Everyones knows how digital media has transformed marketing. Door-to-door selling is frankly out of the door thanks to technology which allows more personalized, visually appealing & entertaining advertising. With precise tools like SEO you can get your brand closer to your target customers even before they know it. But well, everything has its pros and cons. You can flash your brand tirelessly at your customers and chase them across multiple media channels and at the same time your customers can use the very same technology to block your across multiple media channels! Yes, the Ad Blocker Alert!
Not just that. As you are coming up with strategies on a day-to-day basis to leverage the power of social media, so is the rest of the world. So how can you get through all that sleaze and make your brand seen, heard or known?
That’s where transmedia marketing comes in.
“Transmedia basically means to transport a story-world or message into a customer’s everyday life through the use of multiple media platforms.”-Dr. Chester Elijah Branch is an author and Transmedia Architect who teaches digital and social media courses internationally.
Transmedia marketing uses the same tools as traditional media marketing does but it works on a different concept. While traditional marketing focuses on brands, transmedia marketing focuses on the customer. Brands today can no longer project themselves as the knight in shining armour coming to save the lad or damsel in distress customer.
In fact, in the transmedia marketing landscape the customer is the hero.
They are the ones making choices, they are the ones making purchasing decisions and spending money. You, the brand, are just the facilitator who provides an option to them for better living or a better journey through your service or product.’
“The brand is no longer the storyteller but a facilitator in story making”, says Dr. Branch .
Jonah Berger, distinguished author of Contagious, Why Things Catch On, talks about social currency. Social currency is something brands bank in order to keep their story alive. If brands focus on the customer’s story, they’ ll have to have work towards making their message even stronger. NGOs already have a strong social currency for-profit companies find it hard and that’s where the art lies-telling your customer’s story without compromising your message.
Prosumerism is the idea that consumers are not just consuming a service or product but have the same power as you do to remake or retell the story of the brand. And that means they have the power to consume & sell the product.
Now you know why companies focus on giving their consumers new & interesting ways to give testimonials. Companies hire community engagement teams that communicate with or respond to concerns of the consumer. Any feedback or testimonial is actively shared & reshared; since in transmedia it’s the consumer’s story is what matters.
Experts also talk about how transmedia enables brands to transform the telling of stories to making of them with consumers-thereby making consumers participants in the marketing processes.
Transmedia marketing, therefore, deals with building the brand with and for consumers. The story-making approach that transmedia allows makes possible viral, dynamic & personal marketing which will keep both brands and customers on their toes!
