Keynote presentation to the Transmedia Living Lab, Madrid sponsored by Telefonica. The presentation introduces a methodology for participatory storytelling and illustrates with examples from my work a

1. Keynote to Transmedia Living Lab
Madrid, Spain May 28th 2012
Robert Pratten
CEO & Founder, Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
@robpratten

2. Robert Pratten
CEO & Founder, Transmedia Storyteller Ltd

3. Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
“We power remarkable experiences”

4. Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
“We power remarkable experiences”

5. “Life is not measured by the number of
breaths we take, but by the number of
moments that take our breath away”

6. What I believe…
• Experience is king
• Emotion => immersion (not more content!)
• The Internet kills mediocrity
• Need to generate word-of-mouth
• Need to empower advocates
• Leverage “new media” depth to gain “old
media” reach
• Marketing is integral to the experience

8. Content released over 15 day period

9. Game accessed via blogs – used real
and custom websites to set challenges
http://ortegapi.posterous.com/
http://a-cops-wife-life.blogspot.com/

10. Metrics
• Marketing budget = $0
• Production budget = $500
• Total Net Kindle Revenue (2011) = $1748
• Total shipments on Kindle Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2011 =
972 (retail price at Amazon.com $2.94)
• Number of people connecting to Lauren Ortega on
email = 83 = 9% of total sales
• Video views of Episode 1 (Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2011)
= 4727

11. Sales vs Social Media (Lowlifes)
Nb: “video views” used as simple proxy for trend of social media activity. Wasn’t the sole activity also
included email, Twitter, Facebook etc.

12. Sales vs Social Media (Lowlifes)
Tipping point

13. Empower advocates

14. “Big on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn”

16. Learning objectives
• Teach ethics and economics
• Simulation of real-life scenario
• Self-guided problem solving
• Collaborative working
• New media comprehension

17. Engagement
INTERACTION
• Personalized replies to incoming emails & Tweets from fictional characters
ETHICAL DECISIONS
• “The Whistleblower”
• Employee who contacts the students claiming that the payload was over
weight
• “The Extortionist”
• Dept. Environment agent that proposes a pay-off for him to write a more
favorable report.
GAME-STYLE REWARDS
• Rewards based on involvement:
– “I like what you’re doing, I’ve recommend a bonus increase at the next pay
review board”
– “You’re asking great questions, you can have use of the company seats behind
the catcher…”

18. Lowlifes 2.0

19. Lowlifes 2.0… whodunit
• Characters:
– reveal intrigue, clues, histories
– have moods: sympathetic towards you or not
– real-world time availability (coffee break, sleeping)
– surprises – reversals & follow-ups
• Personalized experience
– via character behavior and…
– help mode on or off
– feedback on progress (e.g. “60% complete)
– personalized calls-to-action/reminders based on position in story
• Out-of-world communication from author integrated with in-world
communications from characters
• Measurable
– how deep people play
– time to respond
– A/B testing to improve results
• No cookies, plug-ins, apps or registration forms: played on email, Twitter and SMS
• Entirely scripted, no AI and no coding

20. 101 Ways to Die
• CLARION SECURITY is looking for people like
YOU. Text JOIN to (310) 853-5617
• Q1: You can only save one person: do you save the young
woman or the old man? Reply YOUNG WOMAN or OLD MAN
• Q2: You're hiding in gang territory. You get one opportunity to
shoot the gang leader - you have 50:50 chance of success.
Reply TAKE SHOT or WAIT

21. “Psychometric profile”
Q2
SHOOT WAIT
Q1
OLD Guardian Perfectionist
YOUNG Status Seeker Elitist

22. Storytelling with Conducttr
Narrative Gaming Rewards
Levels
Collaboration
Competition
Characters
Plot
Events
Things Social
Networking Participation,
Conversation

23. Conducttr – Under the Hood
Conducttr: Pervasive Entertainment Platform
Broadcast & reply emails, Tweets, SMS
Content Layer Publish blog posts, videos, images,
Facebook updates
Events – when “stuff” should happen
Control Layer Actions – personalization of experience
Real World Audience

24. Under The Hood - Audience
Audience
Audience is viewed as:
• individual (just you)
• community (everyone)
Individual Community • group (segments of everyone)
Individual Everyone Groups

25. Engagement
Goal: delight each individual with personalized, surprising, evolving content
Conducttr Audience
call to action
Content Layer call to action
Individual Community
action
Control Layer
Real World
community action
personalization
community-driven
story evolution

26. What’s holding us back?
• Knowledge & Communication
– How to write cross-platform participatory stories
– Processes
– Common language
– Documentation
• Presentation & Discovery
– Labeling: What is it?
• Tools
– Replay-ability
– Progress tracking
– Signposting: Story-so-far, help system
– Rewards

27. Welcome to our Worlds

28. Invite the world into your World
Trailer or Website
Description
Date & time information
The platforms the World lives on

