The Millennial Market Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

Millennials are not who you think they are. They are individuals. They are a collective group within a group. They are real people.

The one thing you need to know about this demographic is that they will not fit inside the box you have made for them. And guess what? This is now the largest generation, surpassing the baby boomers in numbers just this year.

The term millennial represents people who are aged between 16 and 36. That right there tells you that what a 16 year old likes is not going to be the same as a 36 year old. You're going to need a bigger transmedia marketing boat. You're also going to need to be in different platforms to reach each end of the millennial scale.

Especially for those who were born after the baby boomer generation, how you reach people will determine the success of your marketing campaign. You'll find a ton of statistics, like this Goldman Sachs infographic, that fall within the Bell Curve, which groups all millennials into an average age.

There are some things that cross the age groups for likes, passions, and must-haves. Take Marvel movies, for one, Pokémon Go for two. Music tastes might even be similar across the board, but not always. 

Platforms may differ. While we know that 78 percent of U.S. social media users are on Facebook (Statista), you can bet that Tumblr and Snapchat might be more popular for some, and by the time this post gets published, the younger ones will have found another app that none of the adults have yet tried to make their own.

When it comes to traditional media and where people get their news, the millennials cannot be fit into a Bell Curve. This is where you will have at least two different camps. The cord cutters -- the ones who never look at a television, get their news in their phone, and their shows on streaming platforms; and the ones who still watch shows on TV and get their news in their phone and in other sources (but may or may not be watching network news).

To reach millennials (and other demographics) your marketing plan could use a couple of must-haves in order to increase its likelihood for success: turn them into disciples and get them excited about sharing your content; make it easy to share, connect, and do what you want them to do; be genuine because their bullshit detectors are way better than yours; let them have a say in the direction you want to take; and for goodness sakes, be mobile-friendly.

Video Platforms, the Essential Storytelling Tool, Are Ever Evolving

Blab

Spreecast sent a notice to all of its users that it is closing its doors this month of July, and Blab's most avid users are leaving the platform. These are two interactive live-stream video platforms set up for talk TV. Both similar in that you could have four people on the broadcast in one screen. Both shareable through Facebook and Twitter before, during, and after from inside a broadcast. Both great at building interactive communities, where users meet up on other platforms to engage.

The fate of these and other platforms that have gone before them represent the one true thing about the Internet: everything is evolving and few things are a sure thing.

That said, the video platform is an essential storytelling tool and a must-have for the transmedia toolbox. A webcam is all that is required, whether it is an external or from a laptop, desktop, or mobile device. Point and shoot or get a bit more productive with annotations and creative editing. Make movie and book trailers, let your characters take the audience deep inside the story, interview people who work behind the scenes. Video is where it is at. People tend to be more inclined to consume a video over sifting through a website or reading a blog. No matter what your project or business is, chances are you can use video to your advantage.

The big enchilada and the queen of all queens is YouTube. While it is indelibly linked to Google Hangouts and Google+, there have been many changes that I'm still trying to figure out, but setting up a YouTube Live Stream event cuts out the middleman Google Hangouts on Air, even though they still connect with each other.

The best way to figure out a platform is to just do it. Play around with it and worst-case scenario you can always delete the video if you hate it that much.

Besides YouTube, there are several other platforms for video that can be used in lieu of, in conjunction, or mirrored.

No matter what platform you decide to try, download the MP4 of your content so you have a backup of it, just in case. I have downloaded some Periscope, Facebook Live, and Blab videos and posted them to YouTube. Personally, I now choose only to use video platforms that allow me to download and be able to keep my own content.

The following are some of the many choices for video platforms. They each have their own audience, so you can never assume a video can be one size fits all.

Maker TV requires a minimum monthly viewership before you can be accepted to the site, but once you are, there is an opportunity to grow your YouTube channel.

Vimeo is used by a lot of filmmakers and music artists. The platform only allows original material that you played a role in creating and hold the copyright to.

