Is the Experience Era the death of the Hero's Journey?
Yes as we know it. The internet has broken down the 4th wall and has let us rediscover the participatory nature of storytelling. Audiences no longer want nor need a hero to save the day; they want and are their own hero, they want to matter and demand radical inclusion. We have entered the era of the Polymyth™ and communal storytelling, which are at the core of Transmedia Storytelling and have made it so more relevant than ever.
* Transmedia = a grand polymyth told across multiple platforms and formats, both old and new, together with the audience.
* Polymyth™ = cyclical journeys or quests undertaken by multiple mythical heroes with unpredictable natures and uncertain fates within one story world.
But wasn't Transmedia all the rage ten years ago?
It was, and it was predicted to be the future of advertising and storytelling, but it never fully lived up to its promise. Why is that? A couple of factors contributed to this. An inadequate understanding of Transmedia storytelling by storytellers and brands, and more importantly, the audience and technology were not ready for it. This resulted in large-scale campaigns with unsatisfactory track records, leading to an inability to crack a business model to justify these campaigns. Now both the technology has caught up, and the audience has an appetite for this type of storytelling. Brands need to realise that Transmedia is the future of advertising.
So what are some of the core elements of a successful Transmedia campaign that are often missed?
Don't only make audiences heroes of the story but also active co-creators. Simply offering interactive elements in the form of XR or online social interaction and/or gaming is not enough. Audiences need to know their participation meaningfully shapes the story and that they matter. Trust them, esteem them.
Audiences are hungry for real connection and community in the age of technology. They want to belong to something beyond the matrix. With its participatory nature, Transmedia can powerfully build community. But it requires breaking the 4th wall and thinking beyond the web and video by including location-based events and story elements where the audience can come together in real life.
While the goal is to ensure audiences are intrigued to continue discovering and participating, it is important to ensure that every story level can live on its own. Audiences will lose patience if story levels are incomplete and they feel forced to go on.
Including immersive and new media in a campaign does not automatically make it Transmedia or an audience hit. Audiences see through the gimmicky use of technology if it does not serve the story. Utilising traditional formats also ensures reliability for a wide audience, including a young one, and allows for a comfort level for brands that makes it easier for them to sign on to a Transmedia campaign.
Transmedia is like story scavenger hunting and requires a game storytelling approach. A successful Transmedia campaign encourages an encyclopedic impulse to unearth the full story universe even beyond familiar mediums. This can only happen if the audience feels satisfied and rewarded at the end of each story level. To achieve this, the audience needs to be given a tangible goal/task for each level and a meaningful reward they earn after they have accomplished it.
As a thought leader in Transmedia Storytelling and New Media with a focus on Social Impact and User Experience, I am regularly invited to give talks and speak on panels in-house or at conferences and film festivals worldwide. I also teach at the New York Film Academy and give workshops worldwide.
Intrigued to go deeper and do you want to bring me to your event or institution, please contact me at skyevdo@gmail.com
