Story as Software

Transmedia storytelling is hot in both Hollywood and Madison Avenue. The success of franchises such as Heroes, Afterworld, and Valemont has proven the value of extending narrative across many platforms to create multiple doorways for end-users to enter and engage with a story. The next stage of transmedia storytelling will pair narrative extensions with functionality extensions to open up completely new user experiences and business models for producers, distributors and marketers. Recent deals between content providers like Bravo with location-based players like Foursquare, in which Bravo branded content is made part of the Foursquare experience is indicative of a larger trend of integrating function with media experiences. This talk will explore some of the examples of new marriages of form and function in media, with special emphasis on the operational and technology challenges needed to pull it off. Drill downs will focus on mobile augmented reality, handling the data challenge, as well as integrating audience input into the evolution of a branded content franchise. For developers, there is no better time to think about what it means to build an API into a content franchise.