Essay on Transmedia Storytelling: Media Marketing Strategy

Running head: ESSAY
Part Two: Essay
“How trans media storytelling has impacted on the fan culture and how it has created more
content creation for users on different platforms?”
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How trans-media storytelling has impacted on the fan culture and how it has created more
content creation for users on different platforms?
Introduction
Transmedia story-telling is a new aspect of the technological advancement in the media.
It enables the content creators to reach out to the target market via different media platforms
simultaneously to have a larger impact on the followers. According to Jenkins (2007),
transmedia opens up the opportunity to tell a story via multiple channels or platforms of
communication at once and it primarily involves the digital channels like social media and web.
The main purpose of this transmedia story telling is to disperse all the integral parts of a fiction
systematically across more than one delivery platform for creating a coordinated and unified
entertainment experience for the viewers. In this system, each of the story telling platform does a
unique contribution in unfolding the story and its various nuances to the audience to create a
deeper connection with them. This method of entertainment has been proved to be beneficial for
creating a deeper connection with the audiences and also to create a larger fan base (McAdams
2016). This essay will highlight the impact of transmedia storytelling on the fan culture and its
role in creating more content for the users in different media platforms.
Discussion
In the era of technological revolution, the media platforms have been evolving too. As
variety of platforms have been developed, the content creators have opted for convergence in the
contents. In the media world, convergence refers to the flow of the content or story across several
media channels or platforms, involving a cooperation or synchronization between the different
media platforms for catering to the audiences who would prefer to visit almost every type of

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media channels accessible to them for the type of entertainment experiences as per their tastes
and preferences (Jenkins 2016). The concept of transmedia is based on the concept of media
convergence. As the number of media channels are increasing, the content creators are engaging
multiple channels for releasing their content to the audiences for purpose of getting a larger fan
base. As mentioned by Ecenbarger (2016), the benefits of transmedia include the opportunity of
continuation of a story in both formal and informal ways, availability of more background
information, that is, depth and history to the characters of the story, creation of the sense of
realism to a fictional world, creation of different entry points to the fiction or story resulting in
larger markets, and ability of the media modality, such as, books, films, games, comics,
merchandised products, toys, wiki, social media pages and groups, etc. to contribute to the
narrative system while being accessible to all types of users and offering different types of media
experience. For example, the Harry Potter franchisee is a classic example of transmedia
storytelling. The initial content was published in the form of a book, and its success led to the
creation of other type of media, such as, film franchisee, merchandized products, games, comics,
theme parks, social media pages and communities, web series etc. This has increased the fan
base of the Harry Potter series into millions across the world. Hence, it can be said that the
creator of the Harry Potter adopted the method of transmedia storytelling to provide variety of
media or entertainment experiences to the fan base of different age groups and the plan of
expanding the fan base of has been therefore successful (Thon 2015).
There are numerous examples of transmedia storytelling in the western world of
entertainment, such as, in Hollywood. In the past decade, a large number of content creators are
adopting the method of transmedia storytelling and creating a franchisee for the content, which
caters to a large target market, with variety of age groups. The ability of the transmedia

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storytelling to present different aspects as well as a bigger picture of the narrative has quite an
extensive impact on the audience. For example, in the Batman franchisee, there are not only
multiple films and TV series, based on the comics, but the content creators have also expanded
the original stories by making additions of the fictional background of some popular characters,
such as, in the movie The Dark Knight, Batman confronts the Joker, whose background has been
created and depicted in the 2019 film, Joker. Moreover, the merchandised product markets are
flooded with products like apparels, accessories, like, bags, watches, sunglasses, hats etc., video
games, action figures, drawing books and coloring sets for kids, variety of toys, puzzle sets, cars
and many more during the promotion of the film and as the fan base increases, the supply of
these products is continued. Hence, the target market gets quite large through the transmedia
story telling technique (Wood 2015).
As stated by Couldry (2012), there are quite a few advantages of transmedia storytelling
having positive impact on the fan base. The technological developments have brought about
cultural and social transformations and have impact on a wider market. This platform of new
media is shaped by the global process, communication, the different forms of business as well as
entertainment, the consumption habits of the people and all these factors have created a new
consumer profile that is different from the past. Thus, the target market and the market structure
of the media content have evolved quite dramatically. Thus, not only the products but also the
form of presentations is also getting evolved to meet the demand of the new age customers of the
new media.
In the new media structure, the traditional communication strategies are no longer
adequate and hence, similar to any other industry, the media industry is also taking the
interaction and communication based approach to reach out to the audiences and transmedia

