What if Aunt Jemima stepped off the syrup bottle and into say, a video game? What if she wrote a cookbook or even a novel? Perhaps we could see her with her own TV show? At the very least she could blog, Twitter, and have a Facebook page. Aunt Jemima as a brand has been around for 115 years, how cool would it be to learn about all of Aunt Jemima’s trials and tribulations, triumph’s of the sprit, love affairs and adventures she’s experienced over the last century. I’d bet a heaping pile of flapjacks that Aunt Jemima would be a star.
Transmedia storytelling tells narratives across multiple forms of media with each element making distinctive contributions to a viewer/user/player’s understanding of the story world. Each media format serves as an entry point to the story and narrative lines come at you in many different ways (blogs, webisodes, articles, books, games, microsites) to create a completely immersive story world.
Transmedia Storyteller Jeff Gomez defines it as “the art of conveying messages themes or storylines to mass audiences through the artful and well planned use of multiple media platforms.” This type of storytelling is found in the movie “The Matrix” (movie, comic books, video games all providing bits and pieces of Neo’s story). It could be found with Aunt Jemima too (if I have any say about it).
Check out Gomez’s company Starlight Runner. Their 2009 project is creating a world of characters and storylines for the Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory” campaign.
