trans-media is a confusing term: let us explain… although we get you may not care ;-)

(eyeball time: 45 seconds  but you might read much faster if you took evelyn woods’ speed reading course in 1957 like president kennedy did…)

our map of the world: the dea trans-media framework (with a nod to dr. jenkins) (c) 2011

 we hate doing this but think it is important to say what we mean by “transmedia”. when we use the term we mean “going across different media at different business layers and building an experience ecosystem.”  this is the opportunity for fortune 500 companies as well as entertainment companies as we see it. it is what we help them do.  here is what we don’t mean: “trans-media narrative” or “convergence.” we feel compelled to state this because we see so many things flying around twitter and elsewhere on “trans-media” that chiefly seem to define the trans-media space in terms of “narrative trans-media.” ditto for the “convergence” term.  for us, (and with a generous and obligatory nod to professor jerkin’s seminal work on this topic in his book convergence culture)  we think about trans-media and design and develop experiences with clients in much broader terms than just “trans-media narrative” experiences. we have avoided the term “convergence” because for us, nothing is converging at all, and therein lies the opportunity. also because many large media companies lost billions betting on things coming together in the media space, e.g., major roadkill: time warner/aol.  there are many other failed convergence business models out there as well. we have issues with both these terms and here’s why.

“trans-media narrative” means telling stories across media. And it is limited to story telling. For us, therefore, “trans-media narrative” is a subset of the trans-media metaverse.

“convergence” is term which has been used over the last decades and became a pejorative term due to the broadcast industry’s major failures in making it happen. but the larger and more major issue we have with the “convergence” term is it implies that things are coming together and converging but they are not. just look at the number of television and vcr controllers you own. 

 so… for us,  “trans-media” is a media mashup or experience ecosystem across a broad framework of content, context, applications, services and infrastructure. we use it to refer to a large space where this is happening, including but not limited, to digital television, social networking, electronic gaming & immersive worlds, interactive advertising, mobility & communications, digital film, digital music, and animation. that is our map of the world. got it? we hope this helps and apologize in advance for a seemingly academic rant. but maps show the road to the new world and the riches therein.

check please…mobile electronic payments are the missing plumbing we need

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the dea skinny on what’s happening:

www.google.com/wallet

by now you know we are not anybody’s lapdog (we tastefully forgo using the rap music alternative submissive relationship adjective here so please note our class).

look, you have lots of stuff to track and worry about out. so we bring this to your attention because it is one of the most non-glamourous but important things you need to track so pls listen up:  it’s how you get paid. we have discussed micro-payments and all the other plumbing needed to power games and all other forms of digital entertainment. but let’s get real. digital entertainment isn’t a big enough tail to wag an electronic commerce payment solution dog. even with facebook credits. but retail business-to-consumer sure as hell is…but you already knew that. besides amazon’s, apple’s, ebays’s and paypal’s legendary contributions in the digital payment space, google now makes it possible to purchase stuff on a mobile basis in physical retail outlets with their initial wallet offering.

google, with mastercard, is blazing a trail here with no help from our friends at the telcos. verizon just delayed allowing google’s electronic wallet solution on the samsung galaxy phones. we won’t waste your time or your pixels on a deep dive on this, the la times already did a brilliant job so check this if you need more.

the stakes:

think of it this way. basic trans-platform digital currency. digital currency which works the same in ALL worlds…on all devices and all services the same way: game worlds, movie worlds, tv worlds, music worlds, real world restaurants, stores and any point of sale. the same consolidated financial transaction records and interconnected devices. beyond paypal, ebay, second life world lindens or game coins, frequent flyer points,  way beyond amex, visa or mastercard or even square up. the ancient long-gone roman empire sorta pioneered this concept with the “coin of the realm” idea. the euro, which ain’t so hot these days, is a build on it since charlemagne.  the stakes are so huge it would be an insult to even try and convince you because you are already there.

we believe telcos are in a unique position to move the mobile payment world forward, despite the vision-impaired executives at verizon (who would now go work in the netflix marketing department where they belong). players like sprint already are leading as a small mighty mouse as usual in this area,  but asia, as with most things, is way ahead of the u.s.a. on this. so we don’t see them doing it in the u.s.a. we believe all new digital payment innovation will come from asia, driven by a.) smart innovators, b.) a mobile computing-based population of 4 billion people, c.) lots of great mobile device manufacturers who work well with infrastructure players like telcos.

