan Times. Available at: https:// www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/sachin-a-billion-dreams-wins-two-awardsat-tehran-international-ficts-fest/story-FWRjuTZ4QUrjFp7re3ZYEJ.html. Accessed 30 Jan 2022. Statista. (2022). Leading social media sites across India in July 2022. Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115648/india-leading-soc ial-media-sites-by-page-traffic/. Accessed 18 Sept 2022.

CHAPTER 11

Case Study Four: Airbnb Wall and Chain (United States of America)

Airbnb’s highly successful transmedia storytelling campaign, Airbnb Wall and Chain commemorated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by sharing the story of the transformative experience of one of its guests. The campaign received widespread international media coverage and attracted critical acclaim, winning a range of awards including Webby, Shorty and AICP awards (Psyop, 2022a). The campaign brought together teams on different continents in its conception, design and delivery. It focused on the communication of a true story using short-form animation and leveraged a range of digital channels in its execution. This case study focuses on the process, techniques and tactics used in the development and implementation of this campaign (Fig. 11.1).

How This Airbnb Campaign Originated The concept of the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign did not originate from within the global accommodation platform. Instead, it began with a letter sent from a guest called Cathrine. In May 2012, an Airbnb guest sent a letter to the platform sharing the story of her journey from Denmark to Berlin that she took with her father, staying at the property of an Airbnb host (Airbnb, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c, 2022d, 2022e; Ducros, 2022).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_11

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Fig. 11.1 Thumbnail from short animated video

Before moving to Denmark, her father had previously lived in West Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall and worked as a guard there. Even after the wall between East and West was demolished and he had moved to Denmark, in his own mind, Cathrine’s father could not accept Berlin to be the unified city it had become (Shorty Awards, 2015). Cathrine decided to take her father back to Berlin to see what a vibrant and positive place the city had become since the wall had come down. It was on this return to the city that became the catalyst for a moving tale of human connection and transformation as well as form the central story for the highly successful campaign, Airbnb Wall and Chain. “The concept for Airbnb’s Wall and Chain campaign was born from a true Aibnb community story,” explained Willow Hill, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder at Scout Lab who was a Creative Producer at Airbnb and worked on the creative team during the time the campaign was designed and delivered. The magical moment occurred when Cathrine and her father arrived in East Berlin and went to pick up the key to their Airbnb from their host. “When they arrived at their Airbnb they were welcomed by their host who happened to have also been a guard at the same time as Cathrine’s father but on the east side of the wall.”

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This was a life changing moment for all concerned. It helped to change perceptions, and break down barriers, particularly those still harboured by Cathrine’s father about the divide between East and West Berlin. “Where they once stood as enemies they now shared space,” said Hill. “This was an unforgettable experience that changed their lives.” Airbnb’s core mission is to create a world where people can “belong anywhere” (Airbnb, 2019). The story of Cathrine and her father’s experience checking into an Airbnb in Berlin was an accurate embodiment of the Airbnb brand’s mission and an inspirational story demonstrating the transformative impact of travel and hosting guests via Airbnb. “This story was a perfect representation of the power of opening your home, exploring the world through local people, places and experiences,” explained Hill. Rather than leveraging the power of this true story right away, the Airbnb creative team decided to strategically wait for a time where it would have an even greater impact. “We chose to wait until the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to launch a fully integrated campaign illustrating this true story and the power of the newly launched brand mission,” said Hill. At the time of receiving Cathrine’s letter, Airbnb had recently relaunched a new brand. In line with this rebrand, it was decided by the Airbnb creative team that the Wall and Chain campaign would have two key objectives, as described by Hill: “We focused on brand awareness and deepening the tie between Airbnb and showcasing the mission with a large focus on the European market.”

With these goals in mind, planning began to bring the story of Cathrine and her father to life.

Challenges Faced Some of the key challenges faced by the Airbnb creative team when developing the Wall and Chain campaign included respectfully and sensitively communicating the experience of Cathrine and her father so that it was an accurate representation, retained its power as a “profound story of human connection” (Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall in Airbnb, 2015b) that also appealed to a mainstream audience. Next, it was imperative to be both culturally sensitive and accurate to ensure that the city of Berlin was

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being represented in a way that correctly reflected its history and beauty to not only its residents, but to prospective visitors and Airbnb guests. Finally, it was important for Airbnb to position the Wall and Chain campaign as an appropriate way to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall without the campaign being perceived as a way for a global brand to capitalise on an important moment in history. Yet, even before reaching this stage, one of the key challenges faced by campaign creatives was obtaining approval from senior managers within Airbnb. According to Goedegebuure (in Handley, 2014), it took several months of internal lobbying at Airbnb before the campaign concept garnered the support it required by senior management to be given the green light. “I got the realisation of the 25-year anniversary back in February. It took me months to get the buy-in we needed to do something with this story,” Goedegebuure. “It wasn’t until I showed it to our new CMO [and former Coca-Cola CMO] Jonathan Mildenhall in June that it got traction. His creative experience instantly saw the value of the plan, and he gave me all the creative freedom to pursue this.” Once Goedegebuure was granted approval to bring Cathrine and her father’s story to life to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, extensive planning began.

The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Planning Process As Airbnb is a US brand with its head office in San Francisco the creative team knew the campaign required extensive research and assistance from other creative practitioners based in the city of Berlin to ensure Cathrine’s story was developed and executed in a way that was both culturally accurate and respectful. To achieve this, Airbnb selected two agencies that had offices in the United States and in Berlin. Hill explains how the collaborative process originated. “This campaign was integrated through video, social, press and events. We started with focus on perfecting the story and working with local German creatives to ensure the story was a beautiful cultural representation of the story that paid respect to its roots while still maintaining a global message,” Hll explained. “In this case it was a collaboration between the internal Airbnb creative team, Psyop illustration studio and VCCP Berlin.”

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The first agency was VCCP, a full service advertising agency with offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, New York, Prague, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Sydney (VCCP, 2022). The VCCP Berlin office was a key partner on the project to help refine the concept and devise its delivery. Psyop was the second partner appointed to build the campaign with Airbnb and VCCP. With offices in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg, Psyop has been described as an “industry titan” and as “…one of the leading studios for commercial work in motion graphics, VFX, and animation” (Motion Array, 2019; Psyop, 2022b). With Airbnb’s US team and the Berlin offices of VCCP and Psyop, indepth research and creative development ensued to first refine and design the animated version of Cathrine’s story and identify the most relevant platforms to achieve the campaign’s goals of raising awareness, generating audience engagement with the campaign content and positioning Berlin as an attractive destination to visit.

The Campaign Narrative The campaign’s central narrative was told from Cathrine’s perspective in the animated short video in which she shared her father’s transformative experience when she travelled with him back to Berlin (Ads of the World, 2015; Airbnb, 2015a, 2015b). The story was told in a similar style to the original letter that she sent to Airbnb. However, while Cathrine and her father’s story was powerful, it was also used as evidence to demonstrate the overall Airbnb brand narrative of “Belong Anywhere” and this is reinforced throughout the campaign in every piece of associated content.

The Campaign’s Storyworld The Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign was communicated to its target audience using a range of digital platforms and offline experiences. Each platform was selected with a very specific audience in mind. Willow Hill explains, “We selected platforms that allowed us to focus on targeting our message to our specific audiences and channels that would be focused on messaging the day of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

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Fig. 11.2 A frame from the short animated video

One of the key motivations in the selection of platforms to form the campaign’s storyworld was to generate online conversations that would then result in media coverage. The team behind this campaign were extremely strategic in their platform selection, the timing and order in which campaign content was communicated on each channel for maximum amplification of the campaign story. Hill explained why this approach was taken. “This created the buzz and additional media pick up that drove the campaign to be trending on the day of launch”.

The Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign storyworld included the following components and channels (Fig. 11.2).

A Short Animated Video A beautifully designed animated film that ran for a duration of 1 minute and 17 seconds captured Cathrine’s story accurately as well as the heart of Berlin as a city (Airbnb, 2015a, 2015b). The short video was both visually and aurally compelling in its composition. The video was the jewel in the

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crown of the campaign, the central piece of content that was then shared across other platforms.

An Immersive Digital Experience The next component of the Airbnb Wall and Chain storyworld included an in-depth research study to identify the positive impact that Airbnb hosts and guests have had on the different neighbourhoods around the city of Berlin (Shorty Awards, 2015). This research was then used to develop an interactive immersive digital experience that guided users through the Airbnb host and guest journey around the city showcasing the positive impact along the way (Shorty Awards, 2015).

Long-Form Articles Ten long-form articles were produced and shared on the Airbnb website to provide detailed information about sights and experiences available for guests visiting Berlin (Shorty Awards, 2015).

Social Media Integrated campaign pieces and video content were shared across Airbnb’s official social media channels on Facebook (Airbnb, 2022b), Twitter (Airbnb, 2022c), LinkedIn (Airbnb, 2022d) and YouTube (Airbnb, 2022e) to increase awareness of the Wall and Chain campaign and to generate engagement with the campaign’s central video content (Shorty Awards, 2015) (Fig. 11.3).

Behind-The-Scenes Videos To complement the campaign’s central animated video, a series of behindthe-scenes video content was produced and shared across Airbnb’s official social media channels. The videos featured documentary style interviews with members from Airbnb’s creative team such as Jonathan Mildenhall, Airbnb’s Chief Marketing Officer and Dennis Goedegebuure, Head of Global SEO for Airbnb as Cathrine and her father and Kai, the Airbnb host who was the wall border guard (Airbnb, 2015b).

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Fig. 11.3 A frame from one of the behind-the-scenes videos

Offline Experience---Berlin Unification Party The final component included in the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign was an offline experience in the form of a party held on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The party was framed as a “celebration of belonging” and officially launched the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign (Shorty Awards, 2015).

Traditional Media As stated by Hill, one of the main aims of the campaign was to raise awareness and create discussion that would then generate coverage by traditional media outlets. The purpose of attracting coverage from traditional media channels such as radio, television and print media was to increase the reach of the campaign and to also generate discussion with audience segments that may not be exposed to the campaign story being communicated directly by Airbnb.

