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Principles of transmedia branding

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PRINCIPLES OF TRANSMEDIA BRANDING

by

Jerried C. Williams

_________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS)

December 2013

Copyright 2013 Jerried C. Williams

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial framework for design elements and
design principles of transmedia branding. It aims to provide an overview that will facilitate
ongoing conversation on the topic and an in-depth discussion of each element and principle.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………….4
TRANSMEDIA CONCEPT…………………………………………………………………….7
TRANSMEDIA BRANDING………………………………………………………………….18
INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES………………………………………………………………….29
NATURALS VS. CROSSOVERS……………………………………………………………..54
SUGGESTED FRAMEWORK………………………………………………………………..55
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………57
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………58

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INTRODUCTION
On August 16, 2012, Intel, in partnership with Toshiba, released the first episode of The
Beauty Inside, an interactive social film directed by Sundance Award winning director Drake
Doremus. Topher Grace of That ‘70s Show, Spider-Man 3 and Valentine’s Day starred in the
film along side Mary Elizabeth Winstead of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter (IntelPR).
The Beauty Inside is about a man in his twenties named Alex who wakes up every day
with a new face and body. Although he takes a new form externally as he morphs into a new
person, he remains the same person on the inside. The film chronicles Alex’s daily life
challenges including where he will work, unique circumstances that arise out of his condition,
and romantic relationships. He uses a Toshiba Protégé to journal his fascinating life and
document his ever-changing appearance. The Ultrabook serves a crucial role in the film as the
one constant in Alex’s life, the one thing he can rely on.
The global film encouraged viewers to interact with the main character over social
media—Facebook and YouTube. They were also invited to audition for a role as the main
character, Alex. The nature of Alex’s condition meant that anyone, male or female, could play
the role. Fan submitted pictures could end up on Alex’s Facebook timeline or in a filmed episode
on Alex’s Ultrabook.
Doremus oversaw casting and would contact viewers if they were chosen to appear in the
film. If their performance needed work, he would help re-record the video. By the end of the
film, over 100 unique faces were used for Alex’s 24 video diaries on YouTube and in the 6
episodes of the film sourced from a global audience.

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The Beauty Inside was created to get people thinking about a product they can’t see, the
Intel processor that powers the Toshiba Protégé. This has been one of Intel’s greatest challenges.
Intel has cycled through various strategies to overcome this challenge. They began with selling
the functionality of the product, which became very technical and stodgy. The next strategy was
to brand the microprocessor as the Intel Pentium Processor to convey its value. This transformed
into a strategy focused on the empowerment to be had from utilizing products powered by Intel
through celebrity endorsements and partnerships. As of late, they have realized that the current
market requires “something” more engaging to grasp their attention.
This “something” is an evolved method of cross-channel communication, referred to by
academia as transmedia branding. The Beauty Inside campaign is a prime example of the
application of transmedia branding. It is important to note that the minds behind The Beauty
Inside did not set out to create a transmedia branding campaign. They were merely attempting to
solve a common problem, garnering attention, with an innovative solution. At the moment, this is
the case with most organizations. Industry is leading the charge in the use of this new strategy
and academia is reverse engineering campaigns within the market to craft a methodology.
Academia defines, transmedia branding, as a system for packaging a brand into a
narrative, which communicates mostly across participatory channels, with the story and the
media content morphing and developing as consumers and others enter the discussion.
Transmedia branding is a derivative of transmedia storytelling, a process where integral elements
of a story are dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels to create a unified and
coordinated experience with each medium making its own unique contribution to the unfolding
of the story.

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We are in a period of profound and ongoing media transformation that is continually
rewriting the rules brand and communication strategy. Doc Searls in The Cluetrain Manifesto
distilled the core problem into one sentence: “There is no market for your messages.” Instead, he
argues, “markets are conversations.” These concepts are at the core of transmedia branding;
rather than bombarding target audiences with unwanted and redundant brand messages, brands
engage audiences in compelling conversations, across many different channels, in a way that
consumers are encouraged to participate, interact, create and share.
This thesis examines transmedia branding as it relates to transmedia storytelling and how
its concepts are knowingly and unknowingly being utilized within industry campaigns. It
examines the birth of transmedia and it’s maturation into its current manifestation in order to
provide a foundation of current trends. This is followed by an analysis of the principles of
transmedia storytelling as outlined by the industry thought-leader, Henry Jenkins, as discussed
within his book Convergence Culture and his article Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: Seven
Principles of Transmedia Storytelling. Next, is an exploration of transmedia branding principles
as outlined in an article created by Jenkins in conjunction with University of Southern California
(USC) professor Burghardt Tenderich titled Design Elements of Transmedia Branding. These
purported elements are then examined through the lens of industry campaigns. From here, a
framework is proposed to assist organizations in the development of transmedia branding
campaigns.

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TRANSMEDIA CONCEPT
Former USC professor Marsha Kinder coined the term transmedia in 1991. She stated
that brands such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are “commercial transmedia supersystems.”
The basic premise of the brand is that there are four turtles trained in ninjitsu named after
Renaissance artists that have been transformed into protectors of humanity after coming into
contact with a mysterious substance. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was first developed as a
comic book series. Its success led to the licensing of the characters for toys, cartoons, video
games, film and other merchandise. As a result, the brand reached international acclaim. Kinder
speaks to this within first-generational transmedia terms:
In these expanding networks of synergy, connectivity, collectability, restructuring,
new world orders (and other postmodernist buzzwords), children, corporations,
and countries are learning that transmedia intertextuatlity is a powerful strategy
for survival. What I found was a fairly consistent form of transmedia
intertextuality, which positions young spectators (1) to recognize, distinguish, and
combine different popular genres and their respective iconography that cut across
movies, television, comic books, commercials, video games, and toys (38).
Former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab professor and current
USC Annenberg professor Henry Jenkins further developed the concept of transmedia, which
evolved into transmedia storytelling. In Transmedia 202: Further Reflections, Jenkins defines
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

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to the unfolding of the story.” Jenkins expands upon the concept with greater detail in the
following from Convergence Culture statement:
In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best-
so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels,
and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an
amusement park attraction. Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained so you
don't need to have seen the film to enjoy the game, and vice versa. Any given
product is a point of entry into the franchise as a whole. Reading across the media
sustains a depth of experience that motivates more consumption. Redundancy
burns up fan interest and causes franchises to fail. Offering new levels of insight
and experience refreshes the franchise and sustains consumer loyalty
(Convergence Culture, 96).
To date, Hollywood has been the most avid proponent transmedia storytelling, utilizing
the concept to build, launch and sustain successful entertainment franchises. Two key examples
used within Jenkins’ Convergence Culture that will be soon be explored are The Matrix and The
Blair Witch Project.
PRINCIPLES
In a series of two blog posts titled, The Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: Seven
Principles of Transmedia Storytelling, Jenkins outlines the principles of transmedia storytelling
as follows: spreadability, drillability, immersion, extraction, worldbuilding, seriality, continuity,
subjectivity, multiplicity, and performance. Although each principle supports the definition of
transmedia storytelling, all principles do not have to be present to be considered a transmedia
story under the current definition.

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Spreadability
The term spreadability refers to the movement of ideas across the current media
landscape. It relies on the collaboration of formal and informal advocates motivated for various
and often different reasons for distribution. Spreadability increases the awareness of content by
penetrating fringe audiences through sharing and acquiring social proof in the process through
recommendations over social networks. Content suited for being “spread” inherently contains
components that “make people care.” According to Jenkins, “This motivating factor builds fans,
enthusiasts and advocates. Spreadable media encourages horizontal ripples, accumulating
eyeballs without necessarily encouraging more long-term engagement.”
Drillability
The term “drillability” refers to the extent that narratives encourage fans to seek
additional content by allowing them to dig deeper into a storyline, gain a better understanding of
what is involved, and as a result have richer experiences. Drillable content is suited for
subgroups of the target audience that are more connected to the narrative and, therefore, more
invested. The different extensions of a narrative crafted for drillability allows fans to interact
with the story on a much more personal level—enabling them to engage with the content that
interests them the most and avoiding content incongruent with their interests. This offers fans a
customized brand experience. Jason Mittell, author of “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary
Television” states that drillable media encourages “a mode of forensic fandom that invites
viewers to dig deeper, probing beneath the surface to understand the complexity of a story and its
telling. Such programs create magnets for engagement, drawing viewers into the story worlds
and urging them to drill down to discover more.”