the dea takeaway:

if your are a creative industry content creator or publisher, get educated fast in this area and built these digital payment solutions into everything you build at the service layer. bet on multiple tables and allow your customers multiple payments options. don’t worry about accepting diners club though. we think that is over. (as they say in japan, “we just told a joke to you [now laugh or I lose face]”

if you are a telco executive, try and forget that fact, “think differently” to quote our patron saint steve jobs, and do something your industry never does: innovate. no more excuses about massive capital deployments, security, etc. that is just too lame a set of luddite excuses. all cell phones now have security built in and players like google have baked it in already. wake up and answer the phone! hellooooo! you guys need to lead. you finally woke up to the net at the turn of the century, after pushing stupid failed isdn concepts for decades, don’t make us wait on this for pete’s sake! this is huge! what are we missing here? and revise your tariffs now to make it work and don’t be so greedy like you have been with sms fees which are so high they have completely stifled innovation.

if you are a credit card player like mastercard, visa, amex, etc. continue to make the smart moves you are making with micropayment and mobile payment companies. if you don’t, risk adjustment notwithstanding, you will lose. but the good news is that you guys get it. sorta. keep pushing and spending. this is the future and you know it.

if you are a retailer, check out new alternatives in the payment space. small businesses are loving square up despite some of its severe limitations. monitor google and the phone companies if the later ever start elephant-lumbering forward soon.

serious games…seriously ?*!? get out of here, really?

(eyeball time: 1.5 minutes but you might read much faster if you took evelyn woods’ speed reading course in 1961…)

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

www.seriousgames.org

when you think of video games you thing of…well, fun. entertainment! yeah, that’s the ticket!  but there is a whole other world of  “serious gaming” out there.  a “serious game” is one that intends more than entertainment for its players. “serious games” focus on simulating some part of a real world system. according to dr. jane mcgonical, author of  reality is broken (buy book), they include business training games, marketing/advertising (known as “advergaming”), disaster preparedness games, flight or driving simulations, games that help patients understand how their bodies work, and so on. they allow players to test and experiment with systems.

an “alternate realty game” (a/k/a an “ARG,” you buzzword aficionados) on the other hand, is an interactive, trans-media narrative that evolves in response to what its players do. an ARG is truly a trans-media game in that it often involves multiple media and game elements and game mechanics to tell a story which evolves based on participants’ responses and with characters designed by the games designers. ARGs are internet-based an interesting because they have been able to attract large numbers of players in collaborative efforts to solve very difficult puzzles and challenges. jane mcgonical built an interesting game at institute for the future almost 4 years ago called “world without oil“ in which participants gamingly collaborate on solutions to live without oil. ARGs tend to have a pro-social “change the world” focus in many cases, although not always.

the  serious game initiative is focused on exploring how the public sector can forge productive links with the electronic games industry in projects involving training, health, education, and public policy. several members of the initiative produced an initial and highly useful taxonomy of serious games which mapped out the landscape as they see it in a presentation in 2008 [ their presentation may be downloaded here on the “connections” page of our site].

the stakes:

this newly-emerging niche in the game world is very powerful. today, for example, the u.s. department of defense spends $5 billion us annually on building “serious game” simulation games, according to the defense acquisition university. that includes everything from large u.s. air force flight simulators to warfare strategy  “kill” simulators developed by the u.s. army. “full spectrum warrior,” a commercialized “shooter” game was originally developed for the u.s. military. ea games’ “medal of honor” and a whole genre of single and group shooter games like bungie studios’ epic  “halo 3“are part of that military simulation game genre tradition.

but there is a gentler, perhaps more peaceful set of serious games in the marketplace today in a large number of categories: heath and wellness, training, education, science & research, production and work used by a variety of organizations such as corporations, government, healthcare, industry and ngo’s trying the save the world. while the u.s. government is by far the largest spender on serious gaming ($ billions), the corporate business market is spending much less (under a $1 billion u.s.), this space will be expanding quickly in categories like “advergaming”. car companies like mini cooper and jeep have games on their sites to promote brand experience, as do insurance companies such as progressive. increasingly, serious gaming and ARGs will be woven into our lives everywhere with tie-ins to facebook, google and yahoo games and many other trans-media venues.