Facebook Live is a live streaming option from your Facebook page. In Canada, so far you can't use it from your personal page. There is an icon that shows up in the post options that allows you to post instant videos.

Dailymotion has a copyright filtering system that will flag anything you try to upload that isn't your own.

Vine videos are six-second shorts that can only be posted from a compatible mobile device.

Instagram videos can be a minute or less, and must also be posted from a compatible mobile device.

UStream is one of the first interactive live-streaming video platforms on the market and is still kicking.

Twitch is a popular live streaming platform for the gaming community.

Periscope is a live streaming mobile app owned by Twitter.

YouNow is a live streaming video chat platform that has a younger participating membership.

Now get filming and have fun!

The Three Little Pigs

This is an example that was posted several years ago by Dr. Pamela Rutledge. It is still the most simple and effective explanation about transmedia.

Everything centers around the main story: the English fairy tale book by Joseph Jacobs.

The image shows just a sampling of how this story can be stretched out into digital media. Today you might add Vine videos, an Instagram photo blog, and perhaps a Pinterest board of house building ideas and cooking recipes.

Any story can become a transmedia project with just a little creativity and imagination.

 

Old School Transmedia

From my personal box of Monkees treasures.

According to this Wikipedia post, spreadable storytelling (transmedia) stems back to the 1960s and may even go back to the beginning of literature.

Modern day storytellers tend to think of transmedia as a purely digital invention, but cross narratives have been well in play for decades.

I was thinking about this when I opened my box of Monkees paraphernalia. In it was a transmedia treasure trove: a Tiger Beat Monkees magazine, paperback and hardcover books, trading cards, a letter from the David Jones fan club, picture coins that came in a box of cereal, and plastic finger rings with faces of each of the Monkees. This went hand in hand with a television show I used to watch and the albums I collected.

The following are a handful of physical transmedia items from other projects:

A small full-color picture pocket book derived from the television show Desperate Housewives.

The DVD set from the television series based on the book trilogy by John Jakes.

Something that wasn't a part of the North & South series, but could have been used to market it. This is a cassette tape of narratives from the Civil War.

The Core of a Story

"... process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience ..."

HenryJenkins.org

There are two sides to developing a story through transmedia: a marketing strategy and crowdsourcing its fans.

Apps, books, social media, music, downloads, merchandising, memes, spinoffs, fan Vines or YouTube videos -- all of these combine to point to the core of the story: the main platform to which the story has been presented. Look at any popular television show (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Mad Men) or movie (Star Wars, Batman, Marvel Avengers) as an example.

The planning to use transmedia should include: what to narrate, how to narrate, genres -- what and how to narrate to different audiences, the story's characters, creating a fictional or real world experience, and structure, to name a few.

Let's take the poem In Flanders Field by John McCrae as an example. It's a story that is in the public domain. 

McCrae was a Canadian surgeon in World War I, who died at the end of the war of pneumonia. Here is the poem:

By only looking at the first stanza, we can expand the story, using YouTube, Vimeo, radio/podcasts, blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, and so much more. The topics that add meat to this story are:

• International politics
• Battlefields, plus surrounding towns
• Death
• History, including honor, sacrifice
• War poems
• Poppies
• Graveyards, gravediggers, the people left behind
• Larks
• Guns and gunnery

Using Transmedia For A Fiction Book

The Scarlet Letter may be a literary classic and even if the author is long dead that doesn't mean the story could not be expanded through using transmedia.

The book was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and the scene is set in Puritan Boston. It is about an extra-marital affair that results in an illegitimate baby, to which the woman is ostracized by society.

By today's standards, the subject is the perfect made-for-television movie or soap opera. There are a number of elements that can be expanded to add to the story to create a further understanding for the audience. 

• What it was like to live in Puritan Boston
• Sin
• Adultery
• Salem, Massachusetts (where the author was from)
• The author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Biblical references
• Adaptations of the story -- there are many
• Hester Prynne, the heroine of the story
• Pearl, Hester's illegitimate daughter
• The letter "A" -- what Hester was sentenced to wear in public to label her an adulterous

In reading the book again for the first time (with fresh eyes), you can add a lot more to this list.