Campaign Microsite A campaign microsite was also developed to act as a centralised hub for campaign-related content. The site hosted the campaign animation video, behind-the-scenes interview videos, additional background information

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and campaign themed wallpapers available to the audience to download (Macleod, 2014).

Campaign Launch As stated, the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign was officially launched at a party on the 8th of November, 2014 on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event was called a “Berlin Unification Party” and aimed to embody the core mission of Airbnb by theming the event as a celebration of belonging. As well as celebrating the 25th anniversary of a momentous historical world event, the party also launched the campaign’s animated film by showing it at the event for guests, including those representing a wide range of media outlets, to see Cathrine’s story for the very first time. The event featured authentic local decorations, music and food to reflect and show deep respect to the rich culture and history of Berlin. The 800 event attendees had the opportunity to participate in two immersive experiences. Upon arrival, guests were separated into two groups “Wessis” and “Ossis” (West and East) by a random number generator. The groups were divided by a wall within the event venue. At midnight, party goers worked together to tear down the wall and the reunification party began and the animated film was then shown (Studio Now, 2014) (Fig. 11.4). “By bringing the campaign to life offline guests experienced the tension of cultural separation and the meaning of breaking down walls” (Shorty Awards, 2015). The launch was extremely successful in increasing the awareness, generating conversation and media coverage about the campaign that Airbnb was aiming for.

Each Platform’s Unique Contribution The selection of each platform and component of this transmedia storytelling campaign was carefully considered not only to reach and engage with its target audiences and support the achievement of campaign goals, but because of the unique contribution each would make to the overall campaign story. Each platform’s unique contribution to the campaign story is explored thusly.

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Fig. 11.4 Berlin unification party (Studio Now, 2014)

A Short Animated Video This short animated film was the key content piece from which the other platforms used in the campaign orbited. The decision to retell the story of Cathrine and her father using an animated approach rather than a reenactment with the real people from the story was extremely strategic on behalf of the campaign’s creative team. The final decision was made by Airbnb Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Mildenhall who had extensive experience working with the power on animated content in his roles with Coca Cola (Handley, 2014). Airbnb’s Goedegebuure explained the team selected an animated way to tell the campaign story because, “Animation is more magical. It brings the story to life in a way that is universal and timeless, as this story is universal and timeless.” (Airbnb, 2015b; Handley, 2014).

This short animated video communicated this powerful story of human connection and the beauty of Berlin within a short timeframe and in a way that transcended geographical and language barriers. The piece was also highly spreadable, allowing it to be shared to wider audiences and much

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further than Airbnb’s official social media channels and the campaign’s microsite (Jenkins et al., 2018).

An Immersive Digital Experience The interactive digital experience contributed a participatory activity to the overall campaign story allowing audiences to move around Berlin from the internet (Shorty Awards, 2015). The activity helped the audience to learn about the positive impact that Airbnb has had on the different neighbourhoods in the city, providing another dimension of information about Berlin in addition to the other campaign material. It helped Airbnb to build their case with prospective guests (and hosts) as to why Berlin was not only an enriching place to visit, but why staying with an Airbnb host in Berlin was helping the city to thrive.

Long-Form Articles Although less interactive than the immersive digital experience, the 10 long-form articles that appeared on Airbnb’s blog and the campaign’s microsite contained additional, complementary information that provided local Berlin content that was relevant to the target audience (Shorty Awards, 2015). Again, these articles added to the overall campaign story by further reinforcing Cathrine’s story of the reunified Berlin as an exciting and vibrant city worth visiting. These articles focused on various cultural aspects about the city including its food and beer, music, art, architecture and rich history providing even greater incentives for the audience to visit. The inclusion of these articles also helped in supporting one of the overall campaign’s goals of showcasing Berlin as a highly desired travel destination.

Social Media Airbnb’s social media channels facilitated the dissemination of the core campaign content to existing followers and provided the opportunity to generate audience engagement in return. Social media pages and profiles were used like tentacles to reach current Airbnb followers and entice them to engage with the content and/or visit the campaign microsite to learn more about Cathrine’s story and about Berlin as a worthwhile travel destination.

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Social media was used in an extremely strategic way by campaign managers to target specific audiences (who may not already be following Airbnb) and then retarget them with the campaign story and content to help to achieve extensive reach to increase awareness and engagement. Goedegebuure in Handley (2014) explained, “We have a smart media plan for the coming three weeks, where we do multilayer segment audience retargeting on all social platforms,” he said. “Across the world, we have built 80 sub-segments of audiences, grouped into five main segments. Through managing the cookie pools, we will be able to retarget those audiences who have shown interest in the topic of travel, the Berlin Wall, content marketing, and many others.” It must be noted that targeted and retargeting based on cookies has become more challenging since the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign was launched in 2014. However, using social media in this way added to the overall campaign story by reaching new audiences and reminding existing followers of Airbnb’s core mission. As awareness and engagement were two key goals for this campaign, reaching different audiences on a range of social media channels allowed Airbnb to show up where their target audiences are already consuming content, positioning the brand as aligned with their users’ existing habits and lifestyle.

Behind-the-Scenes Videos The behind-the-scenes videos with the campaign creators, Cathrine, her father and Airbnb host, Kai, provided another layer of reality to the central campaign story (Airbnb, 2015b; Shorty Awards, 2015). While the animation told the story in a magical, creative and visually poetic way, the use of animation may have diminished the true realness of the Cathrine’s story. By including documentary style interviews as a separate channel in the campaign, this pulled back the curtain to introduce to the audience the real people behind Airbnb Wall and Chain, not only the people on which the campaign story was based, but the creative team who brought it to life. Including video content seeing the people involved with the campaign tell their own stories provided the audience with an alternative view of the overall campaign story. It provided additional information and a richer understanding of the entire campaign that could not be communicated in a short animated film (Fig. 11.5).

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Fig. 11.5 Berlin unification party (Studio Now, 2014)

Offline Experience---Berlin Unification Party The campaign launch party added to the overall campaign story by providing participants with a truly immersive and tangible experience of the reenactment of the Berlin Wall coming down at the exact time the true event occurred 25 years before. This event provided the audience in attendance to create their own experiences and memories of the historical event and the campaign in a way that engaged with all senses (an aspect missing from digital content). The Berlin Unification Party also unknowingly used what Sutherland (2016) describes as a propinquital approach whereby online and offline environments are blended together as one experience. This occurred at the launch of the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign when after smashing down the makeshift wall separating both sides of the party, the animated film was shown which would then be shared extensively online as part of the campaign. This experience added to the overall campaign story by blending environments and providing the opportunity for the audience to feel part of the story and action of the campaign.

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Traditional Media Traditional media coverage generated by the campaign enabled Cathrine’s story to be spread much further than Airbnb’s channels alone and provided greater credibility and endorsement of the campaign story by being reported in official mainstream media outlets from around the world (Psyop, 2022a). The story of Cathrine and her father was extremely newsworthy on its own, but coupled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling, the campaign was of even greater interest to media outlets and their audiences.

Campaign Microsite The campaign microsite provided an anchor for the target audience to access all Airbnb Wall and Chain content without having to search for it on the other platforms used throughout the campaign. The microsite added further credibility to the campaign story by providing a digital endorsement of the campaign’s existence as part of the Airbnb brand if target audience members searched online about the campaign. Having a central repository of campaign content provided a convenient and accessible way for audiences to learn more about the campaign story while contributing to its legitimacy.

Audience Participation Analysis of audience participation in the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign highlights how closely linked audience participatory techniques were to the overall campaign goals. While many of the tactics were aimed to attract largely passive participation from audiences, some techniques required much greater effort.

Passive Audience Participatory Techniques Firstly, the animated short film was used to drive awareness of Airbnb and to encourage audience participation in the form of engagement with the content on its various social media platforms in the form of likes, shares and comments. However, the core objective of the animated film

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sharing the story of Cathrine and her father was to encourage the audience to experience a sense of belonging that supports Airbnb’s “belong anywhere” brand mission. Next, the immersive digital experience and long-form articles encouraged audiences to consume the content about Berlin as a travel destination to learn more about what the city offers and to position it as a worthwhile travel destination. While the immersive digital experience required greater effort than reading the long-form travel articles, as it was more interactive, both channels and audience participatory techniques were included to support the achievement of the campaign’s first goal of increasing brand awareness about Airbnb’s newly launched brand refresh. This was also the case for the campaign’s microsite, behind-the-scenes video and consumption of traditional media coverage. All three platforms were designed for audiences to learn more about the campaign, Airbnb, and feel that they too could belong anywhere when staying with Airbnb hosts while travelling. These techniques were well designed to support the campaign goal by appealing to the engaged and passive sections of Phillips “Audience Engagement Pyramid” because they did not require too much effort from the target audience for the campaign goal to be achieved (Phillips, 2012 p. 104). The greatest amount of effort asked from the audience with these participatory techniques was to consume, learn from and engage with campaign content.

Audience Participatory Techniques for the Highly Engaged While the campaign used mostly passive audience participatory techniques, there were two tactics used that appealed to highly engaged audience members. This ratio between participatory techniques aimed at passive, engaged and highly engaged audience members is directly in line with Phillips (2012, p. 104) structure as mentioned above. The first tactic that required greater effort from the target audience was attendance at the campaign’s launch party on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The launch event required 800 invitees to attend a venue not far from the original site of the Berlin Wall. The event was scheduled late in the evening with festivities not officially beginning until midnight. Event participants were divided and at midnight helped to physically smash down the makeshift wall that separated both sides of the party before settling to watch the animated film.

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This immersive experience required much greater effort for members of the target audience present to gain even a small glimpse of what it meant for Berliners and Germany when the wall was demolished 25 years before. Hill explains the rationale behind launching the campaign in this way. “We wanted for the audience to be able to experience the sense of belonging and the story in a deeper way so the experimental launch of the video contributed to the adoption in the Berlin market.” The final participatory tactic that the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign encouraged from the audience was to visit Berlin. Although not actively measured as part of the campaign’s performance, one of the overall goals was to showcase Berlin as an attractive travel destination. Therefore, it makes perfect sense a bi-product of achieving that objective was to inspire members from the target audience to make the ultimate effort (in terms of time and money) and actually visit the city. The balance between passive and highly engaged participatory techniques in the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign aligned perfectly with the campaign goals. Although, it would have been interesting to track how many Airbnb guests organised visits to Berlin as a result of the campaign.

