Abstract
This article pertains to prosumer engagement, an important topic in academic research on media consumption and branding. Increasingly, there have been calls in the branding literature for a more audience-centred approach to making a deeper emotional connection with consumers in an age when interactive media have become imperative for communication. Prosumers, who both consume and produce media, have a different relationship with a brand to traditional consumers, as they are more actively involved in the brand’s story. The participatory nature of transmedia branding strengthens prosumer engagement through brand stories that enable an active contribution in an immersive story world.
This article considers the rise in the use of transmedia story-making within the contemporary branding environment by proposing a framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding. Specifically, it examines how a leading transmedia brand, LEGO, has sought to engage prosumers in an active community using elements of this framework through an integrative, immersive and spreadable story.
Keywords
Brands find it challenging to engage with audiences in a communication environment saturated with different forms of media and in which audiences have more control over their media experiences. The use of traditional models of consumption, such as cross-media where a brand posts the same content once in different media, also impedes engagement because of a potential information overload (see Freeman, 2015). The convergence of media, which evolved from the way we communicate in the digital era, has been widely studied and explained (see Jenkins, 2006, 2014). In a convergence culture, where media is everywhere and fluid, and consumers seamlessly access, consume and produce content across various devices, screens and channels, the media consumer and producer interact in innovative ways (Jenkins, 2006). Furthermore, consumers not only control how they access media but also how they consume it by using interactive devices for different platforms that manage and empower their experiences – a distinct feature of the new media ecology. Research by Labrecque et al. (2013) reiterates that consumers experience a psychological sense of control when interactive technology affords them the opportunity to select and participate in the information they consume.
Active participation in what the brand has to offer has thus become a deliberate consumer choice, depending on how engaging they find the experience. In a sense we have all become producers of content by leaving comments on a blog post, in social media or generating data because of our participation in digital media. Consumer engagement, however, is often passive and occurs when consumers use and share brand information. Engagement becomes more active when consumers also create their own content to enhance the brand (Ashley and Tuten, 2015). The notion of consumers actively participating in brand content and experiences has expanded the concept of prosumer which was first introduced by Toffler (1980). Initially, a prosumer was seen as a new consumer who participates in production processes (thus co-creating) for their own use. This view has since evolved to rather see prosumers as consumers who create value for the organization by being innovative and sharing their work with others because of a relationship that exists (Seran (Potra) and Izvercian, 2014). In addition, prosumers are also seen as being motivated by their peers in a community to participate and provide value to an organization and other members (Plouffe, 2008).
The shift in relationships that organizations have with consumers has thus gradually ‘blurred the gap between producers and consumers’ (Tapscott and Williams, 2008). As digital media evolved we have also been encouraged to consume unusual and more complicated interactive technologies such as video game consoles (Denegri-Knott and Molesworth, 2010). Research confirms the existence of a ‘digital production inequality’, where consumers with different backgrounds will either be more or less active when producing online content (Schradie, 2011). To this end, Brake (2014) provides evidence that online content creators mainly come from a privileged minority in the world. Apart from a digital production gap, a study by Considine and Cormican (2017) also brings awareness that consumers might become resistant to new digital technologies that do not meet their particular needs.
A prosumer in the context of this study, therefore, is a consumer who is willing and motivated to use more complex technologies for innovative creativity to benefit the organization, others and themselves (see Seran and Izvercian, 2014). This view of a prosumer coincides with arguments by Humphreys and Grayson (2008) that consumption/production only becomes innovative when consumers assist an organization in becoming more successful but also creating some ‘exchange value’ for the consumer.
Some transmedia brands, for example LEGO, choose to focus on enthusiastic and active prosumers who also create brand content and are eager to become creatively involved. These prosumers not only share their knowledge with others but also with the brand (Ziemba and Eisenbard, 2014). Marketers for transmedia brands hence face the challenge to provide brand content that will entice prosumers who are willing to benefit the brand with their innovative ideas.