So how do you expand a story like this? Here are just a couple of ideas:

• Post as Pearl in Snapchat or Instagram, perhaps using imagery of how she would view today's world, or what she would have witnessed in her own lifetime.
• Post as Hester on Pinterest, creating boards of items that she would have been interested in.
• Use Pinterest to expand on the elements listed above.
• Spoofs and memes on the story.
• YouTube channel readings, perhaps in different voices.

Any book, fiction or non-fiction, can be expanded by using different media to create unique content. It just takes a bit of creative brainstorming.

Hiring People for Your Transmedia Team

First and foremost, throw out the thought that everyone needs a degree. In the digital world, your social interactions are your Klout.

Creativity is also a key. You have to be a storyteller on steroids and be able to think up numerous ways to branch out into many different platforms. That also means knowing the platforms, who plays in them, and how that audience wants to be engaged.

The transmedia team will include photographers, videographers, and digital managers, such as a different person looking after each platform.

But when it comes right down to it, besides storytelling and marketing skills, knowing how to be a kick-ass community manager is at the top of the needs list. These are skills that are not taught in school. They don't come with a degree. They are easily found, just by viewing the Internet footprint of each candidate and how they participate in their social platforms.

In my book Publishing and Marketing in the Digital Age, I list the following skills that are essential before anyone should be hired as a transmedia manager:

1. Strong communication and literacy skills.
2. Strong people skills.
3. Ability to write blog posts, guest articles, emails, proposals, social content, and messages to fit any medium.
4. Outgoing, friendly, and relatable online presence.
5. Comfortable interacting with people (a natural networker).
6. Good judgement, level-headed.
7. Good at curating.
8. Have an idea what to share, how to share, and when to share.
9. Determine the best ways to handle feedback and how to respond in an appropriate fashion.
10. Know the audience and be able to effectively converse with them and see their perspective.
11. Be able to respond in a reasonable time (ideally within 24 hours or faster).
12. Be the face of the brand or a brand ambassador.
13. Create a customer experience.
14. Manage multiple platforms and track feedback.
15. Flexibility. 
16. Be able to do multiple job responsibilities (e.g. marketing, public relations, and communications).
17. Use analytics to determine what is working and not working.
18. Enable and empower your community, create conversations. 

Each transmedia project may have more requirements, such as knowledge of film industry, music industry, publishing industry, or other, but that is something that still isn't in a degree. Anyone can be a great transmedia manager, if you do the work. The ROI of your efforts is in your audience reaction, not in numbers of followers. If people comment, reshare, and sing your praises, that is all an HR team might need to determine your cred.

The Internet wasn't cooperating and cut short the video below to about three minutes, but it mentions the #CMGRHangout that happens every Friday, and is the brainchild of +Tim McDonald. Go to mycmgr.com for archived Hangouts and tips and insight into community management, which you can consider as part of your transmedia management training.

Super Bowl: The Biggest Transmedia Party

If you need a clear-cut example of how an entertainment product or a brand can use transmedia, look no further than the Super Bowl. 

Everything leads up to the big game, the final contest between the two teams that finish the National Football League season. Everything. 

Super Bowl 50 landed an estimated 111.9 million eyeballs on the television broadcast alone. This doesn't include how many watched in a bar, on a legal or illegal video stream, or on affiliated networks (such as ESPN Deportes). 

The Super Bowl is transmedia on steroids. 

Think about it. The Twitter conversations alone are enough to make a brand's head spin to try and catch up. During the game, you'll see trending hashtags for any significant play that happens, a commercial that resonates, a comment made during the broadcast, the halftime show. If the trend really resonates, you'll see someone create a new Twitter handle (see @leftshark). 

Then there are the memes -- the blessed memes. These are what make the Internet great. Here are a few examples from Super Bowl 50:

Besides the hundreds of accredited media attending the main event, you have fans and celebrities documenting their journeys and experience of the game. 

