TRIBA | SPACE

Last month, global public relations firm Edelman set the Internet ablaze with a new buzz phrase: transmedia storytelling. The journalistic term can be traced back as early as Marsha Kinder’s 1991 definition: “transmedia intertextuality works to position consumers as powerful players while disavowing commercial manipulation” – a trend we’ve often explored at TribaSpace. The term was then popularised in 2003, when cultural critic Henry Jenkins asserted telling the same story across various platforms can make that one story more compelling, as each element provides an “entry point” and makes a distinctive contribution to a fan's understanding of the story world – almost like a puzzle.

Then came “The Rise of the Corporate Transmedia Storyteller,” the highly regarded blog post from Edelman’s Director of Insights Steve Rubel. “There’s art, and there’s junk,” he says. “Audiences want art.” What better forum in which to exercise this notion than fashion?

This is a major change in the winds of online business, and some brands are bound to stay afloat more gracefully than others. In recent years, Oscar de la Renta and Diane Von Furstenberg have been recognised for the corporate transparency they create through use of social media, which allows brands to follow their Twitter feeds like a story. Some up-and-coming designers have a handle on this skill set, but many heritage brands are also deserving of praise for their storytelling abilities. Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Betsey Johnson and Alexander McQueen in particular are all about a designer profile and manicured image. By engaging with various platforms, they make their design philosophies digestible and accessible to their consumer.

We know storytelling as purely visual. As a people led through the pop cultural waters by television shows like Mad Men, it’s second-nature for the general public to continue crediting editorial advertising with the task of communicating a story. Campaign videos have their place in the sphere of sensation, even when presented by brands, like Prada, who actively avoid having a social (trans)media presence. However, it is the process of consistently updating various platforms simultaneously, or in hopes of prompting a domino effect, that keeps consumers involved, effective and subconsciously hungry for more. In Rubel’s words: “If there’s one constant it’s that humans crave stories… Transmedia storytelling is the future of marketing. And those who can span across formats and share their expertise will stand out in an age of Digital Relativity.”

That is to say, we’re dealing with an infinite amount of information, but still have the same amount of time in which to digest it all – and so, consumers have a lot of choices to make. The ones putting information up for consumption (the brand, the PR firm, the fashion blog or magazine) must then not only unleash their content en masse, but also manipulate them to construct a compelling narrative.

Take, for example, German public relations firm L*ÉTOILE PR, whose clients include Clemens en August, Sanyo Fisher and Styleproofed.com. The profile photo for their TribaSpace Showroom says it all in terms of philosophy: “If you see anything interesting, please let someone know immediately!” By consistently posting the goings-on of their client base (promotional events like parties and store openings, collaboration announcements, client acquisitions, reviews and links to blog posts and videos) in an aesthetically appropriate environment that allows users to fine-tune their follower/following base, they create a brand story.

Bloggers, too, like STILGENETIK, have created promotional stories for themselves on the TribaSpace platform. Bloggers who write for various publications, which surely require different strengths of their contributors, can often find it difficult to maintain and preserve the image they imagine for themselves as freelancers. Freelance fashion journalists, like Susie Bubble and Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes, might be juggling up to dozens of platforms at a time: Twitter, a Facebook friend page, a Facebook fan page, their own blog, Foursquare, Independent Fashion Bloggers, BlogLovin’, and countless collaborative blogs and projects.

As we’ve advised in the past, maximum output (in both quantity and variety) can be very beneficial, as focused, obsessed consumers will surely consume all they can. However, it often behooves bloggers to ensure that at least a few of their online venues are more pared down and quality-based. When blogging for themselves, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) becomes an important priority. The goal is to be a “top-hit,” highly visible and highly indexed on Google and the like. Platforms like TribaSpace, however (we’re using the same logic here we often use when discussing Twitter, primarily), allow bloggers to concentrate on the creative, and on networking, without entertaining too many administrative concerns.

There has been some concern recently about the decline of blog usership, especially Blogger, which, until a few years ago, was the top host for fashion blogs. This year, Blogger, which is owned by Google, actually had fewer visitors in the United States than last year, a decline of 2 percent. Globally, however, unique visitors rose 9 percent. Tumblr and Wordpress, predictably, have avoided any decline. So what does this tell us? Bloggers from 34-to-45-year-old increased by 6 percent, 46-to-55-year-olds by 5 percent, and 65-to-73-year-olds by 2 percent. But a younger generation is making choices: they’re spreading their concentration across various platforms, which means they have less time for less sophisticated and older platforms and are concentrating instead on transmedia storytelling.

In the past, Twitter has gone so far as to block applications like UberTwitter (now UberSocial) and Twidroyd, which have helped them gain exposure and aggregate user information, for fear they would capitalise first on the concept behind Twitter. And where the real latent value lies is in the digestibility of storytelling. The act of telling stories through an ongoing stream of information is poised for monetisation, and there is an all-out territorial battle to protect it.

If you’re interested in the debate surrounding transmedia storytelling, be sure to check out this video, in which Brian Seth Hurst, CEO of The Opportunity Management Company, explores the buzz, his concerns and hopes, the various modes of storytelling and the movement’s key players. And for an even deeper look, there is surely no greater testament to the effectiveness of transmedia storytelling than this customised newspaper, created with Paper.li. You can also request an early bird invitation to Storify, one of the greatest new emerging platforms for current events-based storytelling. If you’re in the business of sourcing and announcing fashion news, however, you’ll find all your storytelling resources here on TribaSpace.

Samantha Garfield | TribaSpace