MULTI-PLATFORM STORYTELLING:

4 levers, 4 use cases.

Presented by: Gunther Sonnenfeld 4.29.2011

simulation

projectTRUST

OBJECTIVE(s):

- understand what trust really means across industries by seeking out emerging stories

through topics & themes in videos & conversation; use current events as

‘metafilters’

- identify behavioral, media consumption and socio-economic patterns through content communities; draw out new

correlations & insights

- use insights to weave together a new narrative, with various extended threads &

user profiles

- serve up an experience (such as a game) that uses select media to simulate the dimensions of trust using real-world

situations as context; can be used for brands, communities or both.

ARCHAEOLOGY FOR KEY THEMES:

PROPAGANDAFAITH VS. TRUST

RECIPROCITYTRUST & MONEY

RESPECT VS. AUTHORITYTRUST & SCIENCE

STARTHERE.

persona

OBJECTIVE(s):

- use Algren estate assets & feature documentary to tell a ‘metastory’ around

artistic influence; allow the narrative (chapters & verse) to dictate channels &

reinvigorate personas

- leverage celebrity artists (writers, photogs, musicians, directors, etc.) to tell their own renditions of the relationship to

Algren, using select, immersive media

- invite people to participate in unique extended narratives found in games,

eBooks, webisodes, etc.; blend fiction & non-fictional elements (& characters) in a

new, dynamic storyworld

- develop a ‘franchise’ around these coordinated media & co-created assets

Algren Early Trailer Cut

extraction

OBJECTIVE(s):

- resurrect lagging sales from the first game (“Red Dead Revolver”) with an entirely new

strategic approach; leverage the strength of the writing & central characters

- audit game components and extract current marketing assets; rebuild the John

Marsten anti-hero archetype into a new storyworld with its own mythology; align first

with Hollywood icons from the Wild West

- use different media types - billboards, street pop-ups, hyperlinks, graphic novels,

rich media, etc. - as critical entrypoints into the storyworld; elicit curiosity, advocacy &

participation

- create added cultural relevance by aligning emerging themes to cause-related

components or modern history

Red Dead Redemption Official Trailer

(outdoor media depicting Bronson-esque showdown)

(rich media depicting Dali-esque trainwreck)

(graphic novels told as prequels)

(serializations told with modern history; Polish Solidarity)

context

OBJECTIVE(s): - create a game-like experience in which

search queries are driven by topical or sentimental affinities

- conversation pieces emerge as ‘fractals’, or clusters of reorganized information; those

are matched to different media types

- the fractal/media match-ups recontextualize the topics & sentiments &

reveal new content communities

- users are then given free online tools with which they can remix content as they please

& they can syndicate it to their interest graphs (social networks)

TAKEAWAYS:

stories are everywhere; we have unlimited opportunities to curate and contextualize them

at scale... for profit... or not.

the most success is found at the intersection of media, technology and culture; we should

liberate channels and methods, not be confined by them.

anything is commercially possible provided that we use storytelling as a means for better understanding the human condition, not just to

push messages or media agendas.

marketing or branding is not the same thing as storytelling, but it can be; be unreasonable in the quest to tell that better story - it is the only way you can earn meaning, relevance &

scale.

thank you