Gunther situates himself on the leading edge of actually THINKING and implementing ideas that matter to people based on inherent human behavior. In a speaking engagement with the Miami Ad School, he proposes a theory that, as a society, we are still shaking off the thought forms of the industrial age of manufacturing, and coming into a stage of creating efficient processes for the age of creativity, customization and collective intelligence utilization. Using the forward thinking Henry Ford as a prime example of industrial process efficiency, as the creator of the assembly line system, Gunther speaks about how business "used to be" and has evolved from a "think tank" idea room of businessmen into a silo system of divisions that were disconnected, but built for high-volume low-margin production.
You build value by giving people what they want (even when they may not know it yet), this method to build businesses and make money is now being done through the art of storytelling and building relationships with the consumers of the products and services that are being produced. There are so many ways that transmedia storytelling can be done that it is bound to get confusing, even for the potential producer of the content…there are a lot of ducks to keep in a row.
OR…
Sometimes there really aren't that many ducks. In the case of #ALGREN, a core documentary with transmedia storytelling extensions, the picture maps out for visual purposes what this complex storyworld actually includes. But, far simpler examples of transmedia experiences exist, and are also ways in which current brands and franchises can further relate with fans. For instance, Skyfall, the new James Bond film due for release in November obviously has a broad fan-base of fervent followers, what if someone who travels to Europe on a consistent basis for work purposes were also a fan of the franchise? Not really a big stretch to imagine, but what if this fan also signed up on the website and downloaded a 007 app with locational features that trigger certain storyline extensions when the person spent time in areas near where in-story events have happened in Skyfall were activated? Potential games, story features, information, etc. could then be distributed to that person instantly, and would make sense on a fully customized basis. There are many ways to do something such as this even though we don't all travel to Europe for business. Therein lies a perfect opportunity for engagement of an already loyal base of fans, while also having the opportunity to attract people who may not be familiar with Bond (*Note: is there such a person??).
The point is, we live in times of vast amounts of change; but human behavior and the things that excite us remain fundamentally the same. If a potential content creator has an ability to tell a story that people are interested in, OR has the ability to attract a group of people who have various skills and talents to create an interesting story, as well as encourage them to come together as a group to accomplish a goal or project…there are untold possibilities to explore and horizons to cross.
The fun for me is getting together with like-minded people, brainstorming a potential project, bouncing ideas back and forth, seeing what the original idea morphs into, and then taking the steps to bring the idea into reality. This is what the cr8f_conclave stands for, and is what our first foray into transmedia storytelling intends to show.