In keeping with the need for more prosumer engagement, Gambetti and Graffigna (2012) argue that marketers connect emotionally but also physically with consumers by becoming part of their lives. Meaningful and authentic engagement, for example, is encouraged when prosumers create brand content while at home and using Web 2.0 tools, for example, wikis, social media networking sites and blogs, to create, consume and share content, sounds and images globally (Comor, 2011:2). However, Andrejevic (2007) warns that this ‘networked interactivity’ results in consumers’ information becoming more accessible and monitored while their privacy is at risk.
For the most part transmedia brands use storytelling to collaborate with prosumers to actively consume and produce brand content and, in doing so, positively influence the brand. The prosumer interprets brand experiences by being actively involved in different content, which can be accessed at different entry points. By validating the important role of prosumers, the brand facilitates rather than tells the story (Carmody, 2016). The integration of consumer production with consumption in the form of story-making is argued to be a vital step forward for branding to overcome alienation in a cluttered media environment (Comor, 2011). Adopting the transmedia concept in branding, specifically through a story world, enhances participation by using prosumers’ collective skills and techniques to deepen engagement (see Tenderich, 2014).
There is ample evidence and many success stories from brands that have incorporated transmedia stories into their branding strategies, for example Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like (2010), BMW’s The Hire (2001), Audi’s The Art of the Heist (2005) and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory (2007). However, there is not enough data to support whether these campaigns have fully embraced story-making and the increasing role of the prosumer to benefit the brand. The LEGO brand was hence chosen to support a proposed framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding because it constitutes an example of a best practice where active and motivated prosumers are concerned. It is one of the leading global transmedia brands and may, therefore, advance our understanding of a prosumer engagement strategy in transmedia branding.
The following section conceptualizes transmedia, prosumer engagement, transmedia branding and story-making applied by the proposed framework for the analysis.
Conceptualizing transmedia, prosumer engagement, transmedia branding and story-making
Kinder’s (1991) concept of transmedia is multidisciplinary, drawing from various academic disciplines, and became more prominent when Jenkins (2003) linked it to storytelling. The concept of transmedia has the property of intermediality, which refers to the interdependence of contemporary communication media, where story fragments are spread across different media platforms and formats with different entry points (see Beil and Schmidt, 2015: 73).
In keeping with the rise of the prosumer, branding has had to reinvent itself by embracing new engagement strategies as part of their overall strategy (Carmody, 2016). It is important for brands to realize that today even amateurs are able to create, share or enter stories in multiple modes such as games, video, text, images and audio because of simpler technologies and software (Klaebe and Hancox, 2017).
Transmedia branding is put forward by Tenderich (2014) and Williams (2013) as a new paradigm for marketing and communications to facilitate brand participation and make brand content more appealing. This act of encouraging more audience participation differentiates transmedia branding from traditional brand communication strategies, as audience feedback is consistently incorporated into strategy.
Tenderich (2014: 16) defines transmedia branding as:
a communication process in which information about a brand is packaged into an integrated story, which is dispersed in unique contributions across multiple media channels for the purpose of creating an interactive and engaging brand experience.
Storytelling in transmedia branding paved the way for transmedia story-making. Over the years, Jenkins’ (2009, 2011) work on transmedia expanded our understanding of transmedia storytelling to include many practices and perspectives outside entertainment contexts. Consequently, transmedia storytelling is today also applied to a wide variety of non-entertainment brands with the focus on consumer products (see Scolari, 2009). Jenkins’ (2010: 944) definition of a transmedia storytelling is still widely acknowledged; it is:
a process where 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.
In addition, Jenkins’ (2009) seven principles of transmedia stories, namely, spreadability versus drillability, continuity versus multiplicity, immersion versus extractability, world building, seriality, subjectivity and performance are highly cited and applied in different contexts (see Table 1). In his work, Scolari (2009: 587) consolidated the different conceptual perspectives about transmedia storytelling thus:
It is a particular story structure that expands through both different languages (verbal, iconic, etc.) and media (cinema, comics, television, video games, etc.). TS [transmedia storytelling] is not just an adaptation from one medium to another. The story that the comics tell is not the same as that told on television or in cinema; the different media and languages participate and contribute to the construction of the transmedia story world. This textual dispersion is one of the most important sources of complexity in contemporary popular culture.
