Five principles for storytelling in a multi-screening world.

Dirk Shaw, Senior Vice President

How do you execute an integrated approach to enterprise storytelling across a vast communications ecosystem in a compelling, continuous manner across multiple screens?

Silos will be broken, stories will be stronger than ever to resonate with the consumption habits of our ever-evolving audience tailored to the place and time they choose to interact with us.

Our narrative will also evolve, from a single point in a press release or advertisement to a living entity that develops fully over the course of weeks or months across multiple platforms.

Let’s first look at media consumption trends shaping why we need to engage in multiscreen storytelling.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skypeconversations/4663159138/sizes/l/in/photostream/

People are making more time for media consumption eMarketer estimates that the average adult consumes more than 11 hours of media content per day. In November 2011, Facebook alone accounted for an average of 6.6 hours of US social network users’ time during the month.

But, its happening across multiple screens at the same time.

0

7.5

15

22.5

30

Smartphone Computer Tablet

Ways that US Internet Users Talk Online About the TV Ads They Are Watching, by Simultaneous

Device Used*,

Text/email/IM with friends about ads Social network with online communities about adsVoice chat with friends about ads Social network with friends about adsForums blogs or ads' website about ads

source: eMarketer

Which has accelerated the growth of the “Second Screen,”. The second screen enables us to create a coordinated and even synchronous conversation across media.

The increase in multi-screening, coupled with time spent on social channels means existing content creation strategies need to evolve.

Five principles for multi-screen storytelling

1. Act Like A PublisherThe growth of social and mobile channels makes it challenging to tell a consistent story but also provides a great payoff when it can be orchestrated in a way that ladders back up to the brand level. In order to achieve this level of consistency there needs to be a single editorial strategy to align all social content to the global brand messaging, products and proof points.

2. Plan A Multi-Channel Narrative The new path to purchase is not a straight line anymore. Platform, devices and location provide new opportunities to continuously unfold the narrative in a way that is optimized for the context in which it is being consumed. To deliver an always on content experience the story arc will be scripted across multiple channels with clear calls to action that allow people to engage deeper with the content and the community.

3. Be Creatively SwiftActing at the speed of social requires a new creative mindset that understands how to create experiences that are social by design and can move from idea to execution in a rapid manner while staying true to the brand.

4. Use content to build relationships: Too much of the coordination across screens is still broadcasting what is happening somewhere else. Knowing the audience, their needs and what they find valuable allows the story to be tailored in ways that are unique to the audience, platform and context. Keeping each of these in mind while creating content ensures we're always surprising and delighting our audience with great content whenever they're ready to interact with it.

Conversation mix

25%

TOPIC: directly related to brand but not purely brand message

%

BRAND: Related but not strictly product focused

25

%

FEATURE: Strictly related to product features

Volume of Content

50

Communications Marketing

Sales

Creative

Strategy

Measurement

Editorial Mgt

Platforms

Legal

5. Cross discipline collaboration: Telling a brand story is everyone’s job. In order to be consistent, swift and persuasive a tight integration must be created within the organization and across agency partners.

Understanding your audiences multi-screening behaviors will open new opportunities to more deeply engage in a fluid dialog with consumers across multiple platforms in real-time.

Dirk Shaw, Head of Social@Ogilvy West

CONNECT WITH ME

@dirkmshawwww.dirkshaw.comdirkmshaw@tumblr.com