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Continuity
The term continuity refers to the ongoing telling of a narrative that does not conflict with
the core elements of a story. Extensions remain true to the original story by maintaining a
connection to the original narrative. Jenkins refers to the inclusion of continuity as maintaining
an ongoing coherence.
Multiplicity
Multiplicity refers to the retelling of the original narrative in a manner that allows fans to
view the story from a new perspective. It gives fans the opportunity to discover their own
meaning to the alternative storyworlds. Fans with a deep knowledge of the original content will
be rewarded with a better understanding of alternation versions, as well as the original. This can
be seen in comic books where after some time a series is scrapped and rehashed from scratch. A
perfect example of multiplicity within a comic-book series would be the newest rendition of
Marvel’s Spider-Man where Peter Parker is now portrayed as a teenager of African-American
and Hispanic descent. This alteration allows the creators to take the Spider-Man storyline and
secondary characters into directions vastly different from the original series. This gives new
meaning to the original series by giving it something to be compared with, as well as, giving fans
a fresh perspective on the underlying message and values of Spider-Man.
Immersion
Immersion refers to the ability of fans to enter the fictional storyworld through real world
experiences. Jenkins quotes animator Hayao Miyazki to explain the concept, “just as people
wished to make pictures move, they wished to look inside a different world. They yearned to

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enter a story or travel to a faraway land.” An example would be experiencing the world of
Mickey Mouse at Disney Land or Harry Potter at Universal Studios’ theme park. These real
world creations serve as alternate consumer entries to the storyworld.
Extractability
The term extractability refers to the ability of fans to interact with elements of the story
through artifacts or relics, which have meaning as, conveyed by the narrative. These relics can be
gift shop items, set props, costume replicas, or even miniature figurines of characters.
Extractability enables fans to bring the fictional world to life by attaching meaning to objects that
play a role in their lives. These fictional items are brought into the real world and become apart
of the fans’ real life.
Worldbuilding
The term worldbuilding refers to the creation of story extensions that allows fans to
experience the narrative in a way that provides richer understanding and connections with source
material. Extensions may not be central to the core narrative. Worldbuilding is similar to
immersion and extractability in providing real world connections to the fictional world but the
purpose of worldbuilding is to offer value in the form of insights into logic, practices and
institutions.
Seriality
The term seriality refers to the partitioning of a story into multiple installments with each
installment building towards a climax that draws from every other installment. Each installment
contains its own climatic event that segways into the next installment. The final installment
draws from previous installments to create the final climax. Seriality may occur in linear and

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non-linear formats.
Subjectivity
The term subjectivity refers to the ability of fans to explore the fictional world from a
new perspective—taking the viewpoint of secondary characters or third parties. Extensions into
subjectivity may give insights into character back-stories, convey the future of the storyworld or
convey the past and how events of today came to fruition. Fans have the option of comparing
multiple subjective experiences of the same fictional events.
Performance
Performance is the ability and motivation behind the creation of fan-made material that
warrants or rejects the approval of the original content creator. In Convergence Culture, Jenkins
discusses the phenomenon of “cultural activators”—who draw together a community of people
around a common interest and give them some to do.
PRINCIPLES APPLIED
To date, Hollywood has been the most avid proponent of transmedia storytelling,
utilizing the concept to build, launch and sustain successful entertainment franchises. Jenkins
makes reference to two entertainment blockbusters—The Blair Witch Project and The Matrix—
to illustrate Hollywood’s use of transmedia storytelling.
Blair Witch Project
In 1999, the Blair Witch Project, a low budget psychological horror film, became the
premiere example of a transmedia storytelling. The independent American film, directed by
Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, was released to theaters on July 30, 1999. More than a year

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before the release, The Blair Witch Project had created a fan following on the internet
(Convergence Culture, 101). Initial fans of the film discovered it through a website that detailed
information about the Burkittsville witch and the disappearance of the film crew—the central
plot of the movie. Visitors to the website were supplied with “documentation of numerous witch
sightings over the past centuries, most of which are not directly referenced in the film but form
the backdrop for its action. A pseudodocumentary investigating the witch aired on the Sci Fi
Channel, with little to set it apart from the many other documentaries about supernatural
phenomena the network real in every detail” (Convergence Culture, 102).
The film was a huge success leaving audiences and critics scathing to understand how it
was done. The Blair Witch Project grossed $1,512,054 (USA) opening weekend and
$248,639,099 (worldwide) on an estimated budget of $60,000 according to IMDB. One of the
crucial elements that made the film a blockbuster was the dedication to the realism within the
Blair Witch mythology; even the soundtrack of the film was linked to the storyline as a cassette
tape found in the abandoned car. Film producer Daniel Myrik stated, “We tried to create a fake
legend, complete with multiple points of view, skeptics, and unexplainable mysteries. Nothing
about the legend could be provable, and everything had to seem like it could have a logical
explanation” (Convergence Culture, 102). Even after the films release the blurring of fantasy and
reality was sustained with the release of several comic books by Oni Press claiming to be based
on the accounts of another person who had met the witch while walking in the woods near
Burkittsville. Jenkins states, “All of these elements made the world of the film more convincing,
enhancing the immediacy the Haxans, as the film's creative team called themselves, had achieved
through their distinctive handheld-video style and improvisational acting (Convergence Culture,
102).

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Although, The Blair Witch Project was one of the early forms of transmedia storytelling,
it utilized many of the principles outlined by Jenkins. The website, documentary and comics
expanded the mythology through worldbuilding enabling fans to drill deeper and enhance their
understanding from multiple perspective in a subjective manner. The website, in particular,
allowed for the most spreadability by living on a digital platform and offering value to the
audience that they would be prone to sharing. The comics exuded elements of seriality and
continuity—they chunked the story into smaller partitions and continued the cannon of the film.
The Matrix
The first film of the science fiction action trilogy, The Matrix (1999), was released to
theaters March 31, 1999. In the film, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, “a
computer hacker learns about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its
controllers. Subdued in its initial use of transmedia storytelling, “the prerelease advertising for
the first film tantalized consumers with the question, ‘What is the Matrix?’ sending them to the
Web in search of answers” (Convergence Culture, 94). To coincide with the premiere, a short
story projecting the saga years ahead of the trilogy timeline was released onto the official
website. The following day, four new stories were added to the site.
The franchise continued to update the official website with web comics which added
substantial back-story to the first film. On March 21, 2003, the anime short Final Flight of the
Osiris was shown in theaters with the film Dreamcatcher—also distributed by Warner Bros. The
sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, was released on May 15, 2003 and begins assuming the audience
has a firm understanding of the trilogy’s mythology. To coincide with the premiere, the Enter the
Matrix video game was released which roughly follows the film’s storyline with divergent
storylines that are not fully explored in the film.

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The Animatrix, a collection of anime shorts providing more in depth back-story, was
released in a DVD set on June 3, 2003. The final film of the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions,
premiered on November 5, 2003. The web comics printed on the series’ official website from
1999 to 2004 and were published in two printed volumes in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Two
years later, The Matrix Online, an MMORPG online game, launched in 2005.
According to Jenkins, “The Wachowski brothers played the transmedia game very well,
putting out the original film first to stimulate interest, offering up a few Web comics to sustain
the hard-core fan's hunger for more information, launching the anime in anticipation of the
second film, releasing the computer game alongside it to surf the publicity, bringing the whole
cycle to a conclusion with The Matrix Revolutions, and then turning the whole mythology over to
the players of the massively multiplayer online game. Each step along the way built on what has
come before, while offering new points of entry” (Convergence Culture, 95).
For the consumer who has played the video game, watched the anime shorts or read the
comics their perspective and experience when viewing the film will be drastically different then
someone who just watches the film. For example, in the anime short Final Flight of the Osiris
plot follows the protagonist, Jue, as she sacrifices her life attempting to deliver a message to the
Nebuchadnezzar crew (2003). Jue manages to drop the letter into a mailbox at the end of the
short. The first mission in Enter the Matrix, is to retrieve the letter from the post office. In the
opening scenes of The Matrix Reloaded the topic of discussion is the "last transmissions of the
Osiris." Viewers of only the movie will miss much of these details but for those who have
engaged fully in the franchise across media platforms, their understanding and appreciation for
the situation will be greater.

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The solid execution of transmedia storytelling strategies has made The Matrix franchise a
tremendous success. The Matrix Reloaded brought $134 million in its first four days, breaking all
box office records for R-rated films. Enter the Matrix sold more than a million copies in its first
week. In all, the trilogy made over $1.6 billion in box office revenue with a total budget of $363
million.
The Matrix trilogy was a transmedia storytelling project from inception, utilizing a
majority of the principles outlined by Jenkins. The short stories, anime, comics, online and
offline video games provided drillability enabling the audience to take different methods of
discovery as a result of the worldbuilding that took place within the various media channels.
Spreadability was most evident in the short stories, comics and online games. The trilogy itself
was a form of seriality. Every element of the transmedia extensions stayed true to the original
mythology of the films providing continuity. The comics, anime and videogames worked
together to offer fans subjectivity. Although, immersion is often attributed to real world
experiences it can be applied virtually as well. In this case, the online and offline video games
allowed fans to live and explore the storyworld albeit a virtual one.
The tremendous success of The Blair Witch Project and The Matrix franchise are
evidence that “transmedia isn’t just good art, it’s good business, too” (One Year In Transmedia,
35). When asked about the future of transmedia storytelling, Andrea Phillips author of
Transmedia Storytelling has stated that she foresees “the rise of more tightly integrated Star
Wars-style transmedia franchises -- stories where something seeded in one platform has a payoff
in another. Stories where each medium plays out a different subplot, and sheds new light on the
whole. So far we've seen a lot of sequential franchising, but I think the guys with the big bucks
are going to see the value in intertwining the stories so that each subsequent piece drives traffic

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to everything that's gone before” (Phillips, 35). She goes on to say, “Borders are fading, genres
are fading, rules are changing. Transmedia gives you the opportunity to face the challenge of
audience fragmentation, creating content that can please many. I believe in transmedia applied to
non-fiction projects” (Phillips, 46).
Transmedia as practiced by Hollywood is designed in such a way that any given
extension can function as a point of entry into the series and so that only the mothership is
essential to the experience, but that does not mean that there is not considerable thought put into
the timing with which different extensions are introduced into the franchise.

