Transmedia Storytelling: What is it and how can you apply it to your digital campaigns?
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 8:09 am
Home > Content Marketing > Transmedia Storytelling: What is it and how can it be applied to your digital campaigns?
In the digital age, brands do everything to connect with consumers through different formats: blogs, videos, ebooks, social networks… What if all these media were used to communicate the same story? This is the principle of transmedia storytelling, a new way of offering valuable content in which the user takes an active role and interacts with the company.
Until not too long ago, companies communicated with consumers in a very basic way and through a single channel: advertising. It is true that the methods used were different: billboards, brochures, ads on traditional media... but it was still advertising. If the consumer liked it, fine. But what if they didn't like it? There was no type of interaction: this one-way communication was, in fact, a monologue.
The arrival of the digital era has revolutionized the entire process: now the list of barbados consumer email consumer has more power to influence companies. Brands, through their digital strategies , strive to be more innovative than their competitors and to reach an increasingly demanding user. How can they do it? Through different channels and with personalized content, capable of providing added value.
It is in this context that the term transmedia storytelling comes into play , introduced by the American researcher Henry Jenkins in an article published in 2003. Transmedia storytelling is defined as a story told through various media and communication platforms . This content can be proposed through blogs, videos, ebooks, social networks, films , etc. All these contents have a common denominator, within which the consumer plays an active role.
“Content is always new, on every medium and every platform. It’s a puzzle where all the pieces fit together to complete the story, while the user is given new information in each piece,” explains Laia Vidal, a transmedia expert, in the webinar “The Changing Role of Users in Transmedia Storytelling” at IEBS Business School.
A success story
A good example of transmedia storytelling is the project of the companies Intel and Toshiba . Their goal was to connect with customers and, at the same time, promote the Toshiba Ultrabook. Both companies created a 6-episode online mini-series called “ The Beauty Inside ”.
The protagonist was Alex, a young man who woke up every morning with a different face and body and who had to face the typical problems of his age: finding a job, falling in love with a girl, maintaining friendships… Alex used a Toshiba Portégé with an Intel processor to tell his story through a daily video diary.
The project was successful because it managed to connect with the user through social media: in this story, the audience could interact with Alex through the companies' Facebook page by putting a face to the character (a different one per day). All the episodes were eventually uploaded to YouTube .
In the digital age, brands do everything to connect with consumers through different formats: blogs, videos, ebooks, social networks… What if all these media were used to communicate the same story? This is the principle of transmedia storytelling, a new way of offering valuable content in which the user takes an active role and interacts with the company.
Until not too long ago, companies communicated with consumers in a very basic way and through a single channel: advertising. It is true that the methods used were different: billboards, brochures, ads on traditional media... but it was still advertising. If the consumer liked it, fine. But what if they didn't like it? There was no type of interaction: this one-way communication was, in fact, a monologue.
The arrival of the digital era has revolutionized the entire process: now the list of barbados consumer email consumer has more power to influence companies. Brands, through their digital strategies , strive to be more innovative than their competitors and to reach an increasingly demanding user. How can they do it? Through different channels and with personalized content, capable of providing added value.
It is in this context that the term transmedia storytelling comes into play , introduced by the American researcher Henry Jenkins in an article published in 2003. Transmedia storytelling is defined as a story told through various media and communication platforms . This content can be proposed through blogs, videos, ebooks, social networks, films , etc. All these contents have a common denominator, within which the consumer plays an active role.
“Content is always new, on every medium and every platform. It’s a puzzle where all the pieces fit together to complete the story, while the user is given new information in each piece,” explains Laia Vidal, a transmedia expert, in the webinar “The Changing Role of Users in Transmedia Storytelling” at IEBS Business School.
A success story
A good example of transmedia storytelling is the project of the companies Intel and Toshiba . Their goal was to connect with customers and, at the same time, promote the Toshiba Ultrabook. Both companies created a 6-episode online mini-series called “ The Beauty Inside ”.
The protagonist was Alex, a young man who woke up every morning with a different face and body and who had to face the typical problems of his age: finding a job, falling in love with a girl, maintaining friendships… Alex used a Toshiba Portégé with an Intel processor to tell his story through a daily video diary.
The project was successful because it managed to connect with the user through social media: in this story, the audience could interact with Alex through the companies' Facebook page by putting a face to the character (a different one per day). All the episodes were eventually uploaded to YouTube .