The initial structure to propose a framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding.
When transmedia branding adopts transmedia storytelling as an engagement strategy an integrated story becomes the focal point with different access points across media in which the audience can participate more meaningfully. The brand becomes the story by conveying its values through an integrated transmedia experience in a larger story world. The brand story is divided into different ‘puzzle’ pieces on different media platforms, which the audience(s) then recreate by integrating these pieces. In many instances, there is also an anchoring medium which is expanded through backstories and places that consumers can explore. The different pieces have new entry points into the story, supporting stories and deep character development for more engagement. Integrating audience feedback is crucial for transmedia branding to shape brand experiences (Brieger, 2013; Williams, 2013).
However, the position of this article is that the principles of transmedia storytelling could also be applied to story-making, with the focus more on the prosumer’s contribution in the story. Further shaping our understanding of transmedia story-making is Pratten’s (2011: 2) work of transmedia storytelling, which addresses the consumption and not just the production of the story while placing the audience in the middle of the transmedia experience. He defines transmedia storytelling as follows:
Transmedia storytelling is taking the audience on an emotional journey that goes from moment-to-moment.
Pratten (2011:3) also argues that there is a difference between transmedia and multiplatform storytelling in that the former creates ‘synergy between the content and a focus on an emotional, participatory experience for the audience’. Therefore not all multiplatform storytelling uses transmedia. Similar to Pratten’s (2011) views, transmedia story-making is participatory, accessing the enthusisam of fans, random and authentic, and the brand has to provide the necessary space to invite, accept and use prosumers’ contributions (Carmody, 2016; Satija, 2016).
Recognizing the need for more audience participation, marketing, public relations and advertising industries are increasingly adopting transmedia, moving beyond the concept of cross-media where the same content can be found in different media (Buckner and Rutledge, 2011). While numerous studies have applied transmedia stories to industries such as entertainment (Fast and Ornebring, 2017), gaming (Davis, 2013) and learning (Cronin, 2016), application in the branding and marketing fields has also become more prominent (see Granitz and Forman, 2015; Scolari 2009). This is because transmedia stories are seen as essential for brand survival owing to their immersive and engaging nature, being able to connect more with the audience and creating value in an environment cluttered with different forms of media (Carmody, 2016). This article expands application in the branding and marketing fields by exploring transmedia branding through the lenses of prosumer engagement and story-making.
Applying transmedia to marketing has, however, elicited criticism from Corpuz Breum and Midtgaard (2013) and Phillips (2012), who perceive it merely as a ‘gimmick’ to attract attention to the main product without providing any value for the target audience. Davis’s (2013) argument that transmedia branding is a commercial intermedial practice was hitherto counteracted by Jenkins (2011), who regards it as creative storytelling with no distinction between commercial and non-commercial tactics. In the same way, Fuchs (2014), who is critical of digital prosumption, calls attention to marketing and advertising, especially in social media, that create ‘artificial consumption needs’ which would otherwise not have existed. Terranova (2000), whose work on a digital economy is widely cited, refers to ‘free labor’, and ‘netslaves’ where the best websites are built by consumers who in a way sustain the internet.
While facing criticism, brands attempting to use transmedia have also struggled to create eventful stories that can be distributed across media. Adoptive transmedia stories are, therefore, more widespread among brands in that different platforms are adopted purposively to augment a popular story. On the other hand, it is more difficult to achieve native transmedia stories, that is, those that happen more naturally. Because of their spontaneous nature, their only purpose being to use different platforms to tell and access the story (Magro, 2014).
The idea that stories are produced across different platforms and that brands benefit from each platform’s unique potential is attracting much scholarly attention. Tenderich (2014), Williams (2013), Scolari (2009) and Buckner and Rutledge (2011) are still dominating current thinking and the advancement of this emerging branding phenomenon. The Annenberg Innovation Lab research group at the University of Southern California (USC) currently consists of leading scholars who are advancing the notion of transmedia branding. Tenderich’s (2014) design principles of transmedia branding, formulated as part of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab’s research project, capture the essential components that enhance consumer brand engagement which could also be applied to prosumers and story-making. Recently, Kozinets (2014) expanded the engagement concept to the social brand, which ties in with Tenderich’s (2014) view of spreadability and audience engagement. The consumers not only communicate with the brand but also with each other. Kozinets (2014: 10) writes in this regard:
Social brand engagement is meaningful connection, creation, and communication between one consumer and one or more other consumers, using brand or brand-related language, images and meanings.
