PLANNING FOR TRANSMEDIA

Griffin FarleyHamburg, Germany

APRIL 2012

WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY FROM TODAY

An understanding of who I am and where I work

How I define Transmedia Planning

2 Case Studies from the Entertainment Sector

An AXE Cross Media Case Study

An AXE Trans Media Case Study

A deeper understanding of choreographing the narrative of a campaign

WHO I AM AND WHERE I WORKSo you can decide if I am complete bullshit or not.

GRIFFIN FARLEY

Title: Strategy Director, Engagement Planning Lead

Work: Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York City

Twitter: @griffinfarley

Blog: propagationplanning.com

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BBH NORTH AMERICA CLIENTS

To understand who I am you need to understand where I work and what I work on. We typically get two types of fees from clients. One fee is to pay for the concepting and production of creative ideas that are reactive to business challenges. The other fee is to lead an inter-agency team that might include Public Relations, Experiential, Activation, Digital, Social, Hispanic, African American, Media, etc. To do transmedia planning you need the ability to impact multiple aspects of the campaign.

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2011 Most Awarded Digital Agency of the Year.

Time Magazine: Top TV ad for 2011.

2011 #1 Interactive Agency in the U.S.

2011 A-List.

2012 Webby’s Agency of the Year.

2012 Agency of the Year.

SOME RECENT ACCOLADES

We are excited and humbled that we have been recognized by our peers. For transmedia planning to thrive you also need to work inside an agency that values interactive and integrated marketing. Filming beautiful television spots isn’t enough.

WHAT IS TRANSMEDIA PLANNING?

WHY TRANSMEDIA?

Field Services

Account Planninginspire creative thinking (JWT, BMP)

Connection Planning inspire media thinking(Fallon, Chiat/Day)

Propagation Planning inspire WOM thinking (Naked)

Transmedia Planning inspire storytelling(MIT)

1965Pre-1964

1999

2006

2008

In 2009 Connection Planning had been around for more than 10 years. I was working for a mid-size agency in Tampa Bay and wanted to be on the cutting edge of the next theory in planning. I started digging for things and found one post on the Tokyo Naked Blog about Propagation Planning by Ivan Pollard. It was the only thing I could find on the idea and so I dedicated my time and energy to cultivate the theory and make it a true discipline.

WHAT IS TRANSMEDIA?

The definition of Transmedia is one of the biggest debates around Transmedia. Until that becomes agreed upon we are all stumbling through this theory together. So I turned to the founder of Transmedia: Henry Jenkins

HENRY JENKINS: THE GOD FATHER

http://youtu.be/bhGBfuyN5gg

I’m going to let Henry do the talking here.

HOW DO I SELL THIS IDEA TO MY CLIENT?(spoiler alert... it’s hard)

I’m going to role play a scene between me and a fictional client. I will play the role of the Strategist and my co-star, the Client will be the Screen behind me.

Transmedia planning is a communication model, derived from the ideas found in the book “Convergence Culture” that former MIT professor, now current Provost at USC, Henry Jenkins

coined.

THAT GUY SOUNDS SMART,

I’M LISTENING.

(voice of a fictional client)

In this model, there will be an evolving non-linear brand narrative.

I SAW THE SHOW ‘LOST’

IT WAS HARD TO FOLLOW

(voice of a fictional client)

Different channels will be used to communicate different, self-contained elements of the brand narrative that build to create a larger brand world.

WORLD BUILDING SOUNDS EXPENSIVE...

(voice of a fictional client)

Consumers then pull different parts of the story together themselves.

COPY TESTING SHOWS CONSUMERS HATE COMPLEX STORY LINES...

(voice of a fictional client)

Since there would be more elements to the narrative than any single person could consume, people come together to share elements of the narrative – driving word of mouth and creating

communities.

GIVE CONTROL TO CONSUMERS...

I’M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS

(voice of a fictional client)

END SCENE. You can see how easy it is to say no to Transmedia, but the clients that are saying yes are coming from the Entertainment sectors and what we have seen over the years is

that movie marketing has a way of changing how everyone does marketing over time.

ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR CASE STUDIES

DARK KNIGHT ARG

http://youtu.be/483Tb0NJ1T4

43 Entertainment

HBO TRUE BLOOD

http://vimeo.com/8268162Campfire NY

BUILDING BRAND WORLDS TOGETHER

The fan base has a role to help make the world big. You as the client don’t have to do everything but you need to embrace consumer interpretation of the idea. I think consumers can handle

more than a single core idea. In fact, I think we are in an age where increasingly consumers control the media they consume, and we can no longer simply interrupt, entertain for 30 seconds

and then sell them something, we have to offer them more than a core idea well told.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE REST OF US?

A ‘MATCHING LUGGAGE’ CAMPAIGN

Cross Media

OWNED

PAID

PAID PAID

PAIDPAID

OWNED PAID

What most clients do is reproduce the same idea in different ways to match the specs of different channels. This makes it easy to test, it makes it easy to manage the brand and the comms

because you know when it’s on campaign and off campaign.

AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnBHHcdHJQ

Agencies typically start with a strong TV spot and then extend that narrative idea into other media spaces. This is a great example of this model.

AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFuUFeQIdpk

Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.

AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY

http://youtu.be/3C7-v_R-r94

Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.

AXE ANGELS CASE STUDY

http://youtu.be/uc5yTo4viwQ

Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.

