Thinking Beyond Social Media2nd Dec 2011

The advent of social media opened up a myriad of new possibilities for marketers to communicate with and engage customers in a way that wasn't possible only a few years ago. In recent times, we have seen plenty of creative campaigns that have made use of facebook, twitter, youtube and other platforms with great success. But relying on Social Media alone to communicate with our audience isn't always enough. When combined with other media channels, social media can become a much more powerful tool.

Transmedia is the technique of communicating a single narrative or theme across multiple channels with each channel contributing something unique to tell a story that is engaging and creates collective action rather than passive consumption. Today's consumers like getting involved and simply broadcasting information to them is no longer an option. A much better option is to create something engaging that consumers seek out and want to be involved in. And if it involves multiple channels, it's even better.

Take a look at the Old Spice campaign from 2010 which started as a series of hilarious TV commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa as an irresistible hunk. The campaign was later enhanced when Mustafa's character entered the online world. Over the course of three days, the character interacted with fans by responding to questions they had posted on facebook with personalised (and usually humourous) videos. Within a week, these videos had been viewed more than 40 million times.

By adding another element to their campaign that encouraged consumers to get involved, Old Spice created something much more powerful and engaging. An important thing to note though, is that without the original TV campaign, the facebook campaign could never have happened. Each channel contributed to create something that was greater than the sum of its parts. And this is precisely what transmedia is about.

The days of broadcasting to consumers are over and finding new ways to engage and entertain consumers is becoming increasingly important. Tweeting and wall posts are a great way to inform people about sales, promotions or new product releases but if we want to create intense customer loyalty, we need to provide them with a rich and deeply engaging experience. And to do this, we need to be innovative and think of ways to communicate with customers across multiple platforms.