the dea takeaway:

“serious gaming” will continue to evolve in the government and defense community on a massive scale and probably set the pace for major large spending efforts on complex simulations. they have the seemingly unlimited fountain of government money to fuel it as well as an entire “beltway bandit” group of private sector companies clustered in washington, d.c. and government-sim biz city orlando, florida, sucking up billions of our tax dollars. we have, in effect, what we are calling a gaming industrial complex, to paraphrase dwight d. eisenhower, when he coined the term “military industrial complex” in the good old 1950s.

the ARG movement, which is very new and still being born, may take major steps over time to accomplish what dr. jane mcgonical is seeking….games to change the world.  after the arab awakening in spring of 2011, which lead to political change and turmoil in tunisia, libya, eygpt and syria as well as the english rioting and looting, which occurred  in the summer of 2011, new attention is being given to the power of crowd-sourcing tools like facebook and social media. maybe ARGs will become effective tools to change reality as well. why not gamers?

see our presentation,Transmedia Gamification Opportunities for Serious Gaming dea Presentation @ Serious Play Conference, Seattle 08-23-11 and under our “connections” page.

be clear about trans-media navigation… “the new yorker” magazine is… “wired” isn’t…

(eyeball time: 45 seconds but you might read evelyn woods wicked faster…but if you eyeball the funny great video add 2.2 minutes…)

full disclosure: we have no business or commercial interests with the new yorker magazine or conde nast. wish we did though! this is an independent assessment.

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

www.newyorker.com

when we think of trans-media we tend to overlook the amazing traditional magazine space moving onto tablets like the iPad and others. it is exploding. this is the quintessential new wild west for trans-media coming together with text, image, video and games. but the navigation user experience metaphor is up for grabs. many think that wired magazine made the first best new effort at designing the new tablet magazine. we find it as confusing as a rubik’s cube to navigate and read. and that tends to get average readers hostile to content and drives advertisers crazy as well. the iPad navigation experience design metaphor in wired is just too cool for school, convoluted as a table of periodic elements and well, a pain in the ass, although their web site is fine. on the iPad or other tablets, wired is tired in trans-media or at least, tiring and exhausting to experience.

comes the new yorker magazine iPad app.  they get it. well, why wouldn’t they? they have managed to port their content perfectly, giving it that classic new yorker magazine look and feel. it is easy to navigate and the ads and the editorial content all work together. just check out their  “department of explanations” video when you download your subscription. you will see what we mean.

the stakes:

one of the newest biggest spaces and places in trans-media for traditional magazine advertisers to place ads is on tablets. duh. we know you know that. the adoption rate is exploding and the venue is tailor made for a new style of “reader” experience. the wall street journal has gotten the user experience navigation mostly right (yes, it is also worth paying for!). so has the washington post.  the new york times is a rich site in terms of content and media assets, but still has a few miles to go in improving navigation, but they are close. and check out all your fav magazines. martha stewart living has totally nailed it, as usual. but we expected that. she is the queen of trans-media and was before anyone else. it is no accident her holding company is named martha stewart living omnimedia and was named that before anyone got trans-media.

the dea takeaway:

for content/tablet development people: get the navigation metaphor right. make it simple. the rules are similar when a traditional print reader transitions to your new tablet version. be gentle with them. don’t go crazy with vertical/horizontal sideways layouts just because you can. the conventional metaphor which seems to be winning now seems to be a simple left-to-right scrub pan with in-depth reading top-down scroll. ads should be nested throughout…and not left as an “add-on.” imitate the new yorker magazine if you want to keep life simple.

for advertisers: in seeking advertising venues with traditional print-going-to-tablet publisher offerings don’t rush into any magazine or newspaper ad space if you don’t feel the navigation makes sense. ask their team about views, placement and your fav metric, CPM. do what works best for your brand. also consider doing video for your ads. the view rates for video dwarf everything else.