Evaluation Evaluation of the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign centred largely on how well the campaign achieved its overall goals. As stated previously by Hill, the main aims of the campaign were to increase brand awareness after Airbnb’s recent rebrand, showcase Berlin as a travel destination for Airbnb guests to visit and generating engagement in response to campaign content. These success factors were also confirmed in an interview with Goedegebuure who said, “Success was evaluated on engagement and efficiency which it achieved both of. The data showed that the audience enjoyed the content 9% more than the travel norm and viewed it as engaging and unique.” (Goedegebuure in Handley, 2014)

This campaign differed from others analysed in this project because it largely focused on increasing brand awareness rather than more tangible conversion metrics such as bookings, donations or increased revenue as a direct result from the campaign. This was a conscious decision that aligned directly with Airbnb’s brand values. Goedegebuure explained,

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“As a community-driven company, we don’t want to just talk about our product, but instead put our community front and centre of any campaign” (Handley, 2014). It is clear that evaluation of the Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign did not draw on any of the audience engagement and participatory measurement frameworks mentioned in the transmedia academic literature such as the Toggle Switch Method, or the Engagement Measurement Model (Pratten, 2015). Instead, it focused more on metrics traditionally associated with advertising and marketing, which is an approach that aligns directly with the most commonly used approach identified in our practitioner survey findings and a third of our practitioner interview sample.

Key Outcomes The campaign achieved significant results for Airbnb, surpassing its original goals of increasing brand awareness, positioning Berlin as an attractive holiday destination and generating audience engagement with campaign content. Within one month of the campaign being launched and the short animated film being released it had attracted more than 8 million views across Airbnb’s official social media channels (Shorty Awards, 2015). Additionally, the campaign generated 130 hits of media coverage in more than 15 different countries including leading industry publications Ad Age, Mashable, Ad Week, Campaign, Branding Mag and Contently (Psyop, 2022b; Shorty Awards, 2015). The project also attracted critical acclaim in the form of industry awards and accolades including the Best Online Animation (Branded) People’s Choice Winner in the Webby Awards, the Graphite Pencil Award for Animation for Film in the D&AD Awards, a Bronze Cube for Advertising, Digital and Motion in the ADC Awards, Best Animated Advertisement in the AICP Awards and was a finalist in the Multi-Platform Campaign category in the Shorty Awards (Psyop, 2022a). Airbnb’s Wall and Chain campaign also achieved its goal of generating conversation about the relaunched brand reporting that “the campaign owned 2.2% share of conversation around the fall of the wall and an overall 99% positive tone” (Shorty Awards, 2015). Overall, the creative team at Airbnb was delighted by the hugely positive response to such a beautifully crafted and executed transmedia

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storytelling campaign and its immersive experiences. Even today, the project remains an effective example of the brand’s central narrative and community-building focus.

Transmedia Brand Storytelling Theory to Practice Willow Hill, the practitioner interviewed who worked as a Creative Producer on the campaign explored in this case study, learned how to design and implement transmedia storytelling campaigns and immersive experiences while working at Red Bull. Hill’s focus at Red Bull was to take immersive brand experiences and translate them to social media. With solid experience in this type of campaign style, Hill approaches transmedia storytelling and immersive campaign practices and processes in line with many of the other practitioners interviewed and surveyed for this study. However, there were a few differences recorded. Firstly, they used the term “transmedia” in the creative day-to-day practice which was an uncommon occurrence amongst interview participants. More than half of the interview sample did not use the term in their process of their work. While Hill did not use any specific theoretical models relating directly to transmedia storytelling or immersive campaign design, they described their primary theoretical approach as focusing first on the audience in terms of communication, driving action and providing cultural relevance to inspire participation. “My model focuses on the end consumer,” said Hill. “The message and where to reach them must come from a clear persona. In addition, I look for ways to connect the concept to cultural relevance. There must be an urgency factor driving the adoption.” Their creative process is similar to other reports from the practitioner interviews and involves deep collaboration with other creatives dedicated to different aspects of a campaign’s delivery. Campaign design is not an individual task and must be undertaken with all other cogs in the campaign development wheel if it is to be effective. From Hill’s perspective, public relations and social media are pivotal parts of any campaign and practitioners responsible for these components must be part of the conversation from the very beginning of the campaign concept creation process. “Media is always a part of the conversation,” said Hill. “Historically media planning would be a secondary thought but for us, we consider PR, media and social to be fundamental to creating a brand campaign

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today so all voices should be at the table as we discuss initial ideas and do creative brainstorming.” Hill’s approach to platform selection is in line with 73% of other practitioners surveyed in our study who stated that it is essential to base decisions around platform selection on audience preferences. “Platforms should always be selected based on their audiences. We start with looking at what audience we want to reach and then select platforms that resonate with that audience rather than expecting the audience to come to us.” In terms of the most relevant techniques to evaluate campaign performance, Hill is very platform focused, an approach shared with more than 46% of our survey sample of practitioners and around one third of interviewees. “Campaigns are often evaluated by channel,” Hill explained. “We look at performance of the creative based on where it was run and who it was targeting. The same message might have done well in a slightly different format for another platform but not resonated with another.” Hill explained that focusing on the performance of campaign creative on specific channels helps to inform future campaigns. “It can help you narrow in on what tools in your tool belt work and which are not worth investing in again.” While not sharing any specific techniques to encourage audience participation in transmedia storytelling campaigns, Hill was clear in the importance in positioning the audience as a fundamental part of telling the campaign story by sharing their own experiences. According to Hill, ensuring the audience is the “central vehicle for the (campaign) message” results in encouraging even greater numbers of audience members to contribute as well. A demonstration of the notion that “you have to see it to be it.” Seeing fellow audience members participating in a campaign can communicate to others that it is a simple and worthwhile activity that they too would like to participate in.

Conclusion This case study explored the transmedia brand storytelling campaign components and approach used in the highly successful, Airbnb Wall and Chain campaign. The analysis demonstrated how someone’s real experience can be crafted into a strategically designed campaign containing immersive experiences for its audiences.

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The campaign communicated the powerful and transformative experience of an Airbnb guest using a mix of animation, traditional media, social media, long-form articles, behind-the-scenes documentary style interviews and immersive digital and offline experiences to celebrate the historical 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Airbnb achieved this while remaining respectful and sensitive to the original storyteller and their family and to the city of Berlin, its residents and culture. The research and planning invested in the development of the campaign crossed continents and this care and well-considered strategy in the campaign’s concept design and execution is a clear indication of why it achieved worldwide media coverage, a collection of industry awards and accolades and remains as one of the most memorable of Airbnb’s campaigns to date, and the perfect embodiment of its brand mission to create a world where people can “belong anywhere.”

References Ads of the World. (2015). Airbnb—Wall and chain agency: VCCP. Ads of the World. Available at: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/wall-andchain. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Airbnb. (2015a). Breaking down walls | Wall & Chain | Airbnb. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAdyFdE3-c. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Airbnb. (2015b). Behind the scenes | Wall & Chain | Airbnb. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJf-K6nz544. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Airbnb. (2019). Airbnb 2019 business update. News. Available at: https://news. airbnb.com/airbnb-2019-business-update/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Airbnb. (2022a). Airbnb—Breaking down walls. Airbnb Blog. Available at: https://blog.atairbnb.com/breaking-down-walls/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022a. Airbnb. (2022b). Airbnb. Facebook. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/ Airbnb. Accessed 27 Sept 2022b. Airbnb. (2022c). Airbnb. Twitter. Available at: https://twitter.com/Airbnb. Accessed 27 Sept 2022c. Airbnb. (2022d). Airbnb. LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/ company/airbnb/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022d. Airbnb. (2022e). Airbnb. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/c/ airbnb. Accessed 27 Sept 2022e. Ducros, C. (2022). Airbnb—Wall and chain. Work. Available at: http://www.chr istopheducros.com/airbnb-wall-and-chain. Accessed 27 Sept 2022.

PART IV

Conclusion

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Handley, A. (2014). The Airbnb Berlin wall anniversary film: A Q&A with its creator. Ann Handley. Available at: https://annhandley.com/back-storymarketing-takeaways-airbnb-berlin-wall-anniversary-film/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Jenkins, H., Ford, S., McCracken, G., Seles, S., Tindall, N. T., & Timke, E. (2018). Author meets critics—Spreadable media. Advertising & Society Quarterly, 18(4). Macleod, I. (2014). Airbnb marks 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with 75 second film. The drum—Advertising. Available at: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/11/07/airbnb-marks-25th-ann iversary-fall-berlin-wall-75-second-film. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Motion Array. (2019). Studio spotlight: Psyop is an industry Titan. Motion Design. Available at: https://motionarray.com/learn/motion-design/studiospotlight-psyop/#:~:text=Founded%20in%202000%20in%20New,graphics% 2C%20VFX%2C%20and%20animation. Accessed 28 Sept 2022. Phillips, A. (2012). A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms. McGraw-Hill Education. Pratten, R. (2015). Chapter five: Understanding the audience—Measuring engagement. In Getting started in transmedia storytelling—A practical guide for beginners (2nd ed., pp. 90–95). McGraw Hill. Psyop. (2022a). Airbnb wall and chain—Marie Hyon + Marco Spier. Psyop.com. Available at: https://www.psyop.com/work/wall-and-chain/. Accessed 27 Sept 2022a. Psyop. (2022b). About. Available at: https://www.psyop.com/about/. Accessed 28 Sept 2022b. Shorty Awards. (2015). Wall and chain—A true story about belonging by Airbnb. 7th Annual Shorty Awards. Available at: https://shortyawards.com/7th/walland-chain-a-true-story-about-belonging-by-airbnb. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Studio Now. (2014). Airbnb break down walls, event, screening, party. Studio Now. Available at: https://studionow.de/en/projects/break-downwalls. Accessed 27 Sept 2022. Sutherland, K. E. (2016). Using propinquital loops to blend social media and offline spaces: A case study of the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge. Media International Australia, 160(1), 78–88. VCCP. (2022). VCCP. Linked in company page. Available at: https://www.lin kedin.com/company/vccp/?originalSubdomain=au. Accessed 28 Sept 2022.