Kozinets’ (2014) idea of social brand engagement is adopted for this study and extended to transmedia branding. By adopting transmedia principles, the brand by design becomes social through co-creation and innovation, communication, sharing, understanding and accommodating consumer needs through feedback. Within a transmedia environment, social brand engagement encourages word of mouth because of shared transmedia meanings and experiences in brand communities.
Kozinets’ (2014) framework was hence also used as a starting point to propose a framework for prosumer engagement supported by the LEGO brand’s transmedia branding efforts.
Towards a proposed framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding
In the absence of a robust framework that accounts for transmedia prosumer engagement, Kozinets’ (2014) social brand engagement framework deserves more research. The proposed framework for prosumer engagement in this study in particular benefits from the practice of social brand engagement as it skilfully encourages audience insight and participation, which will gain from further description through this study. Kozinets’ (2014) work also addresses arguments by Buckner and Rutledge (2011) that ‘a transmedia story model should position a brand as a co-participant and collaborator by inviting each member of the audience to participate personally in the story world’. This enables consumers to understand the brand in a social context.
While the study of transmedia branding has become more focused on audience engagement, some details remain unclear about how engagement could increase audience participation within the context of the prosumer. The initial structure depicted in Table 1 was hence used as a starting point for the proposed framework for prosumer engagement to address a need for more audience engagement in an online environment cluttered with brand content. In addition, Kozinets’ (2014) social brand engagement framework positions the consumer as also interacting with other consumers and not only the brand, which is essential for branding efforts to succeed. The authentic and innate connections between brand mentions and consumers sharing with others in social media are essential (Kozinets et al. 2014: 27).
The initial structure also considered Jenkins’ (2009) principles of transmedia storytelling which is relevant for Kozinets’ (2014) concept of social brand engagement as depicted in Table 1.
The case: sources and empirical material
The case for this study is the LEGO brand which, as Kolowich (2015) explains, is a family-owned business in Denmark, founded in 1932 and well known for its LEGO brand toys of interlocking plastic bricks available in more than 130 countries. The LEGO Group develops children’s imagination through creative play and learning activities. The brand essence epitomises the idea that even in the current technological environment meaningful creative play is possible. However, LEGO nowadays has many versatile products that expand its brand beyond the building bricks, and a target audience which also includes teens and adults. LEGO has its own products and numerous brand extensions, and focuses on popular culture with products and brand experiences for movie fans. Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation and strategy consultancy, acknowledged LEGO as the most influential global brand in 2015, which could also be ascribed to its transmedia efforts (DeMott, 2015). In 2017 LEGO also ranks second globally for reputation in the Global RepTrak 100 brand index (Reputation Institute, 2017).
LEGO follows a prosumer approach for its transmedia branding, with the brand as the story and the toys as the storytelling medium (McNeilage, 2017). Several studies have already examined the LEGO brand through different lenses, among others, as a transmedial phenomenon (Kalcher, 2012; Wolf, 2015), customer communities (Davidi, 2014; Kalcher, 2012; Yun et al., 2012), video gaming (Wooten, 2013) and seriality (Norgard and Toft-Nielsen, 2014). LEGO’s transmedia efforts are thus well documented and in the public domain. This study uses the insight gained from these studies but focuses on prosumer experiences with the LEGO brand in a natural setting while considering the initial structure for analysis.
The analysis, in particular, focuses on LEGO Ideas, an online community-based platform where motivated and active prosumers’ story-making contributions are not only invited but also accepted, adapted and used by both LEGO and prosumers. When prosumers’ LEGO ideas are accepted and produced by LEGO, prosumers receive a percentage royalty on sales. Members of this community also have an early opportunity to order prosumer-created sets before mass production (LEGO, 2017). It will be illustrated through the case that the LEGO transmedia approach is balanced, with both the brand and prosumers taking the lead in more engagement in this story world where LEGO facilitates the story-making.