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

the kids are all right… the new trans-media audience

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the dea skinny on what’s happening:

trans-media is a trendy word destined for the dust bin of history like convergence and new media… unless content producers, advertisers, brand managers, ratings and survey companies, services and hardware and infrastructure players….basically everybody… start to get it and embrace the new nature of audience experience. something is going on and you don’t know what it is…do mr. jones? traditional media audiences have left the building for several years now and are having radically different digital entertainment experiences. brand managers, media buyers and advertisers, who are spending billions on shrinking audiences, can’t measure the new audience behaviors so they continue to spend on traditional media like television. but audiences are watching across media…in different locations (thanks to mobility and smart phones) and multi-viewing and interacting on a simultaneous basis…ah hem… it is a trans-media audience experience. and nobody really understands what is happening and operating on old business models. at least that is what our new research shows at the digital entertainment alliance.

youth audiences, in particular, are not watching television on set top boxes anymore mr. nielsen, so watermarks which you hoped would streamline the old audience logs won’t help much in measuring anything but old fashioned tv. sell that idea to mad men’s don draper at his new agency…if you can.

the stakes:

billions of dollars. again. simple. in the 1960s, audiences had pretty basic experiences. not many tv channels, no cable, no internet…blah blah blah. don draper woke up each morning in the good old days when still married to betty draper (and when he was home) read newspapers, listened to the radio and watched films or tv for a few hours a day. that was pretty much his “entertainment day.” here’s don draper’s audience consumption experience on a 24 hour basis…

Don Draper's Audience Experience in the 1960s (c) the digital entertainment alliance llc

sometime in the early part of this decade, traditional broadcaster and other media content providers, a well as advertisers and brand managers, started seeing their traditional audiences shrink, fragment and, in some cases, disappear. one of the dominant theories at the time was that they were simply spending more time on the internet. many agencies conducted studies to understand what was happening on the digital side of their businesses but television media sales and the audience assessment and measurement parts of their business could not track anything more than interactive statistics (e.g., click though rates, etc.). all assumed it was simply internet interaction experience and walls of data was produced. but the audiences still shrank and shifted.

the digital entertainment alliance has conducted research in this space and discovered that something entirely different is occurring. we have looked at what college kids are doing, run 24 hour time logs and found a number of things.

• typical college kids have 3-5 multiple and simultaneous concurrent audience experiences throughout their 24 hr. days
• their experiences vary widely by content type, technology platform, and location
• based on the activity, each media experience has both extremely long (3-8 hrs.) and short duration across a 24 hour clock.
• they “mash-up” their entertainment experiences and are quite comfortable leveraging disparate and fragmented experiences together
• their current, almost a.d.d./a.d.h.d. audience experience patterns which may well persist into later adulthood. audience experience may have morphed and mutated forever.

The Kids Are All Right - Audience Experience in 2010 (c) the digital entertainment alliance llc

the dea takeaway:

there are too many implications and takeaways.

for content producers, you should develop content for an audience that is multi-tasking as they watch. think about strategic partnerships with players in adjacent spaces and look for trans-media ways to share your content or story across media.

for brand managers, you should insist that your large media spends are accounted for by your agencies and make sure they don’t simply stovepipe you into television spends, for example, principally because that is all they can measure (or web interactive.) insist that they address the problem holistically. acknowledge that even though we are in cost-cutting times and nobody wants to do risky things, work to develop viable performance metrics. this is a huge opportunity area of epic proportions.

for advertisers, start breaking down your organizational stovepipes and listen to some of your more visionary digital people….but only if they are talking about the whole picture. spend money researching new audience behaviors and develop case studies.

for service and infrastructure players, make sure you build out comprehensive services across platforms. yes, an open architecture is a beautiful thing (but most television sets and dvrs have 3 controllers) so don’t hold your breath. work supporting disparate standards will be a reality while you attend endless meetings to discuss open standards and solve world peace. be realistic and focus on solving your part in the overall puzzle…deal with what you can control. that’s was steve job’s approach and it worked for apple!

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 (voice o text) or email us at bhollyman@digitalentertainmentalliance.com to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

social networking is not a business, it’s a feature

eyeball time: 2.5 minutes but you might read faster…)

apple's ping...a social network for music

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

the world has gone gaga over social networking, thinking its a business. yeah, we get facebook. but ask rupert murdoch who bought MySpace in 2008 (News Corp.) for $580 million if he would buy another. despite it’s “now uncool to use” factor, he bought a business that has fallen to the #3 position in the social networking word…with facebook, twitter and youtube fighting for the top position above MySpace. now comes google. and apple just released its iTunes-centroic social networking offering called “ping”…which is built into iTunes…and points to the future of social networking.