CHAPTER 12

The Future of Transmedia Brand Storytelling and a Model for Practice

So far, we have explored how transmedia brand storytelling practices have evolved to become a common approach employed in brand communication by providing immersive experiences for audiences to build positive brand associations, trust and loyalty (Scolari, 2019). To achieve this we have analysed transmedia storytelling literature throughout each chapter and expanded this knowledge with analysis from our interviews with 21 creative practitioners and an online survey with 256 advertising, communication, marketing and public relations professionals working in the field across Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, the United States and South America. This final chapter will shift its focus to consider where transmedia storytelling and immersive experiences may be headed in the future. First, the chapter will compare past predictions relating to the future of transmedia storytelling with those gleaned from the interviews conducted with practitioners for this book. The authors will then share their own future predictions for transmedia brand storytelling based on our analysis of the literature, survey and interview data from our study. This chapter will conclude with the introduction of our Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice, derived from this analysis of primary and secondary research that tracks the campaign/project process from the client brief, to post-storyworld execution evaluation.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1_12

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Past Predictions of Transmedia Storytelling and Their Accuracy The discussion focusing on the future of transmedia storytelling began in the 2000s. The first mention of the topic identified by the authors was by Abba (2009) whose predictions included Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) and forms of hybrid storytelling by entertainment franchises specifically. The discussion relating to transmedia storytelling futures seems to wane in the literature until 2015 when Zeiser (2015) explores the topic in the final chapter of Transmedia Marketing. The chapter proposes that transmedia may be referred to as something else in the future, focusing more on audience experience than the specific platforms within a storyworld. Zeiser (2015) quotes the “grandfather” of transmedia storytelling Professor Henry Jenkins, TEDx Transmedia curator Nicoletta Iacobacci and Andrew Golis from news website The Wire. The evolution of technology and their impact on the storytelling process as well as the belief that transmedia would be commonplace in the media and entertainment industries were key themes in this chapter. Technologies commonly cited when discussing the future included Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and the impact of streaming services on traditional media such as television. However, alternative technologies mentioned that have not come to fruition are “the cloud, the Internet of Things, wearable personalized media systems and 3-D printing” (Zeiser, 2015, p. 427). Additional predictions made by Zeiser (2015, p. 426) focus on “the globalisation of entertainment (also highlighted in Jenkins’ quote within the chapter), the use of big data to accurately target audiences and provide actionable insights, and brands becoming content rather than interrupting it”. The predictions relating to transmedia futures continued within the literature in 2016 when Sánchez-Mesa et al. envisioned the evolution of technology having the greatest impact on what is in store. Specific technologies such as “Google Glass, Oculus Rift, Magic Lens, Samsung Gear VR” were predicted to usher in what was forecast as a type of “Lumière phase” (Sánchez-Mesa et al., 2016, p. 11). However, Sánchez-Mesa et al. (2016, pp. 11–12) explained that technology on its own does not automatically equal storytelling. It is up to the storytellers to understand how best to use them to communicate with their audiences,

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“We have the devices but learning to generate content is very much needed. It is only now that storytellers or journalists are approaching these devices and starting to explore their narrative potential. Once they have mastered these creatures, it will be more likely that we will find them as part of transmedial textual complexes.”

The discussion continued between scholars and practitioners within the concluding chapter of The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies involving conversations documented by Norrington et al. (2018). Their approach differs from ours because they did not focus on brand communication and only three practitioners were interviewed providing a more contained insight into the topic compared with our larger sample of practitioners whose responses will be discussed further in this chapter. In the case of Norrington et al. (2018), the prediction of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality were once again a focus along with discussion of the customisation specifically relating to the audience’s experience, and adopting an audience-led approach to transmedia that “transcends sector and time” (Fitzpatrick in Norrington et al., 2018, p. 477). Additional modes and technologies were also predicted to be a core focus in the future of transmedia including escape rooms and temporal engagement in reading form, providing customised reading experiences for the audience using data through the use of APIs. This theme of audience customisation or user experience (UX) was also present in Scolari’s (2019) predictions. Interestingly, Scolari (2019) proposes that the concept of transmedia storytelling is likely to be abandoned for different terms including “immersive narrative” or “narrative experience”, terms that align with the ever-growing focus on UX. The use of alternative concepts or terms is directly in line with our research findings that highlight the limited use of the term “transmedia” in practitioner circles. The analysis of literature surrounding discussions of the future of transmedia highlights a strong focus on technology, and audience experience. These findings align directly with some points of discussions from our expert interviews, yet, there are critical points of difference as our research specifically focuses on brand communication which has not previously been the subject of practitioner-focused empirical research.

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Practitioner Forecasts of Transmedia’s Future There was significant variation in responses from our practitioner interviews regarding where they predicted the future of transmedia storytelling to be in the coming years and the role it would play in their industry. There were seven key themes present in the practitioner interview data relating to what role they believed the future of transmedia storytelling would play in the future. These themes included: the future is reliant on technology, the use of the Metaverse and Web3, VR and Augmented Reality, long-form brand content, greater ethical practices required of brands and brands supporting causes, greater brand authenticity, as well as greater consumer control. Prediction 1. The Future Is Reliant on Technological Evolution Some participants were reluctant to estimate their forecast, stating the future was far too uncertain for anyone to truly know what was ahead. One practitioner from Melbourne, Australia suggested that transmedia would be forgotten within the next decade, but it is the audience who will decide the future. They commented, “In 10 years time everyone will go,‘Remember that transmedia thing we were all talking about?’ But it’ll be something else. 20 years ago when I started in 2002 this didn’t exist. So the game has changed and it’s only going to change again. And if you are too tired and too exhausted, as it can be so easy to feel overwhelmed, if you can’t stay on top of it, then that’s when you’ll fall behind. And it’s about... You say to me, ‘What’s the legacy going to be?’ I think the legacy will be wherever the audience goes, right.”

This theme of constant evolution was also highlighted in the interview with a practitioner from the Canadian creative team of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign. They admitted to not knowing what lies ahead for transmedia storytelling: “I have no idea,” they admitted. “I imagine that, as long as new media, and new ways of communicating, and new interesting forms of interaction keep emerging, they will find their way into how people, who do what I did, do their jobs. So it’s a kind of an ever expanding universe. The more things that are available to you, the more of them you say, “Oh, my God. I’m so glad we have that because now we can do this as well.” So I think it expands the universe of possibility.”

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Again, this notion that the future of transmedia storytelling is reliant on technological evolution was also mentioned by an Australian practitioner, who refused to attempt a prediction. He laughingly responded to the question, “To try and predict where that’s going to be in 12 months, is ridiculous. I think that the channels will always change, all that sort of thing. But I think that the most important thing is being able to understand what’s interesting and what’s not.”

Yet, while there was a reluctance by some practitioners to share their predictions, others were keen to foretell with confidence the increasing presence the Metaverse and Web3 would play in campaigns of the future. Prediction 2. Use of the Metaverse and Web3 At the time when practitioner interviews were being conducted for this study, trending topics in the digital space focused on the Metaverse and Web3. While there existed some discussion of the concepts previously in both academic and industry circles, Facebook changing its name to Meta thrust this discussion into the mainstream (Ludlow & Wallace, 2007; Moneta, 2020; Thomas, 2021). With the Metaverse and Web3 such “hot” media topics at the time the interviews were conducted (and at time of writing) it is not a surprise that when asked what the future holds for transmedia storytelling, some practitioners were quick to identify the Metaverse and Web3 as definitely playing a major part. A practitioner from the United States working in a creative agency in Sydney Australia shared their thoughts about the Metaverse: “The word on everybody’s lips at the moment is the Metaverse, right? Currently, these worlds transcend and extend the physical world into a virtual world and the virtual world into a physical world. It’s absolutely that, and I think that’s where it’s really interesting for us.”

They further discussed what metaverses could mean for future audiences and the opportunities they will create for brands. “There are different metaverses that people can go into, and they can go into it for different experiences. It’s really about how do you create an experience within those worlds that is going to be valuable to a user, and I think it’s

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definitely about how you are building things that are going to capture the right attention, how are you driving people into there as well. I think what’s really interesting about what the metaverse has created, it’s created new opportunities for developing new products. It’s created new opportunities for retail, it’s created new opportunities to design experiences that are probably not even physically bloody possible, and I think about how it taps into new audiences that people may not have actually been able to get to before.”

This particular practitioner also commented that metaverse technology is still very early in its evolution and there is still so much the industry does not know, but its future could provide a new dimension of consumer experiences for brands. “It’s going to be a really big emerging space. We haven’t even touched the sides. We are not even at 1% of what opportunities exist there, and they’re already valuing metaverses in the trillions of dollars. It’s wild. People are building their lives in there. That’s where it’s going to be quite interesting for a lot of brands. Who’s buying Gucci boots for $5,000 so they can put them on an avatar? It’s nuts!”

Similarly, a creative practitioner located in Canada explained how some niche agencies are emerging to focus exclusively on the metaverse space. “For our industry, there seems to be this ebb and flow of an agency that wants to be generalists and then very, very specific agencies. Then the industry goes generalist and then it goes very, very specific. There’s agencies that only do TikTok right now. There’s agencies that are carving out their place in the Metaverse and whatever the heck the next thing will be. I think it’s just about not planting your flag too deep that you can’t pick it up and move it when the tides turn. It does seem like things shift a lot in this world.”

This theme of agencies adapting their storytelling techniques to suit technological advances such as the Metaverse and Web3 were also apparent in the prediction regarding transmedia storytelling from an L.A.-based creative practitioner. “I’m currently very excited about the potential for Web3 and storytelling. As an immersive new space that is currently in its infancy, we will begin to see brands engaging their communities in world building where the audience helps create the experience and script as well as participates.”