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storytelling opens up that opportunity for the content creators. This approach is compatible and
appropriate for the modern culture and lifestyle. As highlighted by Jenkins and Deuze (2008),
transmedia storytelling is the strategic application of the marketing communication by the
content creators for reaching to new customers and establish a connection with them and this
helps in increasing the competitiveness in the market.
(Source: Jenkins 2007)
The technique of transmedia storytelling appeals to the new media consumers. The
different innovations in the media channels determine the media consumption habits and give
rise to new media audience. According to Jenkins (2007), while the old media consumer
represents a passive and stable consumer with a constant structure, whose actions are predictable.
During the times of old media, the individuals often remained isolated from the social life and
hence, were considered to be invisible and quiet and expected to act obediently and agreeably.

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Thus, in the traditional media environment, the old media consumers were subject to
manipulation.
However, the new media consumers are participative and their structure is dynamic. They
can change their brand or media franchise or social network loyalty anytime. Due to high level of
involvement in the social media and web, the new media consumers are more exposed to
interaction, and degree of connection is quite high. Therefore, these new media consumers
cannot be manipulated by the content creators and rather these consumers have a control on the
media. Transmedia storytelling is an effective medium to reach out to these new media
consumers. These group of consumers have easy access to the new technologies, like,
smartphones, gaming boxes, web, and social media, and therefore, they can get their hands on
several media platforms and have the power of accepting sand rejecting the content being
presented by the creators, and also have the power to determine their preferred watch-list in the
new media platforms across different channels and gain different experiences (Gürel and Tığlı
2014). At the same time, the digital multimedia platforms enable them to participate in
discussions in the social media, and thus, the new media consumers are quite powerful as they
have the ability to influence the other consumers over social media and can create strong market
for one content while destroy the market for another (Hjorth and Richardson 2014).
Bird (2011) pointed out that more narratives are available through the transmedia
storytelling and that leads to creation of more media. Due to multiple channels of media
platforms, the profit level is higher for the media content creators. In this system, each of the
narratives, created for different media channels, offers new content to the consumers. The
framework of the transmedia storytelling includes the brand extension strategy, termed as the
franchise system. However, it is argued that as per the brand extension strategy, in the

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transmedia storytelling, there is no primary product, rather the main story is considered as the
main story. When the main story gains popularity, it becomes a brand. Further contents are
created as an extension of the main story that gets strengths from the brand’s image, awareness
among the customers and the merchandized products, and others like, games, theme parks,
accessories are considered as side stories (Croteau and Hoynes 2013).
Thus, it can be said that the transmedia storytelling has quite widespread impact on the
fan culture. The marketing programs are planned and programmed in a manner so as to meet the
demands and expectations of the customers belonging to all types of demographic. It is often
considered as an evolved version of the integrated marketing communication (Juul 2010) and
thus, the content creators communicate about their products through marketing.
As explained by Gürel and Tığlı (2014), transmedia storytelling has opened up many
digitalized media platforms, which leads to generation of different types of contents for the users,
based on a main story, and hence, it implies that the different narratives for different platforms
has provided much creative space for the content creators. For example, the Disney production
house produces childrens’ movies based on the fairytales, written by other authors. Based on the
movie, the other content creators choose their products as per their specialization, hence, while
one company produces video games, another production house creates web series, which are
streamed online on subscription based platform, like, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu etc.
Similarly, some other video game manufacturer company creates video games based on the
movie, a toy manufacturing company produces toys and other accessories like bags, watches,
jewelries, dresses, hairclips etc., Sometimes, it is also seen that another new story has been
created on the basis of one of the characters from the original fairytale, which shows the
background of that character, such as, the character Maleficent in two Disney movie franchisees,