the stakes:

the undocumented “law of markets” says that once a market is stable, it generally can only support 3-4 major players. this “law” is wildly disputed but go with us on this. there are dozens of social networking sites attempting to be stand-alone businesses. we won’t waste time on listing them all or their issues…we have a white paper on that we can give you, “social networking 101″…what is important is how digital entertainment businesses approach this space. the value of any social networking business is not just in its revenue model (although these are still very unclear), it is how it leverages other content, context and platforms. and the sustainability of social networking as stand-alone businesses has not yet been established. remember stand alone email businesses when email network email started? where are they now? gone!

the dea takeaway:

social networking is not a business, it is a feature. the big established players will likely co-exist but most will die off or merge. our research shows that users tend to be fickle about social networking usage. when they first sign up, it is like a torrid weekend romantic fling. a few months later, neglected and hardly logged onto. plus age demographics play a huge role. younger facebook users, for example,we have found,  have dropped off in usage now that their parents have discovered it. 45% of facebook users are over the age 45 last time we checked! so the kids migrate from “cool” social network to the next new new thing. they started with friendster, went to MySpace, then facebook. they are registered on all still but use none of them very heavily as before (except that laggard/late-adapters). kids nomadically graze across social networks like buffalo once did on the great western plains of the united states. them’ days is over!

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

e3 and the future of gaming (for maybe the next 12 months or so ;-)

(eyeball time: 3.0 minutes but you might read faster…but if you check the cool video links which take forever to load…god only knows… you are on your own…)

e3 los angeles 2010

dea is LIVE FROM E3 in la

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

http://www.e3expo.com

in case you didn’t get the tweet, e3 is the big momma of all industry gaming shows in the usa. every major game developer, hardware platform provider and distributor shows up at this huge industry show in los angeles each year to show their wares. this week, we attended e3 and notice several longer term patterns in the video game industry. overall e3 looks like a 1950s automobile show in detroit. mostly all men with scantily clad blonde barbie dolls doing demos. ironically, women are the fastest growing segment of the gaming market but the testosterone geeks don’t get this in the industry. (check out www.womeningamesinternational.org) and because we are americans, the shooter/killer games rule. but there are amazing new directions starting to emerge (check out the flower video and interview with kellee santiago, ceo of thatgamecompany in our video gallery…that is where it is going!)

what is most notable also was the absence of zynga, the popular facebook provide of social networking games like farmville, mafia wars, etc. this show is very old school, mainstream industry, brought to you by the entertainment software association.

also duly noted as missing-in-action were all the mobile game players – publishers and cell phone, tablet and mobile device industry players. just not there and they represent the fastest and largest gaming platforms out there…according to the un’s itu, there are nearly 5 billion mobile phones worldwide. and not a single vendor of note at e3!

1. major publishers continue to take names and kick ass with mega titles in hd

you need to see the new games being rolled out..they look like movies you control. take the time and click on some of the links…(the commercials are a pain but the demo’s worth it) the use of hd tcnology makes old time game look obsolete. we are on the primitive edge of full simulation machines. check out lucas star wars II: force unleashed, (you remember the film maker…now games are his main activity), activision’s call of duty: black ops, or square enix’s the third birthday (featuring a new woman here ala lara croft but realistic). Yeah, they are all killer games but that misses the point about the technology and the direction simulations are taking. reality is really real these days…

2. user interface experience is morphing

ok, so the big headline at e3 is microsoft’s xbox 360 release today of its new interactive user interface called kinect (project code name “natal”). this is redmond’s answer to nintendo’s wii interface except it is more revolutionary….no devices! users simply move in front of the set and infrared sensors pick up movement and are incorporated into the game. it is pretty primitive  today but one can see where this is leading. sony playstation 3 is appealing to hard-core gamers with 3d technology although the jury is still out on 3d displays (due to side effects of headaches, etc.) and tv content producers and networks are dragging their feet on 3d programming which will affect adoption. but these are the first primitive steps into immersive user experiences at low price points (kinect is $150) and have deep implications across all industries for applications involving interactive use experiences from product sales and customer experience to education.