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As an extension of the discussion around the impact emerging technologies such as the Metaverse and Web3 will have on the execution of transmedia storytelling, additional technologies such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality were also predicted by practitioners to play a key role in future projects. Prediction 3. Use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality While just one interviewee went into detail about the future role of VR and AR, their prediction for how these technologies will influence audience experiences within the tourism industry in the future delivery of transmedia brand storytelling campaigns is worthy of inclusion. This practitioner, who is based in regional Victoria, Australia, specifically mentioned how technology’s ever-increasing focus on personalisation and customisation using VR and AR will have a significant impact on the tourism industry and its promotion. “Technology is getting cleverer and cleverer all the time, and the capacity for the technology to make the experience more personalised, just deeper, and more fun, more exciting, that’s a big part of where it’s headed and what will make things better. Tourism people and marketers in general, are overcoming our fear of technology taking away from what we do and leaning into it a bit more as a way that we can deliver, and it probably started for tourism. Our greatest fear was if everyone put on virtual VR headsets and they never had to go anywhere. So, we’re leaning into technology more and understanding how it can be used as a tool to inspire actual action and trying to harness it now, rather than being afraid of it.”

This practitioner also provided an example where they have used Augmented Reality technology as a storytelling platform within a previously delivered tourism campaign for their region. “We’ve done some stuff with augmented reality, like storytelling with our little bollards which are these people painted on the waterfront,” they explained. “We’ve got them coming to life and telling stories about who they are and why they’re significant in Geelong’s history. I think that using it as a way to enhance the story, bring the story to life more is where we’re headed, for sure.”

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With examples of emerging technologies playing a role in transmedia storytelling both now and in the future, the discussion within the practitioner interviews then focused on brand content, and more specifically how brands will be involved in the production of long form that will be accessible on mainstream digital platforms. Prediction 4. Long-Form Brand Content When asked about the future of transmedia storytelling, two creative practitioners (one based in Canada and the other in Spain) proposed that brands focus more on producing long-form content, even entire series, to engage with audiences on mainstream streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, and also movies, with Barbie as an example. A Canada-based interviewee working in the nonprofit sector commented that long-form content is already being produced by brands, but will become more of a widespread practice. “It has already started to a certain degree. More long form entertainment and content creation coming from brands will become the norm,” they proposed and provided the following example. “When I worked on the Budweiser account, one of the other beer brands in the portfolio was created in Western Canada in the Rockies. It was a snowboarders’ and skiers’ beer. They created a two hour feature film. They told stories about a lifestyle the brand represented. I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more of that type of work. To me, it’s going to be a really interesting space,” they explained.

Brands collaborating directly with streaming platforms to produce content for subscribers was also highlighted by this practitioner as another attractive industry development encouraging the development of long-form brand content. “Now you can produce films for streaming platforms and you don’t need to pay the big studio dollars to get the media distribution,” they commented. “More and more brands could be participating in creating TV series and feature film length content that connects with people again, with that shared value and shared lifestyle and aspirations.”

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The creative practitioner working in an agency in Spain, also predicted long-form brand content featuring on streaming platforms as a hallmark in the future of transmedia brand storytelling. “We will see more brands on Netflix, HBO creating shows or series. It’s the future,” they proposed. “We are not going into the cinema that much anymore. We love to be at home watching what we want to watch when we want to watch it. It’s like brands need to be there for me because who is watching TV nowadays? I’m all day on streaming platforms , on YouTube, on my phone, in the street with friends. I think that we have to find the right space and the right space will be content creation. Video will never die. TV, as we know it nowadays, will die soon but not video, not series, not shows. I feel that we will move into that space soon.”

Additionally, the Canadian creative practitioner previously cited within Prediction 4. highlighted that long-form content is an applicable vehicle for brands wanting to focus more on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) space as this will allow the space required for deeper storytelling about the important social, cultural and environmental issues they are supporting. “As well as brands really wanting to play a role within CSR, picking a social issue that they want to try to move the needle on that relates to whatever it is that they do. Being able to create content and long form storytelling, documentaries, et cetera, that relate to potentially that social issue as well. So, that would be where I feel like there’s a lot of potential and I’m excited to see what might come in the future.”

This theme of a greater focus on CSR was not only identified in the predictions made by practitioners relating to long-form brand content. Increased consumer expectations of ethical brand practices and more brand supporting social causes were also strong themes apparent in the interview data predicting the future of transmedia storytelling. Prediction 5. A Focus on Communicating Brand Values and Supporting Social Causes Interviewees based in different regions predicted audiences will continue to demand that brands function in an ethical way to reduce (or eliminate) any negative impacts their practice may have on their employees,

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their communities and the environment. A greater commitment to CSR was identified as being a key component in the future of transmedia storytelling, which aligns with one of the overall findings of our study proposing the model as a highly appropriate means of communicating brand values. As the creative practitioner from a London-based agency commented, advertising will never be defunct, but it will need to take a very different form. “Advertising is never going to die, but it’s going to take a completely new face. Brands are finally starting to realise that they’re the ones with the most amount of money to be able to create things. And if a person has a choice to view something, they’re never going to want to see an ad, no matter where you put it. I think brands are going to have to get a lot smarter, do a lot more partnerships, be a lot more creative, come up with things that are actually saving the planet, hitting on issues that people care about.”

This practitioner also provided an example of a brand delivering a transmedia storytelling campaign that focused on creating awareness of an environmental issue instead of selling a product. “I worked on this beer brand called Corona. The year that I worked on it, we spent our entire summer budget on creating a piece of work that detailed the journey of a plastic bag from the city to the ocean, because Corona’s home ground is the ocean. We’re a beach brand,” they explained. “We realised that going to the beach is never going to be nice anymore if it’s just littered with plastic and there’s now plastic in the water. We’re all about paradise and to us paradise is the beach. So we convinced our client to spend their entire summer budget on just beach cleanups and making sure that people understood how plastic goes from the city to the ocean if you don’t dispose of it properly.”

This example is an excellent demonstration of how transmedia storytelling can be used to implement a CSR campaign to help an environmental issue relating to its brand with the aim of increasing brand equity with its target audience in the process. Similarly, a Melbourne-based creative practitioner predicted that brands will need to be value-driven, transparent and ethical in their

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practices in order to survive, and this must also be reflected in their communication of brand stories. “What do they stand for? I think they’re going to be the brands that are really going to succeed. And I think it shouldn’t be called a trend because it’s actually just the business and it’s the right way to communicate. That’s going to become increasingly paramount for brands and owning mistakes as well.”

Interestingly, the ability of transmedia storytelling to communicate ethical values and achieve authentic communication emerged in descriptions of both current and future practice, thus highlighting its growing relevance. Prediction 6. Greater Brand Authenticity As our analysis has highlighted, for brands to be successful in the future, they will need to demonstrate authenticity emanating from empathy, also a key theme present in the practitioner interviews. Transmedia brand storytelling is predicted to play an integral role in communicating this empathy and authenticity to build solid relationships with target audiences. “I think this concept of authenticity is going to be more paramount than ever,” agreed a Melbourne-based creative practitioner. “Partly that’s because this idea of consumer trust is at an all time low, thanks to the fact that we’re all hiding behind screens and digital manipulation is a thing now,” he explained. "Authenticity is going to be a recurring theme that strong brands will be able to leverage. That’s not something to be afraid of. It’s paramount. In order to stand out amongst the social media Kardashians of the world, you need to stand for something. Brands can embrace that and find ways to integrate that into, not just public facing storytelling, but also into how they treat their staff, what is their corporate culture? What do they stand for? I think they’re going to be the brands that are really going to succeed."

Additionally, a second creative practitioner at a different Melbournebased advertising agency commented that consumers will continue to hold brands accountable when their business practices do not match the brand promise and stories being fed to them.

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“The business model needs to support it in that way. It’s not enough to just say, ‘We’ll go out and say it,’ if you are not actually living up to it from your business practices,” they explained. “Look at the Body Shop, or look at Frank Body or any one of those people that are corporate social responsibility focused, planet and profit together situations, they’ve got that down pat. I see that as being a big thing, of companies adjusting away from being a very profit-centering thing, to understanding that social contract that exists.”

It is this focus on brands adjusting their practices to “walk the talk” in response to audience expectations to avoid being held accountable and the ramifications of “cancel culture” that also aligns with the final prediction made by the practitioners interviewed for this study. The future of transmedia brand storytelling will be greatly impacted by the ever-growing control provided to consumers. Prediction 7. Greater Audience Control The rapid evolution of digital technologies over the past 15 years has provided audiences with much greater control of the media they select. Currently, audiences can select whatever in the world they want to consume, and when they want to consume it. This trend of audiences having the ability to completely customise their interactions with brands was also highlighted as a key feature that will change the way that brands will approach transmedia brand storytelling in the coming years. The Vice-President of a Canada-based creative agency identified greater audience control as their core prediction relating to the future of the model: “It’s only moving in the direction of way more control for the consumer,” she explained. “It’s like we’re now at a point where we’re desperate to find a way to make things matter. Especially with streaming services, I still hear media people say TV is king. I’m like, ‘Dude, when’s the last time you watched TV? What are you talking about?’ ”

Again, the theme of brands supporting important social and environmental causes was also highlighted as providing audiences greater power and choice over which brands align most with their own personal values to help decide which brands will be rewarded by their attention and custom.

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“It’s just only going to continue to be more in the consumer’s hands, and brands will need to start to do more like, ‘Choose your issue. You need to help the planet. You need to help equality.’ Effectively, there are a million different massive issues that are happening in our world that these massive organisations that have all the money that can help be a part of. Consumers are just so conscious of that now, especially in the US, and I thank God every day I’m not there based on the recent news cycle. There’s just so much, and consumers are loud. There’s so many platforms now that the voices can be heard. There’s a lot more of a collective voice and there’s a lot more vehicles and avenues for those people to be heard than there ever has been. And so I think it’s a lot more of the brands melding to the minds of consumers and listening to what consumers want in order to hopefully all of us have a better life and plan it out.”

Therefore, the creative practitioners interviewed predicted consumer control to choose their brand experiences and relationships to be paramount in the future of transmedia storytelling. Yet, it will be brands employing ethical practices, demonstrating greater authenticity derived from empathy, focusing more on CSR and important causes and sharing these activities through long-form content and emerging technologies that will guide consumers on their brand choices. It is this interplay between audience, ethics and technology that will represent the future of the approach.