MEDIA NEUTRAL PLANNING

Take the same narrative and plug it into every media space available. This is cross-media, not transmedia.

‘MATCHING LUGGAGE’ CAMPAIGN REMINDER

Cross Media

OWNED

PAID

PAID PAID

PAIDPAID

OWNED PAID

HOW IS TRANSMEDIA DIFFERENT

TransMedia

PAID

PAID

PAID OWNED

UGCUGC

UGC OWNED

Building complexity into a range of communications, using channels to cultivate different ideas that build into a larger brand world, rather than reproducing the same idea in different ways. For

me its about building a world of references and images, held together by a value system and a narrative, communicating it in ways that respects that content and the fluidity of channels.

AXE ANARCHY: TEASER AD

Teaser Ad was seeded with Bloggers. We have a more simple narrative to set up what is to come.

AXE ANARCHY: HERO SPOT

This ad was released in Cinema and television. We have a new epic narrative here that shows the sheer extent of this proposition.

AXE ANARCHY: ACTIVATION

Razorfish introduced new characters allowing real people to be written into the ongoing narrative. This was a better and richer storyline for digital and mobile.

AXE ANARCHY: ACTIVATION

The Facebook App and YouTube Brand Page became portals into the story. As you engaged with the story you had a chance to be written into the final one.

HOW THIS GETS CLOSER TO TRANSMEDIA

1. Teaser Campaign around Cops and Robbers

2. Girls and Guys with the power of AXE create Anarchy

3. Comic book narrative where consumers co-create the world

However, it’s not so complex that they needed a community.This is an entry into transmedia but it didn’t fully embrace it.

EMBRACE COMPLEXITY

There is a book by Steven Johnson that explains How Today’s Popular Culture is actually making us Smarter. This was published in 2005, it is based upon Johnson’s theory that popular

culture - in particular television shows and video games - have grown more complex and demanding over time and is improving the society within terms of intelligence and idea. He argues

that the structure of video games uniquely invite exploration and stimulates the reward centers of the brain. He asserts that television is a “brilliant medium” for determining how skilled people

are at understanding interpersonal connections, and that reality shows realistically display the complexity of “social network maps” in human relations, where a group of people have complex

and intertwined engagement.

HOW TO START?

To sell an ad,you need a story

To sell a campaign,you need acharacter

To take advantage ofeverything todays medialandscape has to offer

you need a world

HOW TRANSMEDIA STORIES SPREAD?

KNOW HOW TO START A MOVEMENT

The basis for Propagation Planning

The best way to kick this off is with a TED talk about “how to start a movement.” They quickly frame up many key principles of Propagation Planning. So how do you do Propagation Planning, you start a movement. You act like a lone nut (why do you think viral videos go viral?) or you find a lone nut (Bloggers, Gamers, Fanboys) and work with them to tell your story.

Awareness Funnel(Paid Media)

Propagation Megaphone(Earned Media)

MARKETING MODELS OF PROPAGATION

Before I explain the Propagation models you need to know how media is typically viewed. Media agencies cast a wide net with lots of waste and trickle down to those that will consider and purchase your product. This is typically called the Awareness Funnel. What we want to do is introduce a new shape into your media planning, this is the Propagation Megaphone. This starts small and grows big over time.

Early Majority >

Early Adopters >

Innovators >

< Late Majority

< Laggards

TIME AND SALES

BROADCASTMEDIA

(Most creative targets the mass majority)

ADOPTION CURVE WITHOUT PROPAGATION

In this model the Innovators and Early Adopters don’t have a chance to break the news. They see communications the same time the majority can see them, which makes it less cool to talk about because it’s not special or exclusive. Plus this creative has been copy tested against the majority. It has been watered down to be liked and revered by the greatest amount of people possible. If you were a Blogger or a Journalist you would want to break the story, you wouldn’t want to just add your POV to it.

Early Majority >

Early Adopters >

Innovators >

< Late Majority

< Laggards

BROADCASTMEDIA

PROPAGATIONSTIMULUS

TIME AND SALES

(This creative targets the influencers)

ADOPTION CURVE WITH PROPAGATION

So... what if we targeted influencers? This creative wouldn’t look like the creative we put into Broadcast Media, that’s too safe. This creative needs to be raw, perhaps unfinished so the influencers have a chance to affect and shape the creative. Perhaps they have a chance to become part of the story themselves? Perhaps they have a chance to invite their followers to become a part of the story? This happens a lot in good Movie campaigns.

Early Majority >

Early Adopters >

Innovators >

< Late Majority

< Laggards

BROADCASTMEDIA

PROPAGATIONSTIMULUS

TIME AND SALES

ADOPTION CURVE WITH TRANSMEDIA

(This creative targets the influencers)

Now that we layer Transmedia onto the Propagation Model you see multiple strands of activity that all have a chance to go big. The brand made a call to start the movement but now the community has added their own interpretation to the narrative.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR US?

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PLANNERS

Understand the relationship between creative and media

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR STORYTELLING?

Think about the myth that is the brand you are charged with building. Find the brand’s point of view, create the brand’s world. Don’t treat consumers like idiots. John talks about expected

endings. If we can predict the ending from the first chapter of the book it isn’t going to be an interesting read.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

Can we create a Brand World?

What are the mythology, challenges, rewards in this world?

Who are the heroes and the villains?