As I’ve been getting Silverstring Media off the ground as more than just this blog, and as I’ve been bringing my crew into the fold of the industry, I’ve been thinking more about the issues of money in creating transmedia projects, especially from an indie perspective. Money comes up again and again in transmedia discussions — where does it come from, what’s the ROI, what’s the business plan.
A couple of articles have touched on this recently — David G. Wilson’s Field of Streams, and Simon Staffans’ On funding transmedia, part two. Many such articles, especially when looking at it in the context of big-budget properties, look at transmedia first as a business discussion: expanding the storyworld, creating new stories in different media, making sure you execute it all properly, everything is done to maximize profits.
While it’s absolutely vital that transmedia is shown to be a viable financial endeavour, and the money-making prospects are what will ultimately grow the industry and cement its place in entertainment, I admit I have always come at transmedia from an artistic perspective first and foremost. The same way I come at my other writing — writing is absolutely a business and I need to make money at it to succeed, but I don’t do it for the money in the first place, I do it because it’s something I want to do, a way to express myself and tell stories. So too with transmedia, my first goal is to tell great stories and engage an audience. Making money is a secondary priority.
Back when I was first researching ARGs and seeing that at the time none had ever really made money in and of themselves, I considered the possibility of government grants making such a project financially viable. Here in Canada at least (forgetting for the moment the cuts we’ve taken) there’s significant money available for the arts. Such a grant could pay the wages of the creators of a project, allowing them to eat while they produce a story. Things like the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Canadian Media Fund, the Telus Innovation Fund, the Bell Media Fund.
But much of that money is also hard to get, time-consuming to apply for, and ultimately probably won’t cover all costs of production.
And now that I’m officially a Business, and I have a team whose payment I also need to think about, Making Money becomes more important. I also want to be able to prove to potential clients — people for whom we can produce transmedia stories — that we can make money off of them (and thus, they can too). Luckily I have a business-minded teammate who’s keeping me thinking about our options, too.
But the more I think about it, the more I see that the ability to make money off of transmedia — like the options in transmedia storytelling itself — are limitless. Even if you’re not producing a big-budget property thta could garner hyge sponsors or investment.
Just look at something like Echo Bazaar (a property I’m quite in love with (read: addicted to) and want to emulate in a lot of ways for future projects). It’s a completely free game that I’ve personally spent about $30 on. I did it because the story engaged so fully, I was willing to put money into it to enhance the experience even further.
You can make money off a property without charging for every piece of it — or more to the point, without even charging for the main piece of it.
But I’ve also talked before about the possibility of short-form transmedia, sort of transmedial short stories. Could those be monetized effectively? Would they be long enough to engage an audience deeply enough that they’d pay for something more, even if the something more wasn’t a lot more? Or would they only work if the producers had an established audience who trusted their quality and were willing to pay to experience the property at all?
Ultimately, I think this will take some experimentation more than anything. But I’d love to hear your thoughts.
5 comments
Simon Staffans says:
February 7, 2011 at 11:51 am (UTC -7)
Lucas,
I absolutely agree that the content, the story and the story world is what matters the most. You can make a good transmedia project without a great business plan, but there’s no way to have a good business plan working without good content to back it up.
With regards to short(er) stories and people being willing to pay more for those, I think you have at least part of that answer some lines above… as you have experienced with Echo Bazaar, I have with other games and ventures. Your story needs that hook that will make it almost a natural part of the story – like an interval in a theatrical play, when everyone goes off for a drink (or five, depending on the quality of the play) – to paypal in a dollar or five to the creators.
But yes, experimentation indeed. And still it will be something – some small or not so small story somewhere – that will simply open everyone’s eyes as to how it could, and should, be done.
Luci Temple says:
February 7, 2011 at 9:32 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Lucas,
This is an area I’ve been looking into over the past year on my blog, and in theory there are many business models that would allow transmedia projects to pay for themselves (merchandising, subscription, tickets, advertising, product placement, freemium, crowdfunding, etc). However, in terms of real world examples that have achieved this, it becomes more difficult to find those that have been successful unless they are part of a marketing campaign for a big brand or already part of an established blockbuster story franchise.
Talking to people in the industry, it’s clear that no one has yet coined the break through method that can be replicated in the same way that we know how to price, distribute, and sell more traditional forms of entertainment and products. In theory anything is possible, an exciting premise, however the challenge remains to find out who will pay (customers, brands, advertisers, grants, etc), how much, in what conditions, and how to convince them to do so for your particular project.
Thinking a bit more like a business is I think a good idea because those I know (myself included) find the arts/creative easy to deal with and are more likely to stuff up when it comes to the business end, which ultimately is what must pay the bills.
Wish I had a clear answer for you – like many others I’m still thinking through the options, hypothesising, experimenting, and only time will tell.
Luci
Luci Temple says:
February 7, 2011 at 9:37 pm (UTC -7)
Oh, and here is a great list of resources on the Transmedia Victoria website that discuss transmedia financing, funding, and revenue (collated by Christy Dena): http://transmediavictoria.net.au/resources/funding/
Where I Correct the Rumors Regarding Transmedia Money in Canada (Including the Rumours I Started) : Queen Spade Creative says:
January 4, 2012 at 11:07 am (UTC -7)
[...] Also read what Lucas Johnson (Silverstring Media) had to say on the matter: http://silverstringmedia.com/2011/02/07/revisiting-financing-transmedia/ [...]
Revisiting financing transmedia | Alexandre Gravel says:
September 23, 2012 at 8:48 am (UTC -7)
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