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TRANSMEDIA BRANDING
As the principles outlined by Jenkins illustrate, there are many moving parts to
transmedia storytelling. Thus far, Hollywood has been an early adopter of transmedia concepts to
develop entertainment franchises as well as independent and public media productions. The
public relations, advertising and marketing industry are beginning to follow a similar path that
academia refers to as transmedia branding—a system for packaging a brand into an integrated
narrative where each unique contribution is dispersed across multiple media channels, most of
which are participatory, for the purpose of creating an interactive and engaging brand experience
with the story and media content morphing and developing as consumers and others enter the
conversation.
USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL) made significant gains in the understanding of
transmedia branding ideation at a workshop held at the lab led by Jenkins and Tenderich in
December of 2012. The workshop rallied professionals and experts in various fields including
marketing, advertising, public relations, transmedia and new media to discuss the methodology
of transmedia branding. From the findings of the workshop, Burghardt and Jenkins outlined the
basic framework of transmedia branding in a white paper, Elements of Transmedia Branding.
According to the whitepaper, transmedia branding contains three critical components:
brands, narratives, and participation.
BRANDS
The most basic component of transmedia branding is the brand—an abstract idea used to
differentiate products, whether that product takes the form of a consumer good, personality,
company or idea. It is the collection of perceptions held by all those that are aware of the product
and the meaning derived from those perspectives. Award-winning brand strategy consulting firm

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Innovation Protocol defines branding as “exactly why an audience should trust and remember
your advertising, marketing and public relations. It answers the questions of who you are, why
you matter, what makes you different, what you stand for and why an audience should never
forget why they believe in you.” For brands, these beliefs in the form of messaging and the
emotional value proposition must be consistent and authentic to leave lasting impressions on the
public. From this core structure grows the brand mythology.
All great brands are built on this one principle—why should I care? David Ogilvy, known
as the father of advertising, said “It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get
them to buy . . . You can do your homework from now until doomsday, but you will never win
fame and fortune unless you also invent big ideas.” Ogilvy’s perspective is that of a top-down
model of brand creation through advertising where consumers are told what to believe in a one-
sided conversation.
In a 2013 USC lecture, Faris Yakob described brands as being “socially created ideas.”
Yakob’s notion of the brand stems from the cultural relationship that consumers have with a
product and the collective beliefs that impact how people interact with your product and brand.
In reference to brands he stated, “There are more people talking about you than you could ever
talk about yourself.” Yakob’s model is based on a relationship between the consumer and brand
that allows for two-way communication and collaboration.
Zappos is in the business of delivering happiness. Pampers does not just sell diapers; it
cares for the happy, healthy development of babies around the world. IBM's purpose is to make a
smarter planet. Google exists to organize and give access to the information of the world, and
Discovery Channel's ideal is to satisfy curiosity.

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Brands are a solution to a saturated marketplace and a consumer over stimulated with
advertising. Joseph Jaffe, author of Flip the Funnel, says “Getting people to care these days is
like climbing Mount Everest. People today are skeptical, jaded, cynical and wary.” To Jaffe’s
point, brands are only effective if they succeed in getting people to care. This is a consistent
theme throughout the transmedia.
Seth Godin, American entrepreneur, author and public speaker says, “A brand is the set
of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a
consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s
a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the
word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.” Godin views brands as abstract concepts
with tangible ties to the bottom-line.
According to Building Strong Brands by Kevin Lane Keller, brands create value for
organizations in a multitude of ways:
 Improved perceptions of product performance
 Greater customer loyalty
 Less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions and marketing crises
 Larger margins
 More elastic customer response to price decreases
 More inelastic customer response to price increases
 Greater trade or intermediary cooperation and support
 Increased marketing communication effectiveness
 Additional licensing and brand extension opportunities

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Interbrand is a global branding consultancy that ranks the world’s top 100 most valuable
brands each year. For 2012, Coca-Cola topped the list with the highest brand valuation of $77.8
billion (8% increase), followed by Apple at $76.5 billion (129% increase) and IBM at $75.5
billion (8% increase). Pepsi only managed to make it to the 22
nd
spot on the list had a brand
valuation of $16.5 billion (14% increase). However, Pepsi’s brand value increased 14% while
Coca-Cola’s increased only 8% (Interbrand).
Pepsi owes its increase in brand valuation to a shift in strategy that looks very much like
transmedia. Interbrand describes the shift into a global market with a message that can be
dispersed in different formats on a variety of channels, all intended to reach a youthful audience.
In their 100 Most Valuable Brands report, Interbrand states:
The brand developed its first global positioning, “Capture the excitement of now,”
which casts Pepsi as a youthful, fun alternative to Coca-Cola and inspires Pepsi
lovers to live each moment to the fullest. Its first global campaign, “Live for
Now,” meshes well with ongoing consumer promotions relating to music and its
US partnership with the NFL. Alongside this, Pepsi has revamped its entire digital
experience, PepsiPulse, to focus on user-generated content and direct connections
with consumers.

To successfully implement branding strategies, it is critical for organizations to
understand the desires and behavioral processes of their audience. There must be an inherent
flexibility to content and engagement strategies because of the uncertainty involved in not having
control over messaging once it is released. Generally, this is the case but it is even more
important in transmedia branding.

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Strategist and creative director Faris Yakob suggests that industry take the perspective
that brands should make things for people and watch how they interact with it. It should allow
for free play within a sandbox where there are no steadfast rules only guidelines that enhance
play. Instead of a top down model, Yakob supports a model where brands must move to the
center and be the hub for people to connect, share and do something.
NARRATIVES
The narrative serves as the glue that holds the transmedia branding process together. It is
necessary for both singular campaigns and perpetual processes. The importance of a narrative is
reflective of the integral role that stories play in our everyday lives. “We all love stories. We’re
born for them,” said Pixar Animation Director Andrew Stanton said in a TED lecture. “Stories
affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning.” This remains true
even within the confines of transmedia branding.
The strength of the narrative determines how strongly people will respond to a
transmedia campaign or brand. Narratives are can be fiction, nonfiction, serious or funny,
inspirational or provocative, entertaining or thought-provoking. Transmedia narratives have
existed for as long as humans have communicated. For instance, the argument could be made
that today’s major religions have traveled the world as transmedia narratives. The narrative is
what brings the understanding of what the brand means to life. It overlaps the world of the brand
with that of the consumers to create a more intriguing experience that is intertwined with the
consumer over a long-term.
As Stanton says, “The greatest story commandment is: Make me care.” There needs to be
“a story that can have a mythology, a universe of its own (even if it is our own, real universe
we’re talking about). If it’s a thin story, or unengaging, or linear without the possibility of other

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storylines touching it, there’s just no way it would ever make a good transmedia entity”
(Staffans, 38).
Every story makes a promise that it will lead somewhere that’s worth your time. And
that’s what all good stories should do at the beginning—give you a promise. A strong theme is
always running through a well told story. The best stories infuse wonder.
Jeff Gomez, founder of transmedia agency Starlight Runner states, a “well executed
transmedia project has a rich story world to build on, to create stories in...” According to Gomez,
the fictional world should be “well built and stable” in order “to be able to tell your fictional
stories that complement each other and build the world onwards.” Gomez suggests that details
drive the narrative and allow for expansion; there should be just as much focus on the creation of
the narrative as there is on the creation of the fictional world (Staffans, 41).
The communication channel chosen to disperse the narrative is a key contributor to the
effectiveness of the narrative. The distribution can take the form of interpersonal interactions to
pictures, music, art, letters, books, billboards, objects, and certainly traditional mass media as
well as and social media. However, the narrative takes precedent over the channel. Without a
good story the channel does not matter.
Transmedia producer George Strayton says, “To me it always goes back to the story. If
you don’t have a good story, you have nothing. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Twitter, Tumblr or
whatever the newest randomly named technology is. I’m creating a story with a first, second and
third act, or, if you want to take it up to the climax and find out what happens, you have to watch
the movie.” To this point, Gomez says “Whatever the entry point to the story world might be—
movie, television show, YouTube video—if the narrative resonates with me and I want more, I'm

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going to go after it. So the content has to be evocative and compelling in the first place”
(Staffans, 17).
Effective narratives within transmedia branding processes have a delicate display of
spreadability and drillability. This balance of depth and shallowness which both have the effect
of triggering emotions on various scales is engrained in the very nature of storytelling.
American Emmy Award winning Director Ken Burns says, “We’re born problem solvers.
It’s this well-organized absence of information that draws us in. There’s a reason that we’re all
attracted to an infant or a puppy. In complexity is not an excuse to overlook the details. There
must be consistency and truth in the story. What matters is the story and that the users experience
it the way you as the creator/producer planned for it to be experienced” (The Atlantic).
The narrative serves as an umbrella term for concepts of transmedia storytelling. The
narrative is the story of the brand campaign.
PARTICIPATION
Although not central to the transmedia storytelling, participation is central to the
transmedia branding process. The notion of audience participation is one of the more integral
concepts that differentiate transmedia branding from traditional one-directional marketing
communications. The narrative seeds reasons for the audience “to care.” Once people are
intrigued they gravitate to the story and actively seek ways to participate. Completing call to
actions such as Facebook liking a post, emailing a video to a friend, tweeting a signup link,
commenting, submitting user-generated content or passively watching a video on a sponsored
YouTube channel are forms of participation. The nature of transmedia branding allows for the
audience to participate as much or as little as they want and only with content that they find
interesting.

