Getty Images has a section of their website devoted to Transmedia—it seems the term is getting around, from film and TV studios to the primary sources of content storytellers, in this case a vendor of stock images and video.

The five step approach, as they summarize in their interactive site, consists of:

  1. Audience first – much like the focus of User Experience designers, the interests, desires, goals of the viewer/participant/user is more important than the brand/company, and, one might suggest, the author.
  2. Deliver experience – They suggest this means make every interaction in a particular medium (or device) different, and best suited for that environment.
  3. Deliver engagement – Start with a “big idea” that has multiple threads, branches, opportunities to explore and interact. The key, though, is the interaction.
  4. Think screen – I don’t think I’ve heard it put quite this way, but the point they are making is that multiple screens makes for deeper, longer lasting impressions and memorability. Try three different screens, rather than bombarding in one outlet; I’d add try a web site, a game, and perhaps a gallery of images to capture and deliver different parts of the story. Which leads to..
  5. Pull media together – add social media to heighten interactivity, engagement, socialization… in other words, the social media around the transmedia property can be both the glue and the pathways that make the previous 4 steps work.

Getty then offers the elements of images, sound, video and editorial (for those interested in creating stories that intersect or are built from real life) at the bottom of the landing page.

Take a look at their infographic and see if it inspires you to think like a transmedia storyteller.

Transmedia in five steps