My first blog-post. I suppose I'm just going to have to just to get over my fear of self-broadcast and just bloody get on with it. Thanks to the great blogs of some much cleverer people than me, I recently came across theories about 'Transmedia' and the debate sparked by Henry Jenkins' book, Convergence Culture. Not convergence in the sense of the Black Box Fallacy (the idea that all technology will eventually flow into and out of a single device) but convergence in the sense that no-one can know everything but everyone has something meaningful and different to contribute. Applying this theory of cultural convergence to the changing consumer consumption and interaction has spawned transmedia planning.

A transmedia planning model - swiped from Jason Oke’s blog, taken originally from Faris from Naked’s blog - both good posts, links below.
Faris Yakob's Post
Leo Burnett's Toronto Blog
The idea that media persists as layers in ever more complicated information and cultural stratem really appeals to me. It acknowledges that consumers form meaningful mental connections between bits of information drawn from multiple media platforms:
Printed words did not kill spoken words. Cinema did not kill theatre. Television did not kill radio.
And no doubt the internet will not kill TV either, but it is, will and already has forever changed the way that people consume TV, and the way they define what TV is, c.f. Neave and iTV1. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the reason I like the transmedia planning model so much is that it lets each medium in a campaign play to its strengths. Media neutral planning's well, neutralness always irked me. It always seems to deliver matching sets of luggage that are either about creating print ads for the TV, or each other, without considering the most meaninglful way to create an interesting experience for consumers, or what the best role for the medium is. Media are different. They have different strengths and weaknesses. The transmedia model seems to allow for this thinking, and at its best creates multilayered creative work that provides multiple layers of interest and fun for consumers. Again to borrow the words of Henry Jenkins, 'The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do.' My favourite so far of these is the M&M's Dark work, part Heironymous Bosch, part crispy shelled candy.
M&Ms Dark Game
A search in Google for 'M&Ms Dark Answers' yields 169,000 results. Not only is it fun to play, it brings people together to help solve all the clues in a much quicker and interesting way than a single individual sat head scratching at their screen.
Before this bloggohoea persists any further I should probably explain Origami Unicorn (if anyone's still reading, a definition for my cryptic post title is the least you deserve). The "origami unicorn" featured in the director's cut version of Bladerunner led many to speculate that Deckard, the protagonist, may be a replicant. Creating "origami unicorns" for consumers lets you convey that there are secrets there to be uncovered, and rewards for those willing to invest the time. This means that you can potentially motivate conversation and engagement as online discussion forums to work together mutually decode the layered content.
Henry Jenkins' Blog:
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