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Andrea Phillips, author of A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling says, “My ideal
transmedia project tells a story that is striking and resonant with its audience fostering their
participation and creative expression within the context of the story world, but also sparking
dialogue between us all outside of the story world . . . the power of this [transmedia] technique is
that it triggers action.”
From a psychological standpoint, participation within a “branding environment”
increases the likelihood that consumers will choose that brand. A study published to the Journal
of Brand Management by Tjaco H. Walvis found that brand awareness is dependent upon
associating the brand with as many other mental associations that the consumer already has
formulated. The study says brands can increase awareness by making customers more curious
“or by better tempting their customer to try, play, practice, learn, exercise, adapt, interact or
socialize with them…”
On the macro level, participation is a necessary function of society making it a key
building block in creating strong relationships between brands and consumers. Henry Jenkins
refers to this idea as the participatory culture in a blog post Confronting the Challenges of
Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21
st
Century “a culture with relatively low
barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s
creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most
experienced is passed along to novices.” In a participatory culture the contribution of each
member is important but not mandatory. Likewise in transmedia branding, individual
participation is encouraged but fans can contribute as much or as little as they choose.
Additionally, there is a social kinship amongst the group in which “at the least they care what
other people think about what they have created.”

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Jenkins has outlined three forms of participatory culture:
Affiliations — memberships, formal and informal, in online communities
centered around various forms of media, such as Friendster, Facebook, message
boards, metagaming, game clans, or MySpace).
Expressions — producing new creative forms, such as digital sampling, skinning
and modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction writing, zines, mash-ups).
Collaborative Problem-solving — working together in teams, formal and
informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (such as through
Wikipedia, alternative reality gaming, spoiling).
Circulations — Shaping the flow of media (such as podcasting, blogging)
The proliferation and daily usage of new media technologies seeded the emergence of
participatory culture enabling “average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and
recirculate media content in powerful new ways.” Spreadable media has thrived in this
environment allowing consumers to actively shape the stories that matter within culture.
Participation in transmedia branding may take the form of a collective intelligence where
brand fans (and employees) work together to deepen, enrich, and even map the details of the
brand’s story world across media and from many different perspectives. These techniques
embrace the role of active audiences to help collectively co-create, expand, and sustain
communication in ways that can effectively capture and leverage the value of today’s fragmented
and ever-changing media landscape.
In order for brands to capitalize on this shift, they must connect with customers using
“richer media and more intriguing, engaging forms that create interaction, involvement and
dialogue,” says Walvis in Three Laws of Branding. “Brands must develop a participation

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strategy that balances richness with reach (the number of people contacted), as richness and
reach often form a trade-off (cf. Evans and Wurster).”
An understanding of culture is also vital to participation strategies. Anthropologist Grant
McCracken states, “corporations live and die by their connection to culture.” Culture being
defined as “the body of ideas, emotions, and activities that make up the life of the consumer.”
Brands must be aware of cultural trends and ideologies to engage consumers in participation.
Monitoring popular culture is a lofty task with a number of facets: generational, ethnic,
geographic and religious. But it comes with a huge reward when leveraged by the brand to
connect with consumers. In fact, Grant argues that it could mean the loss or gain of billions of
dollars.
The generation of memes can also become a part of the participation component of a
transmedia branding process. As introduced by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme
“conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.” Memes vary greatly
from ideas, phrases, songs to poses, actions, fashion styles, etc. The process of memes a similar
to “imitation” in the way they leap “from brain to brain.” He cites as examples of memes tunes,
ideas, catch-phrase, clothes, fashions, etc. “leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in
the broad sense, can be called imitation. Dawkins further defines memes as “condensed images
that stimulate visual, verbal, musical, or behavioral associations that people can easily imitate
and transmit to others.” They are often crucial to the spreadable nature of transmedia branding
allowing diverse communities to come together around a singular idea.
The ideas of consumer participation and participatory culture lead to the concept of brand
community, “a group of ardent consumers organized around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of
the brand.” True fans curate brand attributes and often gain such an affinity for the brand that

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they perceive partial ownership of it. This has the potential to take the brand to new heights or
lows, all with or without the support of the corporations behind the brands. In the real world,
brand communities may assemble at club meetings, conventions, online or through a
combination of all three. The most extreme forms of communities are described as consumer
tribes: “They do not consume things without changing them; they cannot ‘consume’ a service
without engaging in a dance with the service provider, where the dance becomes the service.
Participatory culture is everywhere.”

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INDUSTRY CASE STUDIES
Transmedia branding can be utilized across a broad range of industries to develop
awareness and grow fan communities. Although the underlying concept is the same, the
principles of transmedia branding manifest differently across industries and brands. Analyzing a
broad range of industries and highlighting the principles within each campaign can illustrate this.
To support this claim, campaigns that exemplify transmedia branding for the following will be
analyzed: True Blood (television series), Prometheus (feature film), BMW (automotive brand),
Red Bull (consumer good), Audi (automotive brand), Halo (video game), AT&T
(telecommunications company), Air New Zealand (international airline), and Old Spice
(consumer good).
Television Series – True Blood
The launch of the HBO series True Blood is a great example of transmedia branding and
the benefits of having a strong narrative. True Blood is a television drama series based on the
Southern Vampire Mysteries series by novelist Charlaine Harris. The adaption of the novel into a
television series is a form of multiplicity and allows fans of the novel to experience story from a
new perspective. True Blood depicts the co-existence of vampires and humans in a small town in
northwestern Louisiana. The series centers around a telepathic waitress named Sookie
Stackhouse. A major concept of the series is the creation of a synthetic blood product in Japan
which allows the vampire community to “come out” of their coffins and make their presence
known to humans—no longer requiring human blood to quench their eternal thirst.
HBO partnered with multiple creative and media-buying agencies: Campfire Media,
Digital Kitchen, Ignition Creative, Red Creative and PHD. Campfire Media created the
Bloodcopy.com blog and other video content. Digital Kitchen crafted the "vampire product"

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advertisements. Ignition Creative created other print advertisements to drive program viewership.
Red Creative worked on online advertisements to entice viewers to tune in. PHD spearheaded
traditional advertising. Deep Focus conducted online media buying.
HBO’s strategy was to blend the fictional world of True Blood with that of the real world.
This is a similar strategy used in the launch of The Blair Witch Project, a campaign that
Campfire Media also happened to work on. "HBO's idea is to play along that fine line of fully
disrupting someone's experience and at the same time immersing them in your experience," said
Zach Enterlin, VP-advertising and promotions for HBO. From this statement it is clear that
immersion was an important aspect of their campaign from the onset. For many campaigns, this
is an early step in the ideation process.
The True Blood campaign began three months before the television premiere on HBO.
Campfire Media provided insights into their campaign through a detailed video case study. The
first phase of the campaign was deemed “Discovery.” High profile bloggers, vampire hobbyists
and other influencers were mailed unmarked envelopes containing secret messages leading to
BloodCopy.com, a fictional website where influencers could interact with each other and follow
the story. This exemplifies the transmedia branding concept of performance. By creating
BloodCopy.com, HBO created a home base fans and began the process of developing a
community around a common interest, True Blood. The “swag” gave the Bloggers and
influencers something to talk about and fueled conversations. This was the “cultural activator” of
the campaign and gave fans “something to do.” The website included video performances by
“real” vampires discussing the creation of “True Blood,” a fictional beverage containing
synthetic blood from the show. These videos are representative of subjectivity in that they
allowed fans to explore the world through secondary characters. In the next round of mailers,

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influencers received actual samples of “True Blood.” This tactic exemplifies extractability. It
allowed fans to experience an important artifact of the show for themselves. Two videos under
the MySpace user account “Blood” were uploaded entitled “Vampire Taste Test – True Blood
vs. Human,” and one called "BloodCopy Exclusive INTERVIEW WITH SAMSON THE
VAMPIRE.” There were online gatekeeper interactions. Mini-episodes of discussing the
Vampire Rights Amendment and other plot elements were made available on OnDemand. The
episodes integrated talent from the campaign.
HBO gave out a prequel comic to the series at the July 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the
largest convention showcasing comic books, science fiction and other popular culture media. At
the convention, True Blood held a press conference, which was standing room. The exclusivity
of the media event caused a stir and increased the media buzz. The comic outlines the back-story
of how TrueBlood was created and the discussions had by vampires about going public to the
human world. An old vampire named Lamar who “wonders if TrueBlood is making the world
safe for vampires or from them” tells the story. Again, fans were allowed to experience the world
from a new perspective, an example of subjectivity. These fictional videos and interviews
published online blurred fictional content with real content. As a result, the content spread with
ease, making its way to casual fans thereby broadening the scope of reach. The fans became the
number one marketers and exemplified the concept of spreadability.
Prior to the series premiere, several commercials featuring vampires in advertisements
selling TrueBlood were aired on HBO and published to Facebook. Across the U.S. some vending
machines were outfitted with “cards indicating that they were ‘sold out’ of TrueBlood.” The ads
were placed on billboards, park benches and bus stops to add to the realism. In addition, HBO
partnered with real products and services to publish, “print ads that seem to promote real