The prosumers in the LEGO Ideas community have different sociodemographic status, ranging from younger to older fans across the globe. However, they are hard-core LEGO fans who gain different pleasures from being part of the community and have different motivations for engaging with it. Since these prosumers share the same interests they construct their identities around their enjoyment in suggesting ideas for new LEGO sets (see Duffett, 2013).
To propose the framework for prosumer brand engagement in transmedia branding it was important to establish how prosumers make and participate in stories authentically while talking to each other in a natural setting (see Kozinets et al., 2014: 27). Researcher interference was hence not advantageous as is often the case with interviews or a survey. Since I wanted to take a fresh look at the phenomenon, a constructivist Grounded Theory approach was followed to analyse both LEGO’s and LEGO prosumers’ conversations triangulated across four LEGO Ideas channels, namely Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the Ideas blog. Within a Grounded Theory approach, suppositions are developed inductively from a corpus of data through a process of constant comparisons (see Charmaz, 2014). LEGO’s and prosumers’ conversations were collected and grouped into representative concepts through a process of open, axial and selective coding, writing theoretical memos and constant comparisons with other incidents in the data until data saturation was reached and no new concepts became evident (O’Reilly and Parker, 2013). Representativeness and consistency of concepts were hence achieved through theoretical sampling and a vigorous and continuous coding process (Breckenridge, 2009). With theoretical sampling, it was possible to build a theoretical explanation of the concepts, for example, the circumstances that led to them, how they are expressed through LEGO’s and prosumers’ action/interaction, the consequences that result from them and any dissimilarities. The Grounded Theory study’s findings cannot be generalized to a larger population of prosumers but that was not the aim of the study (Charmaz, 2014).
First, a total of 12,889 conversations on Facebook, 489 on YouTube, 6097 on Twitter and 324 on the LEGO Ideas blog in the public domain were purposively collected, facilitated by the NVivo Pro 11 software programme and guided by the initial structure in Table 1. During a process of theoretical sampling, the main concepts evident in 9914 conversations became reflected in four new ideas (see Table 2).
Elements of the proposed framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding.
After theoretical sampling and when new suppositions became evident in the data, a framework with four elements was proposed that conceptualizes prosumers’ experiences in becoming and staying engaged in story-making. Instead of perpetuating prosumers’ engagement with the brand, I put forward a more integrative view of prosumers also collaborating with peers during story-making that may help guide future research.
The proposed framework includes new evidence from the Grounded Theory study and Kozinets’ (2014) social brand engagement framework as depicted in Table 2.
The LEGO brand’s transmedia prosumer engagement efforts are evident in the proposed framework as follows in the next section.
Creative guidance to explore a new world
Maintaining a close bond with prosumers is important and also deep-seated in LEGO’s transmedia branding efforts; the LEGO Group achieves this by continuously tapping into its many communities. LEGO has especially managed to establish an engaged prosumer community for new LEGO ideas where the brand encourages storylines with creative guidance in a new world. By doing so, LEGO has successfully stimulated a prosumer-focused culture which is a vital participation strategy for engagement. Through deeply engaged participation, prosumers are invited and guided across various social media channels to submit ideas for LEGO sets from the perspective of LEGO’s brand values. The LEGO Ideas project involves prosumers through a guided process that includes a project page, idea review deadlines, a Review Board and reviews outcome announcements managed by a dedicated team. Prosumers are encouraged by LEGO and peers to vote for new ideas before the deadlines. Once 10,000 votes are acquired for an idea, prosumers become part of an Elite Club where their ideas qualify for a review to become a potential official set. LEGO thus actively allows prosumers to decide which sets have the potential to become new storylines and creates anticipation and excitement about the results. LEGO, for example, encourages prosumers through posts such as ‘Do you remember to engage with the community to gather support for your LEGO Ideas projects?’ and ‘Share your ideas for LEGO set concepts, get others to vote for your idea, and you might see your idea produced as a real LEGO product!’ Prosumers often ask peers to vote for new ideas by either sharing LEGO’s or their own posts, for example: ‘peek-a-boo! Here I am! Please vote for me at @LEGOIdeas.’