3. the network is the game not the box now

“the network is the computer” sun microcomputer’s then-ceo and founder scott mcnealy prophetically stated well over 30 years ago. well, it is true now. the game console is slowly going the way of the doodoo bird. even giant activision get 70% of it net operating profit games from non-console games. new companies are rolling out network device independent online gaming platforms where you simply buy a subscription for multiple  gaming experiences, much like buying a movie ticket. check out onlive.com for an example of one of the new players….and they are cross-promoting with at&t…why? because scott mcnealy was right. online gaming has HUGE implications for network providers as well as all pc and chip makers…

4. the asians are doing amazing things but the gringos don’t get it (as usual)

ironically, the biggest publisher at e3 is a korean company named nexon. they dwarf everyone else in terms of users and represent the future of the gaming, social networking, promotion, advertising, micropayments, branding and the attendant infrastructure for years to come. how big?  try this: today microsoft brags it has 20 m users worldwide on xbox 360. nexon has a huge portfolio of “free to play” games (you play free games and make small payments of $1-3 us for accessories like clothing, cars, etc.) one of their games, dungeon fighter has 200 million subscribers and 2.5 million simultaneous users. their second biggest title maple story has 100 million subscribers with 1.5 million simultaneous online users. american game executives right this off saying it is china which is in one time zone and doesn’t matter. hey dudes, the world is flat and nexon is making billions of dollars and growing exponentially in a market whee us gaming was down 10% – 20% and it wasn’t the recession that did this. wake up and smell the coffee you auto-centric americanos. to dismiss this under the banner of different cultural adoption and usage patterns misses the point completely.  you need to get out more and see the world. something is going on and you don’t know what it is…ok…rant over…you get the point. asia is driving gaming innovation ni this space. check out tainengmiao.com, d2home.com, and cddmb.cn to get  a sense of this. there is a major game industry in chendu, sichuan province and all over china, as well as nexon’s native korea.

the stakes:

huge. billions. and the biggest thing is that the us gaming industry is a laggard. there are major opportunities in all segments for layers within the traditional gaming inustry and outside it….advertisers, sponsor, hardware and communications infrastructure and more…in all the categories above.

the dea takeaway:

1. major publishers continue to take names and kick ass with mega titles in hd

the increased use of high rez image and motion means major opportunities not for just chip makers like intel, amd, and nvidia, but also for all processor-related industry players at the hardware level. for network service providers it is a double edged sword..more revenues for more bandwidth-management players like cisco (good) but more major capital spending for players like telcos such as verizon, at&t, sprint, t-mobile, etc. (bad for telcos but good for cisco).  for content players like major film studios, there are obvious trans-media tie-in’s and licensing plays (see “prince of persia” piece we did on this). ditto for brands, advertisers, etc. and there are myriad niche service and digital advertising integration lays as well too numerous to go into here.

2. user interface experience is morphing

this area is very exciting and has deep implications for game industry developer and hardware and chip manufacturers. but the largest and most interesting opportunities lie in adapting his technology for new customer experience and cross-industry applications. imagine an atm or online service experience where you interact virtually as one of a set of optional user interfaces. microsoft’s kinect (based on the root words ‘connect’ and ‘movement’) says it all. citibank already uses video conferencing at its drive through branches. this could be the next wave and applied for many net-based interaction applications. 3d…not ready for prime time.

3. the network is the game not the box now

game over. the net wins. if your business is console based, those thin, cloud-based client interfaces spell the inevitable day your consoles will not be needed except as game controller interface hardware devices and that, my friend, is a zero-margin business over the long haul. with all respect to everyone from activision to ubisoft, get in gear to transition. this has radical implications for our product distribution strategies. now you can go distribute directly over the net to millions of subscribers worldwide like nexon already does and cut out your distributors! it is a scary world out there! the network providers need t be ready for this growth and for mobility, in particular.

4. the asians are doing amazing things but the gringos don’t get it (as usual)

hey, get out and get educated. book a trip to china, korea, japan, and india. ’nuff said. monitor developments in these countries even if it is difficult and things look too “hello kitty” for you at times. hey, we told you about nexon. this is truly where the innovation is taking place, not the usa. we will try and help there also.