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has been developed on the basis of the villain fairy in the fairy tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’. The
movie with its sequel grabbed a huge gross revenue across the world, creating a huge fan base
(Schlögl and Zagalo 2019).
The transmedia story telling is highly prevalent in Hollywood, where through extensive
contents in different platforms, the producers are able to reach out to a larger target audience
base. This branch of advanced media has been giving creative space to a large number of content
creators and they are utilizing the opportunities. The benefits are enjoyed by all the content
producers (Kalogeras 2014). For example, when a movie is being released, which is based on a
story book, the demand for the original book increases rapidly, and that results in higher revenue
to the booksellers and the authors. At the same time, the other content producers utilize the hype
as well as promote the branding by creating different types of contents for different platforms for
the audience. These contents have different target markets consisting of all age groups, such as,
DC Comics releases drawing and coloring books and color pencil sets for kids, while advanced
video games are produced for adults, who have grown up by reading the original DC Comics
series and therefore already fall into the category of fans of the DC Comics. The video games
make these adults nostalgic and therefore they watch the movies as well as web series, if any,
and join the social network groups (Bertetti 2014).
Fan fiction is an extension of the transmedia storytelling, which is an opportunity for the
content creators. Gürel and Tığlı (2014) explained that sometimes audience members pick up
gaps in the transmedia storylines or in the development of a character in the story, and from there
another branch of content is developed, known as fan fiction. It is sometimes observed that a
popular story book, movie or TV series has led to the creation of restaurants and/or cafes. These
venues use images and storylines from the original story in their menus and décor, and these set

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ups also create contents in a real life platform for the audience. These are highly beneficial for
establishing a strong connection with the audiences. One of the examples of such cafes is the
McGee’s in New York City, located at 240 W. 55th St., on which the bar MacLaren’s in the
famous TV series “How I Met Your Mother”. After the show was aired and gained high
popularity, the owners of McGee’s renovated their interiors with the show’s pictures and menus
to give a real life experience to the customers. They have introduced cocktails such as, the
Pineapple Incident ($8) and Slutty Pumpkin ($8). The food menu also includes a wrap named
TedMosbyIsAJerk.com wrap ($12). Furthermore, McGee’s also hosts trivia nights on the show
at 8pm every Tuesday even through the show has gone off-air (Putnam 2014). Thus, this is one
example of transmedia storytelling where the content creators give a real experience of the very
popular TV show to the audience through décor and food, which is altogether a different
platform than the digital media. This not only has increased the fan base of the show, but also
improved the revenue of the pub. This also implies that content creators can use various
platforms, traditional or digitalized, to reach out to the target audience with different narratives
of the main story and thus, transmedia storytelling is beneficial for that purpose.
Conclusion
It can be inferred from the above discussion that in the world, dominated by highly
advanced technology in every sphere of daily lives of people, transmedia storytelling has
emerged as an evolution in the media and entertainment industry. This technology has opened up
numerous avenues for content creating based on a single story. Different media platforms are
using different narratives of a main story to cater to the expectations of the target audiences
belonging to different demographics and that not only helps in creating a better connection with
the audience, but also helps the media and content producers. On one hand, the audiences are

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getting more involved with the media or entertainment of their choice and controlling the media,
on the other hand, there are many industries that have emerged and became dependent on the
main media segment through the technique of transmedia storytelling. During the past decades,
the old media was traditional and the consumers were passive, predictable and stable, while in
the era of new media, the digitalized media is controlled by the active consumers who are
dynamic and wanderer to get the media of their choice. Transmedia storytelling has enabled the
content creators to access this dynamic target market for offering various narratives in different
media platforms.

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References
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Couldry, Nick. Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity, 2012.
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Jenkins, Henry, and Mark Deuze. "Convergence culture." (2008): 5-12.
Jenkins, Henry. "13 Transmedia Logics and Locations." The Rise of Transtexts: Challenges and
Opportunities (2016): 220.

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Jenkins, Henry. "Transmedia storytelling 101. March 22, 2007." URL: http://henryjenkins.
org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101. html (2016-04-25) (2007).
Juul, Jesper. A casual revolution: Reinventing video games and their players. MIT press, 2010.
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Dark Knight." Convergence 21, no. 2 (2015): 169-181.

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