However, not all LEGO ideas voted for inevitably become official sets, which is often disappointing for some prosumers, for example: ‘Disappointing to say the least. A waste of an Ideas set. This is either political or Ideas needs new judges.’ Many prosumers are, however, happy for others whose ideas became official sets, congratulate them and respect the review outcome, for example: ‘It does put a downer on the LEGO ideas process after people spend hours weeks even coming up with a set aiming for the 10,000 goal putting in a lot of hard work but LEGO decision is final and we have to respect that’ (sic).
In addition, the Ideas Project has specific guidelines which are often updated to ensure that the LEGO’s brand values of ‘creativity, imagination, fun, learning, caring and quality’ are carefully included in stories, tone and themes. LEGO hence retains some control because the brand displays an understanding of the essence of the LEGO story world for its audiences. Although creative guidance to explore a new story world is perceived as undemocratic by some prosumers, the importance of retaining brand consistency is well documented in contemporary branding research.
LEGO furthermore shares its own and prosumers’ useful tips across social media channels to elicit the best story ideas. While the majority of prosumers appreciate LEGO’s active involvement in the process, others feel that the process is not always fair, for example: ‘You need spell out exactly what it takes to pass the age barrier and start rejecting projects before they even get posted’ (sic).
Some prosumers also do not always agree with LEGO’s updated guidelines. For example, a new guideline that LEGO Ideas ‘will no longer accept new submissions based on third-party licenses that are active in the LEGO Group’s portfolio’, elicited much resistance from prosumers. One prosumer, for example, stated ‘my interest has dropped to 0% I have no interest in creating non licensed themes & you own all the best ones. Done participating’. LEGO acted on this conversation in this way: ‘We’re sorry to hear that, although we do feel there are many other unique licensed properties out there that have not been explored.’
Thus, similar to Kozinets’ (2014) social brand engagement framework, listening to brand-related conversations and acting on conversations when necessary is important to LEGO. LEGO ensures that prosumers understand the process to submit new ideas and responds to questions and complaints quickly. The LEGO brand is able to engage prosumers by allowing, understanding, monitoring and responding to their co-creation needs for new storylines but without compromising brand values. On the negative side, by guiding prosumers’ creativity, some prosumers inevitably become alienated and choose to rather stay passive. However, prosumer engagement becomes possible because LEGO provides the spaces that frame ongoing conversations about new storylines.
Interactive innovation by creative support for storylines
LEGO prosumers are active and innovative, and share with and support one another on the different LEGO Ideas community platforms, an important feature of a social brand. Many LEGO prosumers express themselves creatively while also using the brand. Through prosumer-led engagement, fans share and question the fiction through new stories while still linking the toys to the main story. The LEGO brand becomes shared because prosumers actively participate in the creation of the new story.
In particular prosumers’ ideas for new storylines are authenticated by seeking and giving internal and external validation for their co-creation efforts. Within the LEGO Ideas spaces across different social media channels, prosumers encourage, praise and criticize others’ storylines while others are grateful for the support. Prosumers are also curious and want to learn from others’ experiences. For example, prosumers posted: ‘how do you get inspired for your LEGO Ideas project?’, ‘How do you go about promoting your LEGO Ideas project?’ and ‘Hi Robert, what was the biggest design challenge with this particular set?’
Prosumers also do not hesitate to criticize new storyline ideas, for example, ‘Kinda a boring set …’ and ‘It’s a stupid set.’ Many praise others’ ideas: ‘awesome work mate love it’, while others value the support system in the community, for example: ‘And a huge thank you to everyone who supported my ship in a bottle, without your support I wouldn’t be having such an awesome day :) and of course thank you LEGO ideas for the opportunity!’