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

why “prince of persia” matters (and why most movie, tv and brand people don’t get it but need to…)

(eyeball time: 3.0 minutes but you might read faster…unless you give yourself a.d.d. hyperlinking your way through this)

prince of persia

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

http://www.disney.go.com/Disneypictures/princeofpersia

prince of persia, the $200m us movie released on may 28 was rapidly panned and summarily dismissed in david denby’s recent uberkultur “pass the grey poupon mustard please” movie review in the new yorker magazine for being a simple, mechanically-executed video game on film.  “parkour.” cool reference. duh. that is the whole damn idea. and, yes, it didn’t “pop” with opening weekend box office numbers of only $30m us. but it has already grossed $220m us worldwide so far.  so what?  it is a giant movie plug for the popular game series namesake franchise from ubisoft games. in this context “art is just a guy’s name.” this is business. to pan the movie is to completely miss the point of the producer’s objectives: to sell multiple trans-media licensing deals into a much larger gaming market than just the ” blockbuster” feature film market. and we have two other words to explain why it is important: “jerry bruckeheimer,” the legendary hollywood film and tv producer. and, well, another word: “disney,” as in distribution.

the stakes:

billions of dollars. simple. we get that there have been many blockbuster franchises built in the past from “starwars” to “the matrix” and everything in between and many had moderate attendant video game success at best in many cases (although cameron’s ubisoft video game “avatar” has flopped thus far but with film box office like its film counterpart, who cares?). but those were feature film-content driven plays, not game-centric and video game-industry driven.

there is history here. years ago, “lara croft tomb raider” was one of the first popular games to be translated into a feature film series with angelie jolie playing lara in her specially constructed bustier. so let’s look under the hood at the lara croft numbers: the feature films did roughly $430 in box office alone but the video game is still being played by some fanatics long after the movie screens have gone dark for lara on a daily basis, for hours at a time. that is the beauty of a game franchise. dwell time. persistent experience. repetitive experience. locked “eyes-on-me” eyeballs for hours at a time.

but that was then and this is now. today the feature film industry is dwarfed by the video game industry, when online and “free to play” is included, and is conservatively guesstimated to be a $60b us worldwide industry in 2009. also keep in mind that the entire US film industry is only $40b us. That’s 1/5 the size of exxon oil’s annual revenues ($200b us/annum).  so film is a small industry which gets a huge amount of attention. in fact, from jerry bruckheimer’s perspective, it is a mere product segment of his global business.and that is why jerry bruckheimer is jerry bruckheimer and disney is disney.

what is interesting about prince of persia, despite its poor opening bo numbers, is that represents an open hollywood acknowledgement, once again, that the video gaming industry will ultimately be exponentially larger than the traditional feature film industry. and the licensing deals associated with cross platform gaming deals will be huge involving product placement, complex licensing, marketing and product sponsor tie-ins and multiple revenue streams. and these go across what we call “persistent context channels” – content venues which get consumed multiple times over time. while movies get viewed once, on average, video games are played multiple times over a period of years. and that is why jerry bruckheimer is a smart and very successful producer: he is creating trans-media product and advertising venues across and number of channels for advertisers, product brand managers and well as gaming technology platform players like pcs, sony playstation3, mircosoft’s xbox 360, and online.

the dea takeaway:

if you are a content developer in film or television it is obvious you should look for trans-media content opportunities based on already proven game franchises. although many transplants have failed (e.g., microsoft’s “halo“) picking properties which have deeper character potential with deep game play will succeed more than mere game play features. but the bigger opportunity is platform licensing deal tie-ins. while it is unlikely you will get a piece of the game platform revenues, there are many product placement and webisode potential tie-ins. especially with tv series and a multi-channel platform for distribution like hulu.

if you are a video game producer, start thinking like  think like a movie producer and pitch projects to the feature film world. but focus on franchises that have a shot of succeeding since so many have failed.

if you are a hardware platform manufacturer, it is a no brainer to license content for your platform but think film and gaming and online. what games can you license which take full of your platform’ s gameplay, video codecs, engines and distribution networks (net based) which can also leverage net sites and tie-ins to other promotions and platforms? finally, and this is counter intuitive, don’t look for exclusive deals. look for content that will be  licensed across your competitor’s platforms as well. think “coopetition.” come on, you read the harvard business review and know what this is. this will provide you with safety within a larger content ecosystem. it’s how many fish leverage coral reef systems. be a fish.

if you are a brand manager or advertiser…well…this is a target-rich environment,  to say the least. there are multiple. cross-promotional opportunities both large and small across the spectrum. and you too can become a producer like jerry…propose a film/gaming franchise to your brands. that how coca cola and ford developed “american idol” after all…it was an advertising brain child that drove it from day one.

