Media Perspective: Adopt a transmedia approach to really get the point across.(Viewpoint essay)

If you're reading this issue of Campaign on Thursday morning, just after it comes out, then you are part of a transmedia experience. Or, at least, you could be.

At this very moment, I'm at a Warc conference, speaking about the new idea consumer, and new kinds of media ideas, new ideas of influence. Also at this very moment, a post I wrote in advance is being published to my blog (www.farisyakob.com), timed to coincide with the beginning of my talk and you reading this article. This has all been orchestrated to provide a live example of a transmedia experience.

In 2006, I posted on my blog about transmedia planning. I wrote up the idea in a thesis for the IPA (which was then published in Campaign). It was an idea I stole from Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. In essence, it's a different way of thinking about media and media planning. Rather than reiterating the same thought in multiple channels, transmedia narratives use different channels to build a larger, non-linear brand world.

So, right now, at Warc, I'm talking about influence, and how it might apply to brands in a media environment where they can no longer buy attention. What brand behaviour influences people? How do consumers collude with brands to influence themselves? Part of that requires understanding that a new kind of idea consumer has emerged that has an intrinsically participatory relationship with ideas - an ...