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products and services from Geico, Gillette, BMW's Mini Cooper, Harley-Davidson, Ecko and
Monster – but act as if the audiences for these popular goods are vampires.” The cross-promotion
with real world products and the fictional True Blood created a deeper sense of immersion for the
campaign.
Other campaign elements included “weather reports on radio for vampires who might just
be starting their day; a faux ad for movie theaters made to look like the ads for local businesses
that normally appear before the show starts; and a faux weekly newsmagazine set to appear on
HBO on Demand and HBO internet platforms. The weekly includes a segment called ‘The
Vampire Report,” which covers according to HBO covers "notable events that have occurred
over the past week as vampires continue their integration into human society.”
Two documentaries were produced and broadcast by HBO, entitled “True Bloodlines”
and “A New Type” to further promote the series and blend the fantasy and reality. In “True
Bloodlines” Vampire Legends, explored the earliest portrayals of vampires in legend, literature
and cinema. “A New Type,” discusses vampire culture from Nosferatu to today's sensual, sexual
creatures. This exemplified both worldbuilding and continuity by extending the story in a way
that provides richer connections to the source material and staying true to the original narrative.
The show also covered the modern vampire subculture and real-life vampire clubs. Actors and
writers from True Blood appeared in the documentaries. The shows first aired on September 6,
2008, on HBO. Several days before the series premiere on HBO, Blockbuster Video provided
free rental of the first episode of True Blood.
As a result of the campaign, BloodCopy.com received: 30,000 Forum Posts, 1.5 million
pages viewed, 5.9 Million video views for a total of 50,000 viewing hours. According to

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Campfire Media, True Blood premiered to 6.6 million viewers. The series has received critical
acclaim and won several awards, including a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
Overall, there were hundreds of pieces of media integral to the campaign. This provided a
high degree of drillability that allowed fans dive as deep as they want into the content and
customize their experience based upon their own unique interests. No one piece of media got
massive hits but there was just so much that there was a snowball effect. Everything fed back
into itself in a positive feedback loop. The campaign was so compelling that it became
newsworthy and earned media coverage. Transcending engagement and moved towards
immersion. The narrative came of the screen and into real life. Tangible real life advertisements
for True Blood and the vampire rights amendment created deep connections for fans to the story.
As a television series with an overarching plot that is essentially a metaphor for gay
rights and other disenfranchised communities who may have been attacked by the far right, True
Blood creates a strong narrative that answers the question, “why should I care.” It is this broad
and structurally sound narrative that allows for vast creativity in the ideation and implementation
of a transmedia branding campaign. The True Blood campaign shows the importance of the
narrative—if you can't provide a convincing narrative that stimulates the interest of the audience,
they will not engage.
Feature Film – Prometheus
Prometheus is a science fiction film set in the late 21
st
century directed by Ridley Scott
written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. The film is a prequel of the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien,
stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and
Charlize Theron. This fact makes Prometheus an example of seriality in that it is an installment
to Alien draws its climax from the original film. The story tracks the crew of the spaceship

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Prometheus on their journey to uncovering the secrets of humanity. The crew follows a star map
discovered among artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures that leads them to a distant world.
On this world they discover a life-form that could cause the extinction of the human race.
The campaign for the film has many transmedia element made possible by the film’s rich
story. The promo for the film was a TED2023 presentation by entrepreneur Sir Peter Weyland of
Weyland Industries, a key character in Prometheus. In the presentation, Weyland passionately
discusses the challenges of society. The promo video, created by Scott and Damon Lindelhof,
was released the pop culture event Wondercon in Anaheim, Calif. racked up around 3 million
views in less than two days. It was released on the real TED blog and quickly circulated around
the internet, being discussed in news articles, blogs and social media. With this tactic the
campaign tapped into the existing TED community and fed them content that they were sure to
appreciate and be motivated to share. The rapid movement of the promo video across the digital
landscaped is a great example of content crafted for spreadability.
The last frame of the video led viewers to the Weyland Industries site, where they could
register as an investor in the company’s secretive Prometheus initiative and view Weyland
product schematics. The product website exemplifies worldbuilding by creating content that
offers additional value to the understanding fans have about the film.
At the Wondercon event, Weyland employees handed out business cards with a phone
number. Fans that called the phone number were texted an exclusive un-boxing video of the
company’s newest innovation, David. This real world experience created immersion for the
campaign in a very direct and innovative way. This continued into April when a product
commercial featuring the 8
th
Generation David android debuted on Mashable and on TV for
Verizon FiOS customers.

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Fans were able to unlock the full David 8 page, featuring a comprehensive look at the
technology behind the flaghip product. The campaign created drillability by allowing fans the
option to learn more about David if they so desired. By not looking at the page, fans did not lose
understanding of the film but for those who did, they would have a much deeper experience of
the character when they viewed the film. Additional product pages and ads were unveiled on the
Weyland website which furthered speculation about the details of the Prometheus mission. In
May, a series of tests were release to see if fans were fit for space exploration via an holistic
HTML 5 experience.
LinkedIn was used to target influencers with personalized InMails, inviting them to apply for
a position with Project Prometheus. To introduce Noomi Rapace’s character, a third viral video
was released, which highlighted her plea to Peter Weyland to fund the Prometheus mission. The
video also drove fans to project Genesis, where fans could assist Dr. Shaw in her search for
artifacts that would lead to the discovery of the Engineers’ planet. The act of fans applying for a
position and assisting Dr. Shaw in her search for the artifacts is an example of performance. Fans
were encouraged to participate and engage with content.
Closer to the film’s release date, several more expeirences were unveiled to complete the
film’s back-story. When the film was finally released, the film’s credits linked back to a final
clue where fans uncovered Whatis101112.com, a cryptic new video, and a new set of questions
that remain to be answered.
As a result, Prometheus was one of the top box office grosses of 2012, Ridley Scott’s second
biggest opening ever, one of the biggest R-Rated openings of all time, 3 billion media
impressions, tens of millions of video views, one of the most talked about digital campaigns of
all-time.

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“Prometheus takes place in the future,” explained Lindelof to the TED Blog, “but it’s a
movie about ideas, and I just felt like it would be really cool to have one of the characters from
the movie give a TEDTalk… I said, ‘l’ll write this thing, and we’ll put it in front of you guys,
and if you think it’s cool, we would love to platform it at TED.’”
“When we watch that TEDTalk, anybody can relate to that,” Gomez says, “and it gives us
plenty to talk about. And there’s no disguising the fact that it’s tied to the movie, ‘Prometheus.’
There’s transparency there. It’s not some attempt to trick us” (Humphrey). “They are feeding bits
of information to fans who are picking up on it, crowdsourcing to solve relatively simple puzzles
and the solution unleashes a piece of content that is highly accessible to a mass audience.”
Similarly to the True Blood campaign, Prometheus showed how that a strong narrative
allows for may creative avenues around transmedia branding to be explored and implemented.
The Prometheus campaign highlighted the importance of participation as performance and how
the leads to spreadability.
Automotive Brand – Audi: Art of the Heist
On March 31, 2005, Audi of America, Inc. (AoA), the American faction of the German
company Audi AG launched a $3 million to $4 million campaign to promote the new A3 , three
months before it was made available. The campaign titled “Art of the Heist” targeted 25- to 34-
year-old upper-income males who “disliked mainstream advertisements.” Ad agency McKinney
& Silver and the production firm Chelsea Pictures/Campfire created the campaign, which fused
“reality, fiction, and audience participation.”
The "Art of the Heist" began with an announcement from AoA that its brand-new Audi
A3 had been stolen from the rotating display at the New York Auto Show. Handbills announcing
the missing Audi along with the vehicle identification number (VIN) were distributed in 10 cities

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to substantiate the claim. Anyone with information regarding the location of the vehicle were
asked to call a phone number or visit Audi’s website. The website led visitors to a fictitious
company “called Last Resort Retrieval, which supposedly retrieved stolen art from high-profile
thieves.” The hub for the campaign’s narrative was LastResortRetrieval.com where new
characters, Nisha Roberts and Ian Yarbrough, to the plot were introduced. Visitors uncovered
clues such as tapped phone calls, surveillance videos, and puzzles after a "glitch" on the website
gave unrestricted access to Last Resort Retrieval's private intranet. At this stage, the campaign
focuses on the immersion and performance elements of transmedia branding.
A discovery by Ian and Nisha unveiled that the A3 was stolen by an art thief and that
hidden inside the car were memory cards with information about an art heist. The newly acquired
information led Ian to recovering the A3 from a New Jersey chop shop. The recovery caused a
hot pursuit of Ian from East Coast to the West Coast by the original car’s thief and then the
police. Fictitious advertisements promoting the services of Last Resort Retrieval were placed in
Wired, Esquire, and USA Today to lend credence to the story.
The campaign website, LastResortRetrieval.com announced that Ian and Nisha would be
making an appearance May 1st at the Coachella Valley Music Festival. AoA's tent was inundated
with fans earlier than expected, Chelsea Pictures, which produced the online video for the
campaign, killed one of the characters to keep the authenticity of the narrative. Later that month,
a television spot featured interior and exterior images of the new A3. To relate the commercial to
the campaign's narrative, copy appeared during the spot asking the public to report the missing
Audi to audiusa.com. By bringing the campaign to life by having the lead characters from the
narrative engage with fans, the campaign implemented a form of worldbuilding. This evolved
into performance when fans of the campaign began creating websites to discuss possible