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

google tv launch and intel and others…the next network?

(eyeball time: 1.5 minutes but you might read faster…)

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv-tv-meets-web-web.html

looks like Oprah isn’t the only one attempting to break into the net tv space. google and intel are expected to announce a breakthrough technology into this space with the unveiling of its “Smart Tv” platform. this new platform will feature an intel atom microprocessor running the google android operating system on a sony bravia television set. this isn’t the first attempt of technology companies to penetrate the tv industry, however, as traditional television companies scramble to add web capabilities and content, google and intel are poised to benefit from such an opportunity.

the stakes:

the net tv trans-media craze is not a new concept. first attempted in 2008 and again with sony’s recent bravia television set, the market for this type of marriage has yet to really catch on. incumbent devices, such as apple’s tv or even gaming systems such as microsoft’s Xbox, continue to lead in delivering Internet content to the home. the digital living room is definitely on the horizon. will google and intel lead us to the promise land? nobody is entirely sure. there are several factors yet to be addressed such as:

• price points: traditionally, sony’s products are priced on the high-end. with the use of intel’s atom microprocessor, perhaps the prices will become more affordable.
• learning curve: while google maybe a staple in our vocabulary, adoption of the android platform has yet to become mainstream. adjusting to the operating system may be a deterrent at the beginning for the general public.

the dea takeaway:

this is great news for google developers. the company is expected to call on its android developer community to create applications for tv’s. this is also a great opportunity to showcase that its software could become popular while once again boosting advertising revenues for both online and tv manufacturers. google’s entry into the consumer electronics space adds yet another foot onto their already huge footprint. as the company continues to grow, it will be essential for their competitors to recognize either ways to disrupt its growth or ride their coat tails by getting with the program.

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!

Oprah is OWN to her next venture

(eyeball time: 2.5 minutes but you might read faster…)

the dea skinny on what’s happening:

http://www.oprah.com/own

in april 2010, Oprah Winfrey unveiled her latest venture expanding the multi-billionaire’s already influential grasp into the world of broadcast television networks. partnering with Discovery Communication, the joint venture called OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, will be a multi-platform media company designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives. OWN will debut to more than 70 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. Set to launch in January 2011, OWN serves as an excellent case study for the future of privately funded media ventures as well as user-generated content across digital entertainment venues and platforms.

the stakes:

The launch of OWN exemplifies the evolution of traditional television broadcasting as it faces continued competition from the internet. surprisingly, instead of putting up their arms in self-defense, television broadcast networks are embracing the internet with open arms. perhaps learning from the mistakes of other industries (i.e. music), traditional tv networks are leveraging the internet to expand their properties online. and let’s not forget it’s Oprah we’re talking about here.  tv shows are no longer limited to a single showing and can provide supplemental content to feed fan demand. clips and exclusive webisodes are creating a subset ecosystem resulting in additional revenue for media owners as well as advertisers.

this seemingly symbiotic relationship between the net and traditional tv networks is creating a new generation of hybrid consumers and producers. here is where OWN TV may set itself a part from other 24/7 channels. OWN looks to source its content directly from its consumers. Positioning its value as a network dedicated to the betterment of “you”, OWN encourages its viewers to share their stories either via video submission or simple Q&As. Coupled with projects hand-picked by Oprah herself, this new channel presents a very limited scope of content. although it may feature different perspectives on certain topics, it is still a niche channel – one that may be entering a highly competitive environment already dominated by channels such as Women’s Entertainment (WE) and the Lifetime Network. it will be worth watching to see if this collaborative model plays to Oprah’s advantage. but Oprah is a brand so it is probably game over and she will win.

the dea takeaway:

for those playing in the online video space, the OWN network has the potential to become an example of a future hybrid model. a model, which we at the dea recognize as a necessary evolution that considers an expanded ecosystem of users, consumers, distributors and producers. if your company fits in any of those categories, we recommend incorporating bite sized pieces (i.e. consumer submissions, social networks, exclusive online video, etc.) into your present day platform. the key will be in smoothly introducing and transitioning your customers to fully engage in these new features around your brand and desired audience experience.

for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!