MULTI-PLATFORM STORYTELLING: 4 levers, 4 use cases.

Presented by: Gunther Sonnenfeld 4.29.2011

simulation

projectTRUST

OBJECTIVE(s):

- understand what trust really means across industries by seeking out emerging stories through topics & themes in videos & conversation; use current events as metafilters - identify behavioral, media consumption and socio-economic patterns through content communities; draw out new correlations & insights - use insights to weave together a new narrative, with various extended threads & user profiles - serve up an experience (such as a game) that uses select media to simulate the dimensions of trust using real-world situations as context; can be used for brands, communities or both.

ARCHAEOLOGY FOR KEY THEMES:

PROPAGANDA FAITH VS. TRUST RECIPROCITY TRUST & MONEY RESPECT VS. AUTHORITY TRUST & SCIENCE

START HERE.

persona

OBJECTIVE(s):
- use Algren estate assets & feature documentary to tell a metastory around artistic influence; allow the narrative (chapters & verse) to dictate channels & reinvigorate personas - leverage celebrity artists (writers, photogs, musicians, directors, etc.) to tell their own renditions of the relationship to Algren, using select, immersive media - invite people to participate in unique extended narratives found in games, eBooks, webisodes, etc.; blend fiction & non-fictional elements (& characters) in a new, dynamic storyworld - develop a franchise around these coordinated media & co-created assets

Algren Early Trailer Cut

extraction

OBJECTIVE(s):

- resurrect lagging sales from the first game (Red Dead Revolver) with an entirely new strategic approach; leverage the strength of the writing & central characters

- audit game components and extract current marketing assets; rebuild the John Marsten anti-hero archetype into a new storyworld with its own mythology; align first with Hollywood icons from the Wild West - use different media types - billboards, street pop-ups, hyperlinks, graphic novels, rich media, etc. - as critical entrypoints into the storyworld; elicit curiosity, advocacy & participation - create added cultural relevance by aligning emerging themes to cause-related components or modern history

Red Dead Redemption Ofcial Trailer

(rich media depicting Dali-esque trainwreck)

(outdoor media depicting Bronson-esque showdown)

(graphic novels told as prequels)

(serializations told with modern history; Polish Solidarity)

context

OBJECTIVE(s):
- create a game-like experience in which search queries are driven by topical or sentimental affinities - conversation pieces emerge as fractals, or clusters of reorganized information; those are matched to different media types - the fractal/media match-ups recontextualize the topics & sentiments & reveal new content communities - users are then given free online tools with which they can remix content as they please & they can syndicate it to their interest graphs (social networks)

TAKEAWAYS:
stories are everywhere; we have unlimited opportunities to curate and contextualize them at scale... for profit... or not. the most success is found at the intersection of media, technology and culture; we should liberate channels and methods, not be confined by them. anything is commercially possible provided that we use storytelling as a means for better understanding the human condition, not just to push messages or media agendas. marketing or branding is not the same thing as storytelling, but it can be; be unreasonable in the quest to tell that better story - it is the only way you can earn meaning, relevance & scale.

thank you