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Trend: Social Storytelling
Written By Josefine Koehn on Thursday, January 3, 2008 at 6:32 PM | In Marketing Trends, Lifestyle Trends, USA
Social media technology gives the art of storytelling a new interactive spin
Trend Description:
Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways of social bonding. New technology enables people to come together online to to create and share stories, art, and other media related to their favorite movies, television shows, and books. In cooperation with media companies, publishers, and sponsors, the biggest social media company in the US, FanLib, also creates special online events where fans can interact with the producers and creators behind some of their favorite books, TV shows, and movies. Those sponsored promotions and contests are used to finance the site. FanLib services are free to the public and their stated goal is to spark creativity — FanLib calls itself the “People Powered Entertainment™ company”.
Cases:
HarperTeen Fanlit
After the success of the first collaborative E-book Reflection Perfection, Harper Collins is now incorporating a teen-focused web strategy in their program. The strategy enables teens to “Create & Share” fiction with Harper Collins authors and their peers, get sneak-peeks of upcoming titles, and get behind-the-scene info. 30,000 teenagers registered for the HarperTeen FanLit online writing contest, contributed, reviewed, and voted on chapters of which six were chosen for the final short story, “Reflection Perfection.” The contest, which is a collaboration with social media company FanLib, generated more than 6 million pageviews on HarperTeen and drew a community of more than 200,000 visitors. The final story is published as a HarperTeen e-book and is free for participants to share with their friends. Prizes included a US$5,000 college scholarship and a Fox TV studios-produced webisode based on the winning entry.
Suave: In The Motherhood
In the Motherhood is the first online video series by moms, for moms and about moms. All stories are based on contributions from real mothers. While professional screenwriters develop the characters and story lines for each of the webisodes, the online mom community votes and nominates the best entries. Sponsored as a multiplatform campaign by Suave and Sprint, In the Motherhood launched on MSN.com, on suave.com, on Sprint TV, as well as on broadcast TV, and features a lively forum of moms who want to share the joys and challenges of being a mom.
L Word
FanLibs first promotional project was a collaboration with the Showtime network in October 2006. Fans were invited to help script an episode (or Fanisode) of The L Word. Each week an actual L Word writer would provide a “scene mission.” Fans then submitted their original scenes, the online community voted, and at the end of each week, the most popular scene was added to the script. The end product was published as a free downloadable e-zine and an extra on the L Word DVD. The contest generated over 3-million page views and 175,000 visits. Showtime also announced that the ratings jumped 51% over the previous season.
Trend Impact:
FanLib is still in beta, but its success stories already convinced marketers and Hollywood producers that it is worth while allowing consumers into the creative process. Not only does this interactive approach generate a deeper level of affinity for the brand, it also can generate great ideas and secures a lot of PR and word-of-mouth promotion. FanLib still continues to work in collaboration with Showtime, but also has partnered with Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Manga, Penguin Group, Startrek.com, and Starz.
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