Transmedia Predictions: The Authors’ Forecast In addition to the future predictions explored in the literature and provided by the practitioners interviewed for this study, the authors have analysed all data gathered for this book to inform the following four predictions regarding the future of transmedia brand storytelling. These are as follows:

Authors’ Prediction 1. AI Will Never Replace the Human Element of Storytelling While AI has been predicted to be a key player in the development of content for brand communication campaigns and experiences in the future, the authors forecast that AI technologies will struggle to replace the human element required to create unique and empathetic stories, if it ever happens at all. AI technology will be used to develop generic types of

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content at volume, however, it will still take human intervention to polish and craft that content to ensure that it can resonate deeply and authentically with its target audience. One of the fundamental components of effective storytelling as instructed by Pixar is to “write what you know” in order to authentically describe an emotion from the human experience to provide the audience with a greater opportunity to feel it too (Pixar in a Box, 2017). Only time will tell if AI technology will ever be advanced enough to be able to accurately communicate human emotion without ever experiencing it.

Authors’ Prediction 2. The TikTokification of Content Will Continue The rapid growth of TikTok in terms of its adoption rates, reaching 3.5 billion all-time downloads by the end of the first quarter in 2022 has led to other platforms scrambling to compete by creating their own versions (e.g. Instagram and Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts) (Forristal, 2022). While competing platforms seem focused on replicating the technical features that TikTok offers to its users to avoid a mass exodus to their rival, the core promise that TikTok offers to its community is being overlooked by other social media platforms but also by brands. The success of TikTok could be explained as evidence of the audience’s hunger for playfulness and authenticity. TikTok not only provided the technical tools for everyday people to tell their own stories, its users formed an accepting community that celebrated authenticity and encouraged people, who were not part of the Instagram influencer aesthetic, to share their lives through telling stories as though they were catching up with a close friend via a Facetime chat. This authenticity allowed members of the “general population” to build an immense following on TikTok from others who could directly relate to their human experience. It is the human connection and community developed through authentic storytelling that TikTok provides that other platforms have not been able to replicate. Brands will need to leverage these drivers to inspire their target audience to play, create and express their own experiences through authentic storytelling to achieve success.

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Authors’ Prediction 3. The Homogenisation of Social Media Platforms As social media platforms continue to add similar features of rival networks in a bid to deter users from leaving, e.g. as in the TikTokification previously mentioned, the original notion provided by Jenkins that “each platform makes a unique contribution” has emerged as a challenge to transmedia storytellers (2016, p. 234). The homogenisation of social media platforms may result in many offering the same affordances which will impact the unique contribution that can be contributed by each platform in a transmedia storytelling campaign, as they each become replicas of each other. Live-streaming video across multiple platforms simultaneously is an example of the same content being broadcast using the generic feature of individual digital sites. To combat the homogenisation of social media platform features, the authors predict a shift from leveraging features to collaborating with the unique audiences of each social media network. The practitioners interviewed have predicted greater consumer control, and the authors support this forecast. The audience is dictating the content it wants to consume and create on each platform, rather than focusing on the specific features on offer. Features may shape transmedia brand storytelling but they will not dictate the future or success of storytelling, that will always be up to the audience.

Authors’ Prediction 4. The Rise of Playfulness, Joy and Community Expression The future of successful transmedia brand storytelling rests with brands inspiring a sense of joy and playfulness with their audiences and/or encouraging participants in their brand communities to freely express themselves. Our research with creative practitioners has identified this as a key component of success. Present day technologies have provided even greater opportunities for a wide array of audiences to participate and contribute. Brands that focus on creating communities, promoting the space for open dialogue and inviting their target audiences to play are best positioned to reflect the rapidly evolving nature of the media landscape and audience behaviours. With transmedia storytelling predictions from the literature, practitioners and the authors projected and open for later scholarly discussion,

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the focus of this chapter shifts to propose a model for practice that encapsulates the research undertaken for this entire text.

Towards a Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice One of the key aims of the research undertaken for this book was to map the contemporary processes used to develop transmedia brand storytelling projects from their conception to post-execution evaluation. Analysis of in-depth interviews and survey data with creative practitioners and advertising, marketing, communication and public relations professionals provided an extensive insight into the stages and techniques used by the sample when designing and delivering transmedia storytelling campaigns and immersive experiences. While there was some variation between research participants, the authors have identified and synthesised the key themes present in the data collected for this study to visually represent the holistic process used to deliver transmedia storytelling projects as described by the practitioners in our sample. These stages are illustrated in Fig. 12.1 and the description following the model.

Problem Identification Our research indicated that a transmedia brand storytelling project is largely developed to solve a problem or challenge or to achieve a goal on behalf of the client. However, the identification and articulation of this problem, challenge and/or goal can occur in two different ways: • Client Brief Often, the beginning of the process begins with a clear brief whereby the client approaches an agency with a specific problem and invites the creative team to develop a pitch to help solve the challenge presented. An example of this can be found in Chapter 8 when SickKids approached No Fixed Address Inc. with the perception problem it had where current and prospective donors were unaware of the hospital’s outdated facilities.

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Fig. 12.1 A transmedia brand storytelling model for practice

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• Multidisciplinary Team Brainstorm However, a client may also be unclear about the specific problem or challenge to be overcome when providing their brief to an agency. In both cases, our research indicated that once the agency receives the client brief, a multidisciplinary team comes together from the beginning of the project to undertake brainstorming sessions to develop a client response. This process can often involve the identification and articulation of the problem or challenge to be solved if it is initially unclear. These brainstorming sessions include practitioners responsible for the strategy, creative, content, media planning and buying to ensure that all team members who will be involved in the project have a voice from the outset.

Research In-depth research is undertaken directly after the multidisciplinary team brainstorming process to further explore, investigate and uncover insights about the client’s organisation, the problem or challenge to be overcome as well as the prospective stakeholders and target audience the campaign is aiming to connect with.

Central Narrative Identification This research leads to one of the most integral parts of the transmedia brand storytelling development process, as identified by the majority of practitioners in our study. According to creative practitioners, the research conducted after the post-brainstorming stage enables the central narrative to be identified. However, this narrative identification encapsulates three core elements uncovered through the research stage: • Audience The specific target audience is defined as the group most likely to help solve the client’s problem and/or challenge. • Values The organisational values of the client must be inherent in the central narrative to ensure the transmedia brand storytelling is authentic to the client’s brand and what it stands for.

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• Culture The central narrative must align with the client’s organisational culture, but of greater significance, it must also align with the cultural climate in which it aims to exist outside of the organisation. It must seamlessly belong within the culture wherein its target audience lives each day.

Pitch Development With these core elements diagnosed, the multidisciplinary team then progresses a creative concept with a clear goal identified and presents it to the client to propose a transmedia brand storytelling solution to solve their problem or challenge.

Pitch to Client The transmedia brand storytelling concept is pitched to the client. The concept is either rejected or it moves onto the next stage of the process.

Initial Concept Approval If the client is happy with the transmedia brand storytelling concept, they usually provide feedback on what they deem to be its strengths and weaknesses regarding the pitch, but initially approve the concept under the proviso that amendments are made.

Concept Refinement Based on this feedback, the transmedia brand storytelling concept is refined in close collaboration with the client to hone the project. When client approval is achieved, the next phase is undertaken.

Deeper Audience Research The majority of practitioners in our study emphasised the importance of the extensive audience research that must be undertaken after the transmedia brand storytelling concept is confirmed and before any further

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campaign decisions are made. A project must be audience-centred to craft the content and brand experiences that will populate the brand storyworld. Once deep target audience insights have been identified, the next stage of transmedia brand storytelling development can be undertaken.

Platform Selection The majority of practitioners we interviewed agreed that platforms are selected after extensive audience research has been undertaken to ensure the correct combination is being used in the storyworld. Platforms must align with audience consumption habits to support maximum reach and engagement within the transmedia brand storyworld. Furthermore, platforms are defined as any channel or experience that engages with and generates a co-creation opportunity with the audience. These can range from social media to offline face-to-face events. Yet, there was an additional factor identified by our sample that also plays an instrumental role in the process of platform selection in addition to audience preferences, and that is budget. • Budget Allocation The budget allocated to the project or campaign can dictate the platforms that will be used. Some practitioners mentioned that often media spots are purchased 12 months in advance and this can impact the platforms that will be used (as they are committed to before the platform selection process) and limit the number of others being incorporated into the storyworld due to lack of funds. The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice has an arrow pointing in both directions between the Platform Selection stage (including Budget Allocation) and the Storyworld Structure stage (including Audience Co-Creation Tactics). This double arrow signifies how the selection of platforms and the budget allocated to the transmedia brand storytelling project can influence the development of the storyworld and audience co-creation tactics proposed, and vice versa.

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Storyworld Structure The practitioners in this study highlighted the structure of the storyworld is heavily dependent on the platforms that are selected, and the budget allocated which then dictates how the final combination of platforms will be used in terms of paid, earned and owned media, as well as the overall scale and reach of the storyworld. The storyworld consists of a planned structure of content and brand experiences that are either initiated by an anchor story or released episodically in a “chunking” schema (see Chapter 3). The combined goal of these tactics is to engage the audience and immerse them in an unfolding central narrative. However, transmedia brand storytelling is distinguished by the audience being a co-creator in the storyworld; hence, special attention should be placed on developing a particular form of transmedia brand storytelling content, audience co-creation tactics. • Audience Co-Creation Tactics Audience Co-Creation Tactics are reliant on factors such as audience research, the platforms selected (their functionality and accessibility), the budget allocated (in terms of funds that can be used to provide richer and more sophisticated audience co-creation opportunities) and the overall structure of the storyworld. For example, inviting the audience to share User-Generated Content with a campaign hashtag is a much simpler and more cost-effective co-creation tactic than developing an app to guide the audience through a storyworld such as in the Wander Geelong and the Bellarine case study in Chapter 9.