29. In the cloud In your palm
www.conducttr.com

30. Connected experience
Your Story/Experience
Native cross-platform experience written
without code to run from the cloud on social
networks (and on other sites such as tablet
apps, social games, consoles, forums etc. via
Conducttr API with coding)
Audience

31. XP Progress & Achievements
,

32. Our transmedia storytelling
mobile app is your portal
Benefits & Features
• A faster, cheaper way to launch transmedia projects
– no cost of custom-app development
– immediately available when scripted with Conducttr
– allows audience to manage their own data
• Discovery
– available to a growing community that wants transmedia stories
• Retention & Engagement
– show audience its progress through the story
– reward audience with points and badges
– leaderboards
– forum

33. Approach

34. Transmedia development

35. story experience
start
Is the business model to generate
yes revenue from sit-back/mono- no
media? (e.g. book, movie,
console game, music etc.)
yes Is this a franchise of Develop the experience
multiple mono-media? (includes participation &
social media)
Start to develop the story
for piece you’re most Develop the sit-back
familiar with media
no Is the first yes
piece 30-70% complete? Is this 30-90% complete? Experience complete?
yes yes
Develop the other pieces
of the franchise
Complete mono-media
All pieces 30-70% yes elements
complete?
end

36. Author Methodology
Participatory Transmedia Storytelling
1. Business 2. Definition 3. Design 4. Implementation
Planning (Goal Setting)
• Audience • Synopsis • User phases • Production pipeline
• Story • Engagement • User journey • Preparation
• Experience • Interaction • Quests • Conducttr
• Platforms • Play test
• Business model • Go live
• Execution

37. Story development

38. Definition
2.1Synopsis 2.2. Engagement 2.3. Interaction 2.4. Operations
2.1.1 Story 2.2.1 Purpose 2.3.1 Platforms 2.4.1 Management
2.2.1 Experience 2.2.2 Participation 2.3.2 Media (Assets) 2.4.2 Metrics
2.2.3 Personalization
2.2.4 Pacing
2.2.5 Characters

39. Audience participation opportunities
FEEL
Companion Actor
Moral dilemmas, Role-play,
meaningful choices provide building blocks
Outsider Observer
Reflection, consideration Exploring, discovering
THINK
DO
What will the audience do? How will they be engaged?

40. “Social TV” activity
Massive unrealized potential for audience to act in the storyworld
FEEL Companion Actor
Outsider Observer
Second-screen
content usually
provides b-roll or
extra content, comics,
games
THINK
DO
Twitter & Facebook activity discusses the show, tweets with the cast etc

41. Example

42. Work in
Progress…

43. Project Structure
Producer
(Jonathan Sothcott)
Transmedia Producer
(Robert Pratten)
Graphic Design &
Branding Feature Script
(Simon Cluett)
(BTL Brands)
Psychophol Wastelander Tarot Cards Web Series
(Cassi) (Berta) (Tara) (Robert)

44. Story Real-world
(strength, depth & authorial (pervasive, built around fact)
control)
Participation Gaming
(contribute, change, co-create) (goals, puzzles, challenges, trophies)
Story = importance of narrative, depth of world & degree of authorial control
Real-world = extent to which story-experience pervades real locations & times, real people & events
Participation = ability of audience to change or contribute to the story-experience
Gaming = audience has goal, use of puzzles, game mechanics (trophies, levels, leader boards etc.)

45. Mask of the Red Death
Online Story Real-world
Feature Film
Web series Participation Gaming
Psychophol experience
Wastelander experience
Real World
Tarot Cards
Event: Festival Screening
Mobile app
DVD release

46. WORKFLOW: Mask of the Red Death
Short story Synopsis Transmedia Funding Write Feature Psychophol Write
Strategy Approved Script Experience Psychophol
Defined Story
Director’s Wastelander Create Create
Vision Experience Card Card
Defined Mechanics Story
Information flow
Storyworld Write
Wiki (Bible) Webseries
Key
Documents Story writing Experience

47. Participation for MskRD
FEEL
Companion Actor
Psychophol Wastelander Tarot
experience experience Cards
Outsider Observer
Web Series
THINK
DO

48. Psychophol Quests
Q2. LOVE TWEETS
Q1. Intro
Q5. FWD EMAIL TO
Q10. – CONTINUE
Q3. REPORT EMAILS PROSPERO
HELPING WEBSTER
PROSPERO Q8. WEBSTER
GETS DOCUMENTS
Q7. TWITTER
GAME
Q4. SCAPEGOAT Q6. YES! HELP
Q9. AMBUSHED! Q11. ACCEPT BRIBE
EMAIL JAMES
AND BECOME SPY

49. Mask of the
Red Death
www.psychophol.com

50. The End
Robert Pratten
robert@tstoryteller.com
@robpratten
Europe: +44 207 193 4567
USA: +1 415 287 4150