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outcomes of the game. The campaign ended in late June at E3, a video game convention held at
the Los Angeles Convention Center. Ian apprehended the thief responsible for stealing the A3 in
a stage performance in front of those in attendance.
The campaign was deemed a success by Audi and credited with pre-selling 500 A3s
before they were even available in North America. Stephen Berkov, Audi’s director of
marketing, stated that, “The Art of the Heist represents a true innovation in the way Audi
connects with its target consumer," in the PR Newswire news service. AoA posted 5,389 A3s
sold at the year's end, making 2005 one of AoA's best years in its 73-year legacy.
Unlike the previous entertainment based cased studies i.e. True Blood and Prometheus
Audi did not have an elaborate narrative to assist in the development of their campaign. This is
an instance of a organization tapping into its core brand messaging to develop a transmedia
campaign. In this instance, Audi built their campaign upon the concept of “desire” and coupled
with participation, immersion, and performance. The transmedia campaign shows an innovative
alternative to transmedia branding for entertainment brands.
Automotive – BMW
BMW, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine
manufacturing company headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, German. The luxury automaker was
founded in 1917. The narrative of BMW is that of an innovator and thought-leader within the
luxury car industry. However, this is a common theme shared amongst the other two members of
the Big 3 luxury automakers—Audi and Mercedes.
In an effort to create brand awareness and reposition itself amongst competitors, BMW
turned to transmedia branding strategies to construct a new narrative for the launch of its
electronic concept vehicle, the BMW ActiveE. BMW collaborated with kirshenbaum bond

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senecal + partners to create “Wherever You Want to Go,” a series of four films by BMW
Documentary films.
The overarching concept is a push towards innovation in an effort to create a blueprint for
the future of mobility. The films examine how cities have historically been designed around cars
and what cities of the future might be like, what prediction tells us about present concerns, and
how technology and mobility are inextricably related. There were four films, broken into
chapters, which focused on the future of mobility, cities and technology. Each film features
interviews with a diverse range of thought leaders to create a holistic look into the opportunities
and challenges of our future world.
The mini-documentaries feature various awesome thinkers and visionaries including:
• Buzz Aldrin, retired astronaut
• Marissa Mayer, VP of location services at Google
• Syd Mead, futurist and conceptual designer for Blade Runner
• Graham Hill, Founder, TreeHugger.com
• Robin Chase, Founder, ZipCar
• George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic
An icon in the discussion of futurism, astronaut Buzz Aldrin kicks things off in the first
video Part I: The New City. Images of people on the move in bicycles, airplanes, and public
transportation dot the New City and attempt to harness what urban means in contemporary
society. Part II, “The Future Just Isn’t What It Used To Be” analyzes how we as a society
perceive futurism, comparing the car and aerospace developments in lieu of the Jetsons. Part
III looks at technology’s impact on mobility. Part IV is an attempt to harness the future, and
approach it with a sense of optimism, despite the many challenges facing the planet.

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By creating a vision for the future through the eyes of cultural icons and business leaders,
BMW is practicing worldbuilding and positioning as a key figure within this world. They crafted
a strong narrative and leaned on influencers to aid in the spreadability of their story.
To allow viewers to better engage with the films and to add to the ongoing dialogue,
BMW designed an innovative new video player specifically for the films. Viewers could access
additional content around a theme, quote, or speaker in real time, while giving them the option to
pause the main viewer. Additionally, they could post their own thoughts or comments directly to
specific moments of the film for others to see and react.
The films precipitate a unique collective engineering project, dubbed "Activate The
Future" designed to build a community of people who are passionate about working together to
create the future, rather than waiting for it to happen to them. Participants are encouraged to
discuss, share and actively participate through use of proprietary technology. By providing their
audience with the tools necessary to engage and a place to come together, BMW exuded
performance. BMW understands that content isn’t sufficient anymore because anyone can
produce content. Content must not only fill avoid but it must also spur action.
Consumer Good – Red Bull
Red Bull is the world’s most popular energy drink and promotes an adventure-seeking
lifestyle. Their slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” gives drinkers permission to push both
themselves and societal norms. Red Bull is all about pushing the limit of human potential—
whether cramming for a final or skydiving. In everything that it does, Red Bull affirms the notion
that we should always seize the opportunity to transcend the physical and mental challenges of
life. Red Bull has taken this mythology and utilized transmedia branding as a perpetual process
to grow their brand communities and awareness. They’ve also sold a ton of Red Bull.

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In 2011, Red Bull GmbH sold over 4.6 billion cans of Red Bull worldwide. By
embracing “danger” they have built a cult following amongst their target market of young males.
A Warc case study presents, “the more controversy it causes among older generations, the more
younger consumers will embrace the product.”
The official Red Bull website states:
“For more than 23 years, Red Bull has been giving wings to people across the globe who
want to be physically and mentally fit. Red Bull becomes part of their life: during study
sessions, intense work days and late nights out, while on the road, and playing sports or
video games. In short, Red Bull vitalizes body and mind in virtually any situation of our
daily life.”
The organization sticks true to their ideals. It is clear to customers and employees why
the brand exists and the impact it seeks to make on the world. They hire athletes, DJs, and
former Red Bull student ambassadors—people who believe in and live the brand.
This is ideology has led Red Bull to sponsor over 10 different sports teams ranging from
soccer, New York Red Bulls, to Formula One, Scuderia Tor Rosso. Red Bull also has over 20
singular and concurrent events ranging from Red Bull Flug Tag to Red Bull Road Rage.
Red Bull invests heavily into social media with a focus on Facebook engagement and
interactivity. To date, the company has acquired more than 35 million “Likes” to their brand
page on Facebook. The page includes:
RedBull.tv – a free 24/7 entertainment hub for video streaming of various content from
action sports and motor cross to music and lifestyle
Athletes – an aggregate of all Twitter content from Red Bull athletes
Games+Apps – home of the online Arcade, Mobile Apps and best of Drunkish Dials

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Holy Shit – a collection of video content on music, interviews and extreme sports
highlights
Events – a list of Red Bulls sponsored events
Careers – a place where fans can look for careers with Red Bull
RedBull has a very clear vision for their community and they have tapped into
worldbuilding and immersion by creating real world extensions to their mythology that allows
fans to experience RedBull in a multitude of ways. The events that Red Bull organizes allows
fans of the brand to expand their understanding of the Red Bull lifestyle and gain new
perspective on what that means to them. The digital extensions are examples of performance
because they draw together the Red Bull community and give them something to do.
Red Bull asserts that their beverage is developed for “people who want to have a clear
and focused mind, perform physically, are dynamic and performance-oriented whilst also
balancing this with a fun & active lifestyle.” Their brand page conveys this in every published
piece of content. Content rarely includes pictures of the Red Bull but usually focuses on asserting
the brand ideals of excitement and performance.
Red Bull took their brand engagement to new heights on October 14, 2012 with Red Bull
Stratos (RBS), a Red Bull sponsored attempt by Felix Baumgartner in breaking four world
records: highest, fastest and longest free fall, and highest manned balloon flight (Penecad 2012).
The RBS jump was held 65 years after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a piloted aircraft
for the first time on October 14, 1947. The acronym RBS also coincided with the future launch
of three new Red Bull flavors Red, Blue and Silver. The stunt reinforced the slogan “Red Bull
Gives You Wings” like never before. Sturner of GoViral said the power of this marketing event
lies in the synergy between the extreme event and the company's existing marketing message.

43

The jump "hits the brand message spot on, which is that Red Bull gives you wings," he said.
The campaign exemplified a transmedia branding campaign sparking massive amounts of
spreadability and participation. The live stream of RBS attracted an audience of 8 million,
giving the event the record for most concurrent viewers. According to AllThingsD, "The
previous record for a single Web video service: Around 500,000 concurrent streams, which
Google served up during the Olympics this summer." The hashtag #redbull received 74,000
mentions over Twitter on the day of the record breaking stunt. Red Bull’s supersonic freefall,
which now has over 32 million hits on YouTube.
According to ABC News, besides YouTube, the jump was shown by more than 40 TV
stations and 130 digital outlets. Red Bull's Facebook post-jump photo of Baumgartner gained
almost 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and over 29,000 shares within 40 minutes, and half the
worldwide trending topics on Twitter were related to Red Bull Stratos.
By creating an event that was so singular and creative, Red Bull tapped the potential to
bypass the other gold standards of traditional marketing dominated by large corporations. "When
you're in the Super Bowl, you're one of 70 ads or so. When you go around the NASCAR track,
you're one of 44 teams," said Ben Sturner President and CEO of Leverage Agency, a full-service
sports, entertainment and media marketing company. "This is about owning something that will
leave an impression…The value for Red Bull is in the tens of millions of dollars of global
exposure, and Red Bull Stratos will continue to be talked about and passed along socially for a
very long time…The sponsorship transcended sports and entertainment into Pop Culture, hitting
new consumers that Red Bull does not usually capture, and on a global scale.”
Red Bull consistently communicates information about their brand in an integrated
narrative, which they disperse in unique contributions across multiple media channels for the

44

purpose of creating an interactive and engaging brand experience. In doing so, Red Bull has
activated the principle of continuity by extending the narrative while maintaining true to the
original core elements of the story.
Video Game – Halo 4
Halo 4 is a first-person shooter video game published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox
360 and developed by 343 Industries. The story of Halo 4 begins four years, seven months and
ten days after the ending of Halo 3. Players traverse the Halo Universe as the Master Chief,
cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier. The game released in 7,000 American stores
simultaneously with launch events from New York to Berlin on November 6, 2012.
The Halo narrative is very extensive and the nature of games hinges upon the concept of
role-playing. The franchise leveraged this fact to create a compelling transmedia campaign to
launch Halo 4 and extend the brand. In discussing the many details of the Halo storyworld,
Director of business management Matt McCloskey at 343 Industries said, “Marketing is about
romancing all of that… we are reinventing the way videogames are made and marketed.”
The campaign included many elements but one of the most prominent was Microsoft’s
creation of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, a live-action digital series totaling 90 minutes in all that
sets the stage for Halo 4 the game. The series was streamed online free of charge. The web series
includes actors like Daniel Cudmore (known for Colossus in X-Men, and Felix in the Twilight
movies) playing Master Chief, as well as Anna Popplewell (Susan from the Chronicles of
Narnia). David Fincher director of Fight Club and Netflix’s House of Cards, produced the big
budget live-action trailers for the series. The series exemplifies seriality by serving a prequel of
sorts that sets up the climax of the video game release.