Testing and Refinement Once the structure has been developed and the audience co-creation tactics defined, the next stage involves exhaustive testing of the audience journey across the storyworld to identify any barriers. These obstacles could involve anything from confusing instructions to platform features

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not working. Similarly, proposed audience co-creation tactics may be too complicated or inaccessible inhibiting and deterring audience participation when tested in reality. The testing and refinement stage may repeat a number of cycles to ensure the storyworld and audience co-creation tactics are completely ready for the next phase of transmedia brand storytelling development.

Storyworld Execution With all of the other stages complete, the transmedia brand storyworld is ready for execution, but this does not end the refinement stage. As our Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice demonstrates, there is a double arrow between the Storyworld Execution stage and the final stage, Storyworld Evaluation. This double arrow symbolises the ways in which our interviewees explained their on-going monitoring and evaluation of the campaign while it was live to ensure it was on track to meet the client’s goals, to ensure the storyworld was functioning successfully and to oversee and participate in audience co-creation activities on behalf of the brand. Monitoring and evaluating the Storyworld Execution stage allowed practitioners to make tweaks, refinements and improvements on the fly to bring the campaign back on track if required until its conclusion.

Storyworld Evaluation The final stage of the transmedia brand storytelling development process is Storyworld Evaluation. While this is undertaken while the Storyworld is live, an overall evaluation, or post-mortem is conducted at the end of the campaign or project. Analysis of both the interview and survey data identified the following three metrics in order of importance when assessing the overall success of a transmedia brand storyworld. 1. Goals Practitioners identified the measurement of the overall goal of the project or campaign, identified at the beginning of the process, as the most important indicator of success. 2. Reach Interestingly, reach was identified by practitioners as the second most important success metric in a transmedia brand storytelling storyworld. The sample placed a strong emphasis on the number of

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“eyeballs” seeing their content, more so than than engagement in increasing awareness of their client’s brand and mission. This focus on reach is also aligned with Phillips’ Engagement Pyramid (2012, p. 104) mentioned in Chapter 7 where Phillips proposes that the majority of audiences are spectators in a Transmedia Storytelling Campaign more than active participants, therefore, it is important to include a range of experiences that are balanced between depth and scale. 3. Engagement Engagement was the final transmedia brand storytelling success indicator disclosed by practitioners. The consensus amongst practitioners was that once it is ascertained if the overall goal was achieved and the storyworld has reached a significant number of the target audience that is acceptable to the client, the engagement rate is then considered as an important metric to evaluate to determine if the storyworld, its content and the audience co-creation tactics were effective in generating participation and contribution by the brand community. The final stage of the transmedia brand storytelling Model for Practice is represented by the arrows from the Storyworld Evaluation stage to the very beginning of the process. This demonstrates a cyclical nature, as described within the practitioner interviews, whereby knowledge and experience gained throughout the process is drawn upon to inform the development and delivery of future transmedia brand storytelling projects. This Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice aims to accurately map the creative process from inception to implementation and evaluation based on the findings from the research undertaken for this book. While the process can be messy, non-linear and varied, the model encapsulates the common procedures as explained in the practitioner interviews. Yet, when considering the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice, it is important to remember that scalability is also a core feature of the paradigm, as highlighted by the practitioners in this study.

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Scalability Transmedia storytelling by its very nature is scalable as its logic relies on the expert telling of an unpredictable, emotive central story, being authentically audience-focused, and encouraging (and facilitating) cocreation with that audience. These activities can be achieved with modest budgets if the story is deeply compelling, the audience is genuinely understood and the barrier for audience co-creation is low and accessible, i.e. the reward is valuable enough for the audience to make the effort. While message repetition has been a central aspect of advertising practice since the early 1900s (Barry, & Howard, 1990), it is an approach with a limited future in a media landscape that empowers audiences. Transmedia brand storytelling allows a core brand position—in the form of a compelling narrative—to be communicated across channels to achieve the associations needed to encourage recall and loyalty. Audience reinforcement through co-creation, playful interaction and/or expression is the new “repetition” because they bolster brand appeal by rewarding the audience for their contribution, creating value in the process.

Conclusion This chapter examined future predictions of transmedia storytelling from the literature, interviews with practitioners and the authors’ analysis of primary and secondary data collected for this book. We have predicted transmedia brand storytelling will be greatly influenced by technological evolution, e.g. the Metaverse and AI, brands will increasingly produce long-form content, consumers will have greater control over their media and advertising consumption, greater authenticity will be required by brands, and their success will be dependent on how well they engage their communities in play and/or open discussions. Finally, it was predicted the homogenisation of social media platforms will impact brands trying to utilise platform features to differentiate their tactics. The authors then introduced a Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice that aimed to encapsulate the creative process from inception to execution and evaluation, while focusing on scalability as a core component of a Transmedia Brand Storytelling approach; a powerful story will always be scalable. While this is the conclusion of the final chapter, this is not the end of our book. The authors have concluded this project with an Epilogue

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following this chapter to provide an overall reflection, to identify our key findings, to discuss future research and to sign off to you more appropriately, our esteemed reader.

References Abba, T. (2009). Hybrid stories: Examining the future of transmedia narrative. Science Fiction Film and Television, 2(1), 59–75. Barry, T. E., & Howard, D. J. (1990). A review and critique of the hierarchy of effects in advertising. International Journal of advertising, 9(2), 121–135. Forristal, L. (2022). TikTok was the top app by worldwide downloads in Q1 2022. TechCrunch. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/26/ tiktok-was-the-top-app-by-worldwide-downloads-in-q1-2022/. Accessed 27 Nov 2022. Jenkins, H. (2016). Transmedia logics and locations. In The rise of transtexts (pp. 234–254). Routledge. Ludlow, P., & Wallace, M. (2007). The second life Herald: The virtual tabloid that witnessed the dawn of the metaverse. MIT Press. Moneta, A. N. D. R. E. A. (2020). Architecture, heritage and metaverse: New approaches and methods for the digital built environment. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 32(2), 37–49. Norrington, A., Pullinger, K., Goico, N. R., & Fitzpatrick, K. (2018). Afterword: The present and future of transmedia practices—A conversation. The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies, 473–480. Phillips, A. (2012). A creator’s guide to transmedia storytelling: How to captivate and engage audiences across multiple platforms. McGraw-Hill Education. Pixar in a Box. (2017). Pixar in a box: Introduction to storytelling. Khan Academy Labs. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rMnzN ZkIX0. Accessed 27 Nov 2022. Sánchez-Mesa, D., Aarseth, E. J., Pratten, R., & Scolari, C. A. (2016). Transmedia (Storytelling?): A polyphonic critical review. Artnodes: E-Journal on Art, Science and Technology, 2016(18). Scolari, C. (2019). Transmedia is dead. Long live transmedia! (or life, passion and the decline of a concept). LIS Letra. Imagen. Sonido. Ciudad Mediatizada, 20, 69–92. Thomas, D. (2021). Facebook changes its name to Meta in major rebrand. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59083601. Accessed 7 Nov 2022. Zeiser, A. (2015). Transmedia marketing: From film and TV to Games and Digital Media. Routledge.

Epilogue

We did not want to end this book without a proper sign off so we could weave together its various threads, and thank you for travelling with us on this transmedia brand storytelling journey. One of the most pressing questions we hoped to answer with this book is whether it is possible to bridge the gap between academic researchers and practitioners in this particular realm of brand communication. We have hoped to demonstrate the interconnection and dialogue that can occur between theory and practice. While our research confirmed that practitioners may not be commonly using terms from the scholarly literature, they are still applying the theory, albeit intuitively. Theory is still an important and useful component of transmedia brand storytelling because it helps to promote deeper thinking about practice. The use of intuition in that process should also be included as a valid component of the intersection between theory and practice. Conceptually, transmedia storytelling emerged to identify the creation of storyworlds or universes for entertainment products dating back to the early twentieth century (see Freeman, 2017). A reinforcement of the construct’s theoretical lineage reinforces the need for transmedia storytelling projects in brand communication contexts to be entertaining, for a powerful story always to come first in both fictional and non-fiction projects. Using the term storyworld is helpful in this sense, as are models that map out either anchor or chunking approaches (see Chapter 3) to © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1

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conceptualise and plan how an expansive brand story can unfold across platforms (Jenkins, 2011). The brand storytellers we spoke to discussed their creation of central narratives in descriptions of practice; however, the integration of narrative theory could have a more pronounced role in conceiving an emotionally resonant sense of transformation through the application of universal narratives (Booker, 2004; Campbell, 2008) and a defined story arc (Freytag, 1997 [1863]). Further, using Sutherland’s (2016) propinquital loop to guide and blend brand and audience activities and co-creation between online and offline environments offers a means of building strong brand relationships and communities. While it is possible practitioners are applying some of these models intuitively, one of the aims of this book is to emphasise knowledge touchstones, such as these, to shine a light on the benefits of a “practice meets theory” approach. This book is distinctive from previous approaches because we have explored the application of transmedia storytelling by brands in a holistic way. Other scholarly books and articles have focused on specific components of transmedia branding, such as prosumer engagement (du Plessis, 2019), self-brand connections (Grantiz & Forman, 2015), gamification (Costa-Sánchez, 2014) and “disruption” to achieve brand repositioning (Tenderich & Williams, 2015). However, our book has been dedicated to investigating transmedia storytelling for brands from practitioner perspectives then aligning these with theories on branding, storytelling, content creation, audience engagement and evaluation to identify synergies and gaps. We also used our research to provide a comprehensive map of the transmedia brand storytelling project development process. We thought it might be helpful to include in our final sign off a TLDR list of the key research findings and themes presented in this book with their corresponding chapters below in Table 1. Our research uncovered a wide range of findings relating to theoretical and practitioner approaches to transmedia storytelling. Additionally, our research has identified critical areas warranting further inquiry. Areas of future research into the model include further in-depth investigation into the audience journey and the specific triggers that inspire movement across the storyworld and, importantly, co-creation. We have examined this to a degree, but there is scope to delve much deeper. Understanding audience motivations to contribute to a brand’s story is more important now than ever. Audiences or brand communities now have greater