In this regard, Kozinets (2014) states that social brand engagement does not happen in isolation but is a ‘social act full of culture, meaning, language, and values’. Either the LEGO brand or prosumers take the lead in an ongoing dialogue on different platforms that balance the needs of the brand with those of prosumers.
User-generated innovations have thus expanded the LEGO brand experience that encourages deeper prosumer engagement because of ongoing creative support. LEGO prosumers stay engaged because they want to become as successful with new storylines as others, for example: ‘I’ve just started a lego ideas sea animals project and am looking for 10,000 people to support my project and it could be made into a real set!’
With the numerous social media channels that the LEGO brand is using, targeted monitoring is important. However, the LEGO brand provides prosumers with enough opportunities to engage with one another to make their co-creation efforts more meaningful. With this in mind, ongoing stories in the form of new storylines are added, shaped and reorganized by LEGO prosumers as a whole.
Maintaining prosumer involvement with the storyline extension
The LEGO brand has what Pratten (2011) calls an ‘open story world’, where a large number of secondary characters tell non-linear stories as part of the brand’s core story. The open story world is ‘layered over a traditional linear story’ and the audience can access or participate in these stories in any order to discover information. As the audience discover pieces of the story by talking with characters or visiting scenes, their experiences of the different stories are always linear because of how they construct meaning from the adaptations. For this reason, regardless of how fans enter the LEGO story world, they ultimately become involved in the story.
Particularly, prosumers discover and expand others’ ideas for storylines in the LEGO Ideas community’s different social media channels. For example, prosumers often make helpful suggestions to expand ideas: ‘1950’s diner is a nice set with some nice color settings, but I would bring it also in the creator line’, and ‘now I have read the intro, it is supposed to be a planetarium? Looks like an observatory to me’ and ‘A fitting Lego launch tower would be awesome too.’ However, prosumers often also do not hesitate to reject others’ new storylines thereby trying to uphold the brand’s values, for example, ‘Zombies in a city-setting: inappropriate product.’
Tying in with the expansion of secondary characters, Kozinets’ (2014) framework suggests that a brand should initiate communication with its target audience through promotion, word-of-mouth marketing, commercials, advertising and influencers, which are referred to as social branding. For prosumer engagement, this enables different points of view on the same story in the brand’s story world. These points of view are then reciprocated through word of mouth, where prosumers pass on information about favourite characters to others who might share their own perspectives on characters and stories. This results in prosumers recommending new storylines that may have existed before but were just never discussed, for example, a prosumer asking: ‘If there was anything at all you could change about the finished product, what would it be?’
With this in mind, the LEGO brand maintains prosumer involvement with new storylines by sharing their ideas across different social media platforms. For example, LEGO often encourages prosumers’ expansion of storylines: ‘Maybe Ryan’s next LEGO Ideas project should be a hospital!?’ Prosumers in return, share, like and enhance these storylines through their different points of view. LEGO’s expansion of secondary characters’ stories is consistently prosumer driven to allow their unique perspectives.
Amplifying prosumer co-creation experiences
LEGO deepens prosumers’ connections across social media channels through amplification of their new storylines. In so doing, LEGO creates opportunities for dialogue and continuously improves co-creation experiences and interactions with the brand and among prosumers. For example, the brand regularly shares ‘staff picks’ for models in the ideas stage across social media channels. Similarly, interviews with all prosumers who have gained 10,000 votes for an idea are shared, while also providing social media mentions for all prosumers who have received 1000 votes for their story ideas. These include highlighted story theme posts and describing the most outstanding feature of the new story, for example, ‘amazing, classy, beautiful, American, crime-fighting, dark, detailed, charming, cozy, elegant, dancing and dimensional’. Prosumers who have received mentions by social media influencers on Twitter are also encouraged to display the mentions on their project pages, for example, ‘If a popular Twitter user mentions your project, add a link or screenshot to the tweet on your project page’, which will add more credibility to their new ideas. Prosumers comment on and share these new ideas with other prosumers and their social media followers, and in return also amplify the reach of LEGO’s social media posts.