45

Award winning authors Greg Keyes and Karen Travis were tapped by 343 Industries to
write a number of books with tie-ins to Halo 4. Greg Keyes wrote Halo: Primordium and Karen
Travis wrote Halo: Glasslands. The creators of Halo utilized drillability by allowing fans the
option to expand their understanding of the narrative and deepen their experience of the video
game.
Microsoft and 343 Industries partnered with Doritos, Mountain Dew, Axe, 7-Eleven,
American Express and advertising firm Ogmento to create the augmented reality campaign
“Halo 4: King of the Hill Fueled by Mountain Dew.” They released a free app that set users on a
mission to become King of the Hill at their local 7-Eleven store. To claim the title and win Halo
4 double XP rewards, game points that could purchase special functions in Halo multiplayer
matches, players would have to scan Mountain Dew and Doritos products at their local 7-Eleven.
Fans could compete on a local and national level. This is one form of extractability in that it gave
significance to real world items, in this case sponsored consumer goods, and allowed fans to
engage with them in way that mesh with the Halo narrative.
Microsoft created a replica of the “Halo 4” planet Requiem Principality of Liechtenstein
for their “Experience: Halo” event for the media and fans to promote the game launch. The
Gutenberg Castle of Liechtenstein was remodeled to resemble a Halo 4-themed military
installation along with a United Nations Space Command military camp in the nearby
countryside. A mining quarry was also repurposed as a battleground for guests to embark on “an
immersive experience” of Halo. This is an example of immersion at the highest level.
These are just a few stunts from the transmedia campaign that led Halo 4 to gross US
$220 million on launch day and an estimated $300 million opening weekend, a franchise record.
Within the first 24 hours of the release, over one million people played Halo 4 on Xbox Live.

46

Airlines – Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand is the national airline of New Zealand. The company doesn’t have a
strong story other than the ties it has to New Zealand. In an effort to extend brand awareness, the
airline partnered with New Zealand native and director of the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
and The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson. A vast majority of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
film adaption by Jackson was shot in New Zealand. Instead of creating a new story, Air New
Zealand chose to leverage the story of Jackson and the world of Middle Earth. The airline
utilized the story of the Lord of the Rings to expand their narrative in way that was congruent and
interesting through worldbuilding.
One month before the release of The Hobbit in 2012, Air New Zealand released an air
safety video entitled “An Unexpected Briefing” featuring characters from The Lord of the
Rings—hobbits, elves, dwarfs, orcs and other monsters. Jackson makes a cameo in the video in
which he slips on the ring, vanishing instantly. The four minute video met the necessary criteria
for all air safety announcements. Along with the video, the airline placed images of the film on
the body of a Boeing 737, referred to as a “flying billboard.” Air New Zealand rebranded itself
as the “Airline of Middle Earth.” The fun and informative video was engineered to tapped into
an existing fan community to increase spreadability.
Telecommunications – AT&T
AT&T is an American telecommunications company founded in 1983. They provide
customers with smartphones, television services and business solutions to communication needs.
The mission as stated on the AT&T corporate website is to “connect people with their world,
everywhere they live and work, and do it better than anyone else.” The multi-national company
prides itself on their “innovations made in the communications and entertainment industry.”

47

This is conveyed with its “three-screen” integration strategy “to deliver services across the three
screens people rely on most — the mobile device, the PC and the TV.”
The story of AT&T is one of innovation but that is not a detailed or strong enough
narrative to create a compelling transmedia brand experience. Esther Lee, AT&T SVP brand
marketing and advertising stated, “Our story is about innovation for human progress.”
The telecommunications company partnered with Tim Kring creator of Heroes, Touch
and Crossing Jordan to create Daybreak 2012, a transmedia webseries that extends the narrative
of Touch, starring Keither Sutherland, while incorporating AT&T technology. Daybreak was
inspired by “ideas and commitment the people of AT&T demonstrate every day in driving
innovation and striving to make Rethink Possible a reality, not just a tagline,” says Esther Lee.
The narrative of Daybreak 2012 began with the plot line of the last 3 episodes of Touch,
which focused on a dodecahedron a crucial element of the story. The “doda” was the only
element that transcended the Touch to traverse into Daybreak 2012. Advertising teased Touch
and invited fans to follow the continuation of the story on daybreak2012.com. Daybreak follows
reluctant hero Ben Wilkins in his journey to deliver the dodecahedron to its owner. Wilkins uses
AT&T technology and the assistance of the Jack Boxers, an underground group, to complete his
mission. Fans of Daybreak play the role of the Jack Boxers and engage deeper in the narrative
through games and additional content. The narrative of Daybreak is told over “two dedicated
web sites, mobile apps and social media. Viewers can choose to watch the five 10-15 minute
videos online as a linear series or get involved interact with content, download the apps, play
games and gain access to additional content and expand the experience.” The games and
additional content gives fans multiple opportunities to enrich their experiences and
understanding. In this way, AT&T activates drillability.

48

The transmedia nature of Daybreak is in the extension of AT&T’s narrative of being
innovative by spring-boarding off Touch to create a new narrative that incorporates AT&T
products and values. “The technologies and applications we’ve incorporated into the narrative
actually helped tell a story that’s more dynamic,” says Tim Kring. As viewers immerse
themselves into the webisodes and interactivity, they are rewarded with content that brings them
deeper into the narrative. A necessary function of transmedia content is the ability to standalone.
As David Lubars chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America stated, "You don't
have to see both series to get value out of Daybreak…It's a standalone piece of entertainment.
But if you do see both [Touch and Daybreak], there's an extra dimension of connections you can
make. Either way, we feel Ben's story will be engaging and spark many to delve even deeper into
the characters and plotlines via the Daybreak websites and smartphone app.”
Consumer Good – Old Spice
In 2010, Old Spice and ad agency Wieden+Kennedy launched the highly successful
Smell Like a Man, Man campaign Super Bowl weekend. The spot never actually appeared during
the Super Bowl but was seeded online during a time when “consumers are engaged in
advertising” said James G. Moorhead, the P&G/Old Spice North American marketing/brand.
According to Warc, this is a time when “football fans watch the game, then transition to the
internet later to take in the humor and variety of the advertising. Advertising fans, on the other
hand, wait for the posts during the game and then dive into digital discussions about the work
that last for days.” And, when both audiences came to the internet, Old Spice was waiting, with a
digital presence already embedded. "We had Super Bowl impact without Super Bowl
investment," Moorhead told the first Association of National Advertisers' Creative Conference in
New York City. "As opposed to buying time and pushing out our message, we were engaging

49

consumers and creating dialogues with them that we'd never had before."
The original Smell Like a Man, Man spot, features formal NFL athlete Isaiah Mustafa as
the Old Spice Guy, “a handsome but somewhat inscrutable figure who engaged in random acts of
manliness”: “the man your man could smell like” (Potter 2010). It begins with a confident
greeting from the Old Spice Guy “Hello ladies,” as he stands in his bathroom wearing only a
towel. The camera slowly zooms in as he continues in a commanding tone at a presumed female
viewer, “Look at your man, now back at me, now back at your man. Sadly, he isn’t me, but, if he
stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me.”
What follows can only be described as something reminiscent of a whimsical Rube Goldberg
machine with Mustafa the center of the action.
The bathroom then becomes a boat, a knotted sweater falls onto Old Spice Guy’s
shoulders, and suddenly he is now wearing fitted-white trousers suited for a casual evening on
the marina. He then presents an oyster containing tickets to the favorite event of the female
viewer, proving his worth as a man. “The tickets are now diamonds” he states, [because]
“anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.” Mustafa is then
revealed sitting on a horse, which he states with an amusingly, dry arrogance “I’m on a horse.”
The spot parodies commercial pitchman, typical advertising clichés and cultural
touchstones—promising to transform customers simply through their use of the product, the
spots draw on some of advertising’s own and cultural touchstones. The spots depiction of the
ideal man has been described as all “chiseled torso and ridiculously self-assured tone” (Edwards
2010). The video received 20 million YouTube views in three days. Traditional network the
following week was an integral part of the launch program, with buys on shows like American