EPILOGUE

Table 1

275

Key themes and findings

Chapter 4: Practitioner Perceptions of Transmedia Brand Storytelling

Chapter 5: Planning and Creating Transmedia Brand Storytelling Projects

Chapter 6: Audience Participation and “Learning” Transmedia Storytelling

Chapter 7: Evaluating Transmedia Brand Storytelling

The term transmedia storytelling is not commonly used, but the approach is largely understood Transmedia Brand Storytelling has emerged because of changing audience behaviours Illustrating brand values is a core application of the strategy The model has emerged to engage audiences emotionally, “add value” and encourage participation Transmedia Brand Storytelling can be effective as both a brand and short-term campaign approach Platform selection is predominantly shaped by audience and budget first Social stories create and foster a sense of community Powerful Transmedia Brand Storytelling projects reflect cultural dynamics Participation builds from encouraging playfulness, joy and valuable experiences Co-creation emerges from understanding the audience and encouraging creativity Providing something of value within the storyworld and psychological rewards matter Simplicity and earned/shared content loops support co-creation tactics Practice is based on “gut feeling” and “osmosis” Ongoing learning occurs through trial and error, and reflection Complex storyworlds take time to craft and cohesively implement Evaluation is prioritised in terms of the overarching goal, reach and engagement An implied understanding of gamification evaluation models is apparent

(continued)

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Table 1

(continued)

Chapter 10: The Future of Transmedia Brand Storytelling and a Model for Practice

Emerging and experimental platforms will be readily applied Long-form content will proliferate on digital platforms The focus on communicating values and supporting social causes will grow Audience empowerment will further emphasise the importance of brand authenticity

access to channels and tools to facilitate co-creation. However, as we identified, the entire process of transmedia brand storytelling begins with a compelling narrative, experimentation and a client willing to bring audiences into the process of building their brand. We wrote at the beginning of this journey about how effective transmedia brand storytelling is fuelled by authentic playfulness and expression within a community. This process requires trust between the brand and its community. Brands that avoid tightly controlling the audience co-creation process, out of fear by rigidly dictating what the experience should be, are those that reap the rewards of transmedia brand storytelling in the form of a deep and perpetual sense of loyalty as the storyworld is expanded or new ones evolve. The trust they have earned from their communities will also assist when conversations delve into more socially delicate topics. Effective brand storytelling across platforms is the result of building the narrative and then handing it over to the audience to contribute to the story. The audience then passes it back for the brand to continue the conversation. It is this regular dialogic process of co-creation, and the movement between online and offline spaces (e.g. the propinquital loop) that builds a loyal and steadfast brand community amidst our ever increasingly unpredictable world. This is why the continued exploration of transmedia brand storytelling theory and practice is a beneficial undertaking for scholars and practitioners. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to the wider discussion. We’re also very grateful to you for coming along on this journey with us. And, as we wrote at the very beginning, we wish you happy travels, stimulating stories and compelling collaborations.

References

Booker, C. (2004). The seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. A&C Black. Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces (Vol. 17). New World Library. Costa-Sánchez, C. (2014). Transmedia storytelling, an ally of corporate communication: #Dropped by Heineken case study. Communication & Society, 27 (3), 127–150. du Plessis, C. (2019). Prosumer engagement through story-making in transmedia branding. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 175–192. Freeman, M. (2017). Historicising transmedia storytelling: Early twentiethcentury transmedia story worlds. Routledge. Freytag, G. (1997). Die Technik des Dramas. In H. Garland & M. Garland (Eds.), The Oxford companion to German literature (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press. Granitz, N., & Forman, H. (2015). Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 38–59. Jenkins, H. (2011, July 31). Transmedia 202: Further reflections. Pop Junctions. http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html Sutherland, K. E. (2016). Using propinquital loops to blend social media and offline spaces: A case study of the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge. Media International Australia, 160(1), 78–88. Tenderich, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Transmedia branding: Engage your audience. USC Annenberg Press.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1

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Index

A Audience research, 104, 193, 194, 205, 219, 265–267 Augmented Reality (AR), 181, 248–250, 253 Authenticity, 33, 40, 71, 89, 103, 105, 106, 110, 117, 250, 257, 259, 260, 270, 276 Awareness, 11, 27, 134, 138, 140, 144, 160, 167, 171, 225, 227, 229–231, 234, 236–239, 256, 269 B Brand communities, vii, viii, 50, 51, 116, 117, 261, 269, 274, 276 Brand health, 139, 140, 171 Brand loyalty, viii, 30, 78, 79 Brand values, 5, 21, 29, 44, 45, 50, 64, 66, 69, 70, 75, 78, 119, 238, 256, 275 Budget, 74, 75, 78, 83, 88, 176, 177, 191, 192, 256, 266, 267, 270, 275

C Central narrative, viii, 24, 41, 50, 85–88, 91, 93, 95, 97, 101, 118, 120, 227, 240, 264, 265, 267, 274 Co-creation, vi, vii, 3, 6, 7, 28, 29, 38, 46, 50, 54, 76, 94, 95, 100, 108, 117, 266–270, 274–276 Collaboration, viii, 21, 45, 48, 88, 91, 94, 95, 100, 113, 128, 129, 131, 180, 181, 192, 207, 217, 226, 240, 265, 276 Creativity, vii, 3, 6, 25, 32, 37, 41, 44–46, 48, 49, 53, 54, 57, 79, 94–96, 99–101, 103, 105, 110, 116, 119, 121, 192, 275 Culture, v, 5, 21, 25, 32, 33, 38, 45, 46, 53, 57, 78, 80, 86, 93, 96, 101, 163, 165, 231, 242, 258, 265 E Emotion, 3, 37, 39, 40, 56, 76, 215, 260

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. E. Sutherland and R. Barker, Transmedia Brand Storytelling, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4001-1

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280

INDEX

Engagement, v–vii, 7, 10, 11, 24, 25, 28–30, 33, 40, 44–47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 57, 69, 70, 75, 97–99, 103, 107–109, 117, 119, 125–132, 135–138, 140–147, 167, 171, 179, 185, 187, 188, 190, 193, 206, 209, 210, 212–215, 217, 219, 227, 229, 233, 234, 236, 238, 239, 249, 266, 269, 274, 275 Evaluation, 6–9, 12, 31, 75, 78, 122, 125–128, 131, 133, 134, 137, 139–146, 168, 171, 180, 190, 191, 200, 215, 216, 239, 247, 262, 268–270, 274, 275 Experimentation, 53, 87, 89, 218, 219, 276

G Gamification, 4, 30, 31, 118, 137, 143, 144, 146, 188, 213, 214, 218, 274, 275

I Implementation, 8–10, 12, 13, 28, 74, 80, 84, 89, 90, 157, 195, 200, 223, 269 Impressions, 138, 139, 167, 171, 216 Influencers, 8, 109, 110, 139, 154, 160, 161, 163, 165, 166, 205, 207, 260

K Key Performance Indicator (KPI), 134–136, 138, 140–142, 144, 146, 216

M Measurement, 6, 9, 125–128, 135–139, 141, 146, 171, 180, 190, 215, 216, 239, 268 Metaverse, 53, 100, 250–253, 270 N Narrative theory, 27, 33, 43, 78, 98, 112, 274 P Participation, vii, 6, 8, 9, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31–33, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 56, 67, 73, 76, 101, 103–110, 115–119, 121, 125, 128, 140, 141, 143, 144, 162, 166, 167, 171, 172, 180, 181, 186–188, 190, 193, 198, 203, 204, 207, 212–215, 218, 220, 236, 240, 241, 268, 269, 275 Personalisation, 53, 253 Planning, 4, 8, 40, 56, 66, 75, 81, 86, 88, 96, 100, 127, 156, 170, 181, 192, 194, 199–202, 211, 225, 226, 240, 242, 264, 275 Platforms, vi, 1, 3, 5–7, 10, 11, 13, 19–22, 24–26, 28, 32, 41, 47, 49, 53–57, 66–72, 74, 76, 79, 81, 87–92, 95–98, 100, 103, 104, 111, 116–119, 121, 129–131, 133, 135–137, 140–143, 145, 146, 158, 159, 161, 164, 167, 170, 171, 179, 182–186, 188, 193, 195, 201–203, 205, 206, 209–213, 216, 218, 223, 227–229, 231, 232, 234, 236, 237, 241, 248, 254, 255, 259–261, 266, 267, 270, 274–276 Product categories, 3, 5, 72, 81–83, 90–92, 99, 117

INDEX

Propinquital loop, 182, 186, 274, 276

R Reach, v, 8, 10, 19, 30, 33, 68, 72, 75, 77, 89, 91, 99, 110, 116, 140–142, 146, 158, 161, 164–167, 170, 171, 200, 202, 203, 205, 216, 219, 230, 231, 233, 234, 240, 241, 266–269, 275 Return on Investment (ROI), 134, 140–143, 146, 180

S Social cause, 93, 255, 276 Social media, 8, 9, 11, 33, 43, 51, 64, 88, 91, 93, 95, 103, 142, 154, 159–161, 163–166, 172, 185, 187, 188, 204, 206, 208–213, 218, 229, 233, 234, 236, 239, 240, 242, 257, 260, 261, 266, 270 Storyworld, v, 4, 5, 8–10, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 28–30, 40–44, 46, 48–52, 54–56, 76, 77, 79, 91, 96, 97, 101, 107, 118–121, 125–127, 129–132, 143, 144, 146, 147, 158, 164, 168, 170, 180–183, 186, 187, 201, 203, 205, 211, 216, 217, 220, 228,

281

229, 247, 248, 266–269, 273–276 Storyworld definitions, 76 Storyworld extensions, 45 Storyworld structure, 55, 98, 118, 266 T Transmedia brand storytelling benefits, viii, 70, 77 Transmedia brand storytelling challenges, 23, 31, 79, 137, 197, 262, 265 Transmedia brand storytelling definitions, 3, 12, 20–22 Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice, vii, 12, 120, 247, 263, 266, 268–270, 276 Transmedia brand storytelling predictions, 11, 247, 259, 270 Trust, 1, 26, 165, 203, 247, 257, 276 U User Generated Content (UGC), 103, 128, 129, 164–166, 188, 213, 214, 216, 267 V Virtual Reality (VR), 103, 248–250, 253