NEW Myspace …quite a place for transmedia entertainment and cross-media marketers

Myspace relaunched this week as an entertainment platform that now puts content, not people, center stage. Facebook, with its half billion registered users, may have won the race for social network dominance, but judging by this video tour of Myspace's new format, the site could reemerge as an online entertainment powerhouse.

Myspace's new multimedia platform is especially timely considering developments in transmedia entertainment, which breaks storylines into parts and artfully delivers them across multiple media channels. Viewers enjoy a rich and immersive experience when these channels converge, say on a dedicated website ... like the new Myspace. Mobile applications make it possible to view mashed up content on iPad and smartphones. 

NBC's hit TV series Heroes is a model for transmedia storytelling, the central TV story made richer with sub-story lines streamed out using video/film, animation/graphic novels, games, music, twitter and forums, etc. –  for convergence on the show’s website. MTV’s latest teen-thriller Savage County works much the same way. 

If NBC and MTV can host transmedia on their own websites, can’t Myspace serve as a destination aggregator of transmedia productions and cross-media entertainment? It's an exciting thought. 

  

Will commercial sponsors warm up to the new Myspace? Great content and a cleaner, safer social environment will surely help. So does the fact that Myspace still has 122 million registered users worldwide – plus, deep roots in Generation Y who are digitally adept and voracious consumers of entertainment and branded goods. 

Will multi-channel marketing converge on Google TV?

Google TV, Apple TV and Roku make it possible to converge web-based content on the family television - a development that is sure to change the way people consume media – and commercial messages. Until now multi-channel marketing campaigns reached audiences via dispersed touch points. Converging multiple media channels on a single TV screen will be a whole lot better by making commercial content more dynamic and interactive. 

It'll take some time before Google TV and the like are mainstream. But it’s not too soon for marketers to start thinking about creative and strategic possibilities. Chances are television studios are already looking at ways to make transmedia programming appealing to advertisers. 

Publishing's Lucrative Future in Transmedia

Transmedia producer Simon Pulman wrote a compelling post on his Transmythology blog about publishing's need to become intellectual property distributors, promoters and curators. The eBook is just a first step into the vast and lucrative digital realm, and Pulman suggests that soon literary blockbusters may well be conceived from the ground up as transmedia productions. It's easy to imagine all types of material published in an array of offline/digital/social media that together create an extraordinarily rich reading experience.  Pulman adds that publishers accustomed to selling rights may soon retain IP control and exploit their ability to build and mine active fan communities, and drive revenue from for-pay companion content. Here is the link to Mr. Pulman’s insightful Transmythology  blog. 

Why Hollywood filmmakers see their future in multimedia storytelling

Narrative treasure trove inside Guillermo Del Toro's
sketchbook for Pan's Labyrinth  

Acclaimed film director, producer, screenwriter and designer Guillermo Del Toro, best known for films such as Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, says he's eagerly branching into television and working with Dreamworks Animation. Why?  He told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival that storytellers of the future, including himself, need to embrace multiple media platforms (including games) because they offer enormous narrative possibilities. Read more about this at techland.com. 

Marketing communicators will follow suit, no doubt, perhaps more quickly and aggressively than filmmakers simply because campaigns are much smaller, more focused productions. Can we expect transmedia marketing campaigns any time soon from pioneering brands like Nike, BMW and Starbucks? 

Movie biz faces new competition from transmedia narratives

Alternative media and innovative multi-platform storytelling are set to challenge a complacent film industry, blogged Jeremy Kay, a Los Angeles-based film writer, on today’s guardian.co.uk. He writes that movie attendance slipped this summer, due to weaker film narratives and increased competition from video games, Facebook, graphic novels, and strong original programming on cable TV (and widespread use of large-format TV screens).  Kay expects movie studios will need to respond with better film material, including sub-storylines developed especially for transmedia programs.  

New Digital Research: Consumer Multi-Screen Study from Microsoft and Wunderman

A new report from Microsoft shows that multi-screen promotional strategies can be effective for brands seeking higher awareness and conversation rates. Microsoft estimates there are 33 million multi-screen users in America, defined as adults 18 – 64 who use a TV, computer and smartphone regularly. Data reveals that the upside of media convergence is a richer media experience for both consumer and marketer. Details are in the downloadable Multi-Screen Consumer White Paper jointly published by Microsoft Advertising and Wunderman.