50

Idol and Lost, as well as on NBCU's variety of Vancouver Olympics platforms.
“The self-parodic elements” of Smell Like A Man, Man says Jenkins, “implicitly grant
users permission to adopt and adapt the content for their own purposes…the video has a clearly
defined message, but the absurdity creates gaps “wide enough for whole new texts to be
produced in them” (Fiske 1989b, 104). The release of the commercial led to a plethora of parody
videos that were tailored for different cultural and individually relevant conversations. Men of all
body types and sizes shot spoofs featuring “more realistic” men your man could smell like. Even
Sesame Street, the popular PBS children’s television show, produced a version featuring the
character Grover promising to help viewers “smell like a monster.”
The next major campaign component “was an advertising-on-demand program – not
consumer-generated content as much as instant consumer-driven content. Consumers asked. Old
Spice answered. Over and over again.” The goal, Moorhead stated, was “to be more successful
than the original.” The marketing team considered how they could “have a more engaging
conversation with the brand’s fan base” and “do so on a more intimate level.”
On July 13, 2010, Old Spice, Wieden+Kennedy and Mustafa began three full days of
production on what Moorhead deemed a “response social-network campaign.” Over the “two-
and-a-half days of shooting, 186 videos – "70% of them to everyday consumers" – were scripted,
produced and uploaded.” The decision of which fan to respond to was determined by the fans'
digital influence and creative potential. Once the contributions started coming in, "every seven
minutes, we delivered a new video live to consumers," Moorhead reported. Celebrities such as
Alyssa Milano, Ashton Kutcher, Rose McGowan and Christine Applegate even got involved.
When Procter & Gamble invited ABC News host (and former Clinton administration

51

aide) George Stephanopoulos to participate, he wrote, "Hey Old Spice Man - Political question:
President's lost some female support. How does WH get those women voters back?" The
response included such advice as "President Obama should only be seen in a towel" and should
begin his addresses to the US Congress with a provocative, "Hello, ladies…"
Once consumer tweeted a request for the Old Spice guy to propose to his girlfriend: "Can
U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin #Johannes S.
#Beals." Within an hour, Old Spice tweeted a video “honorably” fulfilling the request. Just a few
hours later, Beals tweeted at Old Spice: “SHE SAID YES!!!!” He then uploaded a picture of his
new fiancée wearing her diamond ring.
American actress and producer Alyssa Milano shared her enthusiasm for the campaign by
tweeting, “GENIUS. Shirtless Old Spice Guy replies on Twitter w/ hilarious personalized
videos.” Old Spice Guy responded in video form with a reference to Milano’s stint on the 80’s
sitcom Who’s the Boss? Milano responded with “my coffee went up my nose.” Mustafa
responded “Lucky for you, Alyssa I’m certified in nose CPR.” Milano asked if he was flirting.
He replied that he wasn’t, just like he wasn’t sending her “fragrantly fragrant” flowers and a
“handwritten note from my heart to your doorstep, via my bare feet running over the California
mountains.” Milano tweeted pictures of the note which actually arrived at her doorstep. The
exchange ended with Old Spice Guy telling Milano on video, “At this point it’s probably obvious
to you as it is to me that we are in a long-term committed relationship. And in order for our love-
filled trust explosion to continue and prosper, the next step is wildly obvious. To you. Because
you’re a woman. So tell me what to do next.”
By the end of 2010, the first Alyssa Milano video had nearly 1.29 million views; the

52

second video checks in with 'only' 750,000 views, but the third – the flirtation – is at 1.1 million
and counting – and the total YouTube audience for the final piece in the series almost matched
the first, with 1.26 million views.
The numbers from the first day showed that the Old Spice series outscored President
Obama's victory speech, President George W. Bush's shoe-dodge, and Susan Boyle's television
debut as most-watched viral-video program.
The Old Spice brand purpose, as explained by Moorhead, is to "help young guys navigate
the seas of manhood.” Its aim was to be “relevant” to the Old Spice audience as a “cool, funny,
interesting, surprising” product. "This is not a viral story," Moorhead told the first Association of
National Advertisers' Creative Conference in New York City. “It’s an engagement story.”
The Smell Like a Man, Man campaign is a prime example of Henry Jenkins’ description of
“humor” as a device to manufacture spreadability. In Convergence Culture, Jenkins states:
“Content creators can endear themselves to a particular audience by showing they
understand its sensibilities and can alienate themselves by miscalculating that audience’s
sensibilities. Humor is not simply a matter of taste: it is a vehicle by which people
articulate and validate their relationships with those with whom they share the joke.”
Jenkins goes on to say that these types of campaigns which inspire grassroots acts of
circulation spread because they recognize the basic desires and mechanics involved. He refers to
such content as “producerly,” when it seeds opportunities for “audience participation,” “shared
expression,” and “exchanges through surprising or meaningful content.” He continues to discuss
motivations behind actions leading to spreadability:
“People want to share media texts which become a meaningful resource in their ongoing

53

conversations or which offer them some new source of pleasure and interest. They want
to exchange and discuss media content when the material contains textual activators,
when it offers activities in which they can participate. As we saw with regard to rumors,
this content often spreads when it speaks, consciously or not, thoughts that people are
compelled by but lack a language to communicate.”
The Old Spice campaign leveraged spreadability and worldbuilding to attract an
audience. The narrative contained a humor which resonated on many levels to the general public
as well as the target audience. This led to the generation of memes and remixes of the Old Spice
Guy. This is exemplifies performance on the part of the fans. Old Spice crafted a fun and simple
narrative that fans could play with. The different portrayals of the Old Spice Guy an example of
fan-made multiplicity, where fans take on the role of the central character and give him multiple
faces.

54

NATURALS VS. CROSSOVERS
During the analysis of multiple transmedia branding campaigns amongst various
industries, it became apparent that some brands are more suited for transmedia branding
campaigns than others. Innately transmedia brands are those that inherently contain qualities that
contain a clear narrative that contains depth and allows for expansion—referred henceforth as
naturals. Brands that are not predisposed to being transmedia brands are those that do not
contain a clear narrative that contains depth and allows for expansion—referred henceforth as
crossovers.
Generally, media and entertainment properties where the brand is the story typify a
natural. Two prime examples found to be naturals during the case study analysis are True Blood
and Halo. As stories with detailed characters and plots, there are numerous opportunities to
extend into a transmedia branding campaign.
Conversely, organizations delivering consumer goods and services with brands that do
not have detailed narratives typify crossovers. Two prime examples found to be crossovers
during the case study analysis are AT&T and Old Spice. As brands without detailed characters
and plots to leverage, there is little content to leverage into the creation of a transmedia branding
campaign.
The understanding of natural and crossover brands has the potential to prove very useful
to organizations in developing transmedia campaigns. As it was not the main focus of this thesis,
much research was not conducted on the matter. However, the concept of brands as naturals and
crossovers merited inclusion and warrants further research.

55

SUGGESTED FRAMEWORK
Based upon research into the history and principles of transmedia storytelling and the
analysis of industry transmedia branding campaigns this thesis proposes a simple framework for
creating transmedia branding campaigns that can be applied to both natural and crossover known
as “The Four E’s of Transmedia Branding”:
1. Explore the world.
2. Extend the timeline.
3. Expand secondary characters.
4. Encourage participation.
To explore the world is to conduct research into both your existing brand community,
target audience, and/or brand narrative in an effort to glean insights that can be leveraged in the
creation of the campaign. When you explore the world you are looking for themes, trends and
opportunities that can be incorporated into your narrative. The key transmedia principles
involved when you explore the world are worldbuilding, immersion, and drillability.
To extend the timeline is to create new storylines that extends the life of the brand
narrative. When you extend the timeline you are finding ways to sustain interaction with the
brand through new experiences and content. The key transmedia principles involved are seriality,
multiplicity, and continuity.
To expand secondary characters is to increase the depth and significance of characters
that initially played supporting role within the narrative. When you expand secondary characters
you are either taking minor details about the character and expanding upon them to a level of
importance in relation to the original story or you are creating new plotlines that may have

56

existed all of long but were just never discussed. The key transmedia principle involved is
subjectivity.
To encourage participation is to provide the target audience with content that is
malleable, can be remixed, and that encourages play. When you encourage participation you
locate opportunities to bridge the gap between the narrative and the real world deepen their
experience with the brand and other fans. The key transmedia principles involved are
performance, extractability, and spreadability.
“The Four E’s of Transmedia Branding” is just a simple framework based upon research
into extremely young concept. For organizations crafting transmedia branding campaigns, it
helps the focus the strategy around four simple concepts that support the principles of transmedia
storytelling.

57

CONCLUSION
Advancements in technology have made it faster and cheaper to produce and distribute
great content. This makes it challenging to capture the attention of your target audience. It is
even more difficult to hold their attention. Big brands are no longer simply competing with each
other; they are competing with anyone who owns a mobile phone. The marketplace is being
flooded with new content daily, making it all the more likely that your messaging will drown
under the rising tides of videos and blog posts. Transmedia branding is a methodology for
breaking through the noise and having your message heard.
For organizations searching for innovative strategies to grow their audience, transmedia
branding should be at the top of their list.

58

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial framework for design elements and design principles of transmedia branding. It aims to provide an overview that will facilitate ongoing conversation on the topic and an in-depth discussion of each element and principle.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Williams, Jerried C. (author)

Core Title Principles of transmedia branding

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Strategic Public Relations

Publication Date 10/15/2013

Defense Date 10/15/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag branding,Marketing,OAI-PMH Harvest,Public Relations,Storytelling,Transmedia,transmedia branding,transmedia storytelling

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tenderich, Burghardt (committee chair), Le Veque, Matthew (committee member), Thorson, Kjerstin (committee member)

Creator Email jerried.williams@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-337872

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Rights Williams, Jerried C.

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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