There are all the side stories leading up to the game: player profiles, the impact on the community, late night television interviews, product placement, and even a movie.

Then there are the commercials. The game is not just the icing on the NFL season; it is also championship day for advertisers and advertising firms. In the past few years, we're seeing more and more of these commercials receiving their own transmedia treatment, with teasers, contests, and some are also prelaunched the week before the actual game. 

There isn't a social media, media outlet (whether it's sports, news, or entertainment), establishment that has not had some form of discussion about the Super Bowl. That is transmedia on steroids.

Disabled Streamers Online

At the end of a video chat on Blab.im, I met a fellow who inspired this post. Kevin is visually impaired and he invited me to the Facebook Group: Disabled Live Streamers after I told him I used to work at the Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB) many years ago.

It got me thinking about how the Internet creates an even playing ground for some of those who might otherwise get overlooked for opportunity in a brick and mortar situation. (If you've ever been temporarily disabled or have had to escort someone who is in a wheelchair, you know what I mean. There may be ramps and main doors that open with a button, but try a bathroom door inside that building.)

Computers have been a saving grace for years. We've seen numerous movies where computers have been used to improve the lives of someone disabled. Lorenzo's Oil, The Theory of Everything, Tin Man, and Knight and Day are just a handful of examples.

There are opportunities galore, especially in streaming video. Anyone can create their own visual real estate on the web, and what a great way to integrate the disabled. 

The Disabled Online Users Association is also just one example of the wealth of resources available at the end of a Google search. But more than just a way to earn a living, the computer eliminates isolation. It is easy to find like-minded people and others who share a similar experience. You are never alone.

So whether you're blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, autistic, brain injured, have a speech disorder, chances are you can adapt your computer or mobile device to make the Internet easier to navigate multiple platforms in many different ways.  

Check out +boogie2988. 

  

#computer #disabledonlineusers #DisabledOnlineUsersAssociation #videostreaming

Crowdsourcing Engagement

Before you build your transmedia platforms, it's important to know where your audience lives and how many demographics you will be approaching.

In using +Marvel Movies as an example, an audience can stretch over several generations. There is no one size fits all for demographics. Even though they may all come together for their love of Spiderman and Captain America, the interests and platforms of a 10 year old will differ largely from that of a teenager, from a twenty-something mom, to a 40-year-old professional, to a retired tradesman.

Know where your audience "lives" and what they look for (how they want to be approached). Ask them to participate. I don't mean "like my Facebook page." That means dick squat. What milkshake does your Facebook have to bring all the people to your yard? Once they are there, do you ignore them? Also, when you do ask for their participation, don't waste their time. Be brain-dead clear and concise.

Here are a couple of tips from the Australia website www.8ms.com.

1. Most people want advertising to feel like a story or game (see every Super Bowl).
2. Most want brands to treat the real world like a platform.
3. Most feel more compelled to jump in if the activity is in real time.
4. Most of all the media people consume is screen-based.

Managing audience engagement is crucial. Silence begets silence, and it is also important to make your content easy to share. Replies to comments and queries should be timely. If email, sometimes a few days is okay to wait, but in Twitter or Facebook, if you don't respond within a day, people have moved on and it seems like you have disregarded them.

If you make it hard for people to share your content, they won't. Digital currency is based on likes, comments, and shares. There are some traditional media sites that still throw up roadblocks to sharing online content. If your blog or post doesn't have a relevant photograph (we also see some media posts that don't), you won't be able to pin the story to Pinterest and if it just shows up as text in a feed, it may get glossed over.

There are a whole host of platforms one can use to extend their storyline: blogs, videos, podcasts, special Twitter hashtags, email, social media, web series, website, book, music, SMS, location-based games, novellas, comics, memes, the list is endless.

The following Blab offers up a few examples of getting audiences to engage in multiple platforms. You don't have to go very far to find ideas to inspire your own projects. These two creative websites are the ones mentioned in the video: www.conducttr.com and hitrecord.org.