Abstract
Today’s marketers, public relations professionals, and communication firms face significant competition for audience engagement. Providing needed guidance in this competitive context, Tenderich and William’s new book on transmedia branding brings forth an important dimension of communication and storytelling for the 21st century.
Tenderich, a USC professor, and Williams, an integrated marketing strategist, describe transmedia branding is an extension of the concept of Henry Jenkins’ transmedia storytelling. Jenkins defined transmedia storytelling as, . . . a process in which integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. (p. 27)
Thus, transmedia branding can be viewed as the process of packaging brand information into a cohesive narrative, which is then communicated across multiple media channels.
This book provides substantial insight into transmedia storytelling and branding through the use of current and historical examples, interviews, case studies, and best practices. In particular, interviews feature leading scholars in the field of transmedia storytelling. Relevant case studies showcase best practices in effective transmedia branding. Although a number of similar books address the same case studies, this book has the advantage of emphasizing how knowledge derived from the case studies should be applied.
Chapter 7 (The Design Elements of Transmedia Building) is one of the most comprehensive and applicable chapters for transmedia branding. The authors go over each of the key steps for implementing transmedia branding and provide current cases and best practices illustrating each step. The PESO Model by Gini Dietrich, a popular media landscape model used by public relations practitioners, forms the foundation for each recommendation.
Another highlight of the book is its thorough coverage of disruptive technologies, a term coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in 1997 to describe innovations that either rapidly displace existing technologies or initiate whole new industries. This discussion includes examinations of Uber (p. 14) and Airbdb (p. 16). These contemporary cases are placed in context through discussion of more historical cases of brands like Kodak and The Blair Witch Project. Both scholars and practitioners should find this presentation useful.
The first chapters of the book provide a good foundation by introducing transmedia and transmedia storytelling, but the ordering of other chapters is not necessarily intuitive. The application of transmedia branding first appears in Chapter 6, and it would be desirable to see this earlier in the discussion. Faculty assigning the book to classes might want to make ordering adjustments in their syllabi.
Chapter 6 provides a good overview of this particular research method. It would have been helpful to see a larger discussion of the tools, platforms, and services available for conducting this type of research. Most of the tools mentioned in this chapter are extremely expensive and might not be available to academicians, so providing additional, affordable resources would have been beneficial. The inclusion of additional summary questions, discussion exercises, and resources for future reading in each chapter would also make the book better suited for classroom use. The authors did a good job of providing additional case studies at the conclusion of the book that could be used as the basis for course exercises and presentations.
A final question related to the title of the book, which focuses on engaging your audience. What about participatory collaboration and an examination of how the audience engages the brand through their own transmedia branding? Today, we are seeing a rise of personal branding, reputation, and online personae among various audiences. Is transmedia branding just for corporations, or can it be strategically used by audiences or individuals to initiate brand engagement?
Tenderich and Williams have produced a truly integrated marketing and strategic communications book. In addition to serving as a resource for researchers, this book could be used for marketing, public relations, advertising, and strategic communication courses. The references, key concepts, theoretical models, and case studies combine the perspectives of each of these disciplines, which is both refreshing and necessary in higher education courses. I can see using this book at the graduate level in an introduction to integrated marketing and communication (IMC) course or in courses that specialize in strategic communication strategy and audience insights. This book might also be appropriate for a capstone or campaigns class that focuses on content creation, publication, and communicating directly with target publics on behalf of a designated client.