LEGO thus famously encourages seamless experiences in a variety of digital channels where prosumers talk with the brand and others, share ideas, and recommend and promote new story ideas to family, friends and peers. Examples of LEGO’s posts are: ‘Check out how creative one LEGO fan got with the LEGO Ideas 21310 Old Fishing Store – from models to story’, ‘The Secret of Monkey Island – The Scumm Bar project received an official comment for achieving 1,000 supporters!’, ‘This week we’re highlighting models that fit the movie theme’, and ‘Today’s Staff Pick Modular Old Winter Villa by Namirob will make you feel warm and fuzzy when it’s freezing outside’.
Within Kozinets’ (2014) framework, participation is extended to include conversations with the brand and others on social media, leaving comments, generating new content and providing additional storylines. LEGO’s social media presence provides value to prosumers who are already engaged with the brand and their social media posts generally receive thousands of likes, comments and shares. LEGO, however, also receives negative comments on posts, for example, ‘Who cares. @LEGO_Group already has a contract with @Marvel so its automatically disqualified,’ and ‘I definitely see some dubious connections and parts that couldn’t make it into an actual set (Modulex, anyone?).’ LEGO replies to questions and complaints on social media in the form of customer care. Their caring attitude on social media also deepens their relationship with prosumers by creating trust, for example, a comment by a prosumer: ‘Keep up the good work Lego.’ Additional experiences are made accessible to prosumers who also post images on social media spaces to display their new LEGO ideas, generating more likes and comments.
In essence, the LEGO brand finds ways to sustain prosumer participation and interaction by sharing customisable content, which prosumers feel compelled to distribute to others. This enables different levels of depth of involvement and a consistent message, where each piece of the story always contributes to the entire story and dialogue with prosumers.
Conclusions
In this article, a proposed framework for prosumer engagement in transmedia branding has been applied to an active LEGO community with hard-core prosumers, with the aim of enhancing our understanding. I have also addressed the need to study transmedia branding from a social brand perspective to include the collaborative properties of transmedia to benefit a transmedia branding strategy for story-making. With the lines between transmedia brand storytelling and story-making becoming increasingly blurred, the practice of allowing prosumers to shape brand messages signifies an important shift in consumer empowerment while connecting on a deeper emotional level. As such, it may imply that the practice of transmedia branding from the perspective of consumer-led engagement will allow prosumers to make the brand story by remixing it as part of the core brand story. By doing so, prosumers also produce beneficial relationships with peers, create knowledge, information and commodities. LEGO prosumers are involved in all processes of story-making, including monitoring, reformulation and implementation. However, LEGO facilitates the story-making by setting the terms of prosumer participation which alienate some prosumers and which makes the entire process less independent. Nonetheless, a collaborative approach to story-making, as is evident in the LEGO brand’s transmedia branding, could enhance a psychological sense of control among prosumers in enabling them to select how and at what point in the story they want to become involved. LEGO prosumers have only a certain amount of autonomy for creative input but by using and acknowledging their collective skills, they may propose stories in the interest of society. In line with the LEGO brand’s strategy, using audience feedback is essential to make the brand content more appealing and accessible.
While brands might struggle to create and sustain transmedia stories and thus find transmedia branding difficult to attain, prosumer-led engagement could become a vehicle for reconceptualizing the space in which to extend and disseminate eventful and native transmedia brand stories. Brands could provide their prosumers with online spaces to express creativity collaboratively while still upholding brand values. Prosumers’ collective inputs could benefit not only the transmedia brand’s credibility but also society through innovation and dialogue because of delegated power. Ultimately, from the LEGO case, it is clear that the role of the plugged-in, active prosumer has become essential in the ever-changing online media landscape where the sincerity of marketing efforts are often criticized or challenged.
Although some theorists remain critical of potentially exploiting consumers in a digital environment, prosumers who make brand stories in effect change their own passive behaviour by allowing others to benefit from their creative inputs. At the same time, they feel empowered by contributing to meaningful experiences. Prosumers could, when used appropriately by a brand, become informed partners who make original contributions in a society with unlimited potential.
Even if not representative of all prosumer experiences, the proposed framework for this study could guide future audience research to assist transmedia brands in treating prosumers as partners in a mutually beneficial innovative process.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.