measuring roi for transmedia
DESCRIPTION
Some wonder why they should give away free content or experiences if it's only enjoyed by those who will buy the paid content anyway. This presentation describes an approach to cost-justifying free content and experiences and explains why it's a good investment in customer relationships. More in this doc: http://www.transmediastoryteller.com/community/content/5/58/audiences-engagement-and-content-strategy-for-transmedia-storytTRANSCRIPT
Robert PrattenFounder, TransmediaStoryteller.com
26th October 2010
Presentation to
Spoilrr Meet-up GroupSan Francisco, California
Measuring RoI for Transmedia Storytelling
About me
This presentation
• Intro to transmedia: basic concepts– what is transmedia storytelling?– types of transmedia storytelling– why is "transmedia“ so popular?
• Measuring RoI in Transmedia– Cost-justifying “free” content– The $ value of advocacy
Part 1: Introduction to Transmedia
Transmedia storytelling
…is telling a story across multiple media and, if possible, with audience participation, interaction or collaboration…
...with each product or experience satisfying in its own right
…and consumption of each additional media heightening the audience’ understanding, enjoyment and affection for the storyworld.
Transmedia storytelling
Narrative space
CURREN
TN
EW
PLACE
story
Story and storyworld
Harry Bosch (Author: Michael Connelly)
Los Angeles
Rodney King
Harry Bosch
The FBI
LAPD
Eleanor Wish
LA Times
Crime (Homicide)
Mickey Haller
“The
Myt
hos”
–e.
g. th
e St
oryw
orld
Fictional World Past & Present
Book A
Book B
Book C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Connelly
Real World Past & Present
Franchise transmediamultiple platforms create a collection of individual experiences
Types of Transmedia
Portmanteau transmediamultiple platforms contribute to a single experience
Mix & match of transmedia types
ARG
Comic Book Feature Film
Why Transmedia
• Millennials/GenY expect it:– simultaneous multi-platform consumption of media– multiple media
• More audience touchpoints & improved engagement in world exploding with content:– address discovery & attention; piracy; UGC
• Increased advocacy (more later...)• Consumers actively avoiding ads: therefore brands
seeking truly engaging experiences• Exciting and fun: oceans of uncharted water to explore
Transmedia Tao
Part 2: Measuring RoI
Measuring RoI for Transmedia Storytelling
“how do we cost-justify the content and experiences we give away for free?”
Assumptions
• Other products or services sold to generate revenue• The free content and experiences are sharable• Not an isolated give-away but an on-going relationship
with audience/consumers• There is a content strategy: you know who each piece
of content is intended for and how it will be used
Multi-platform strategy
Spread, Attention and Credibility
Reve
nue
GoodPoor
Goo
dPo
or
YouTube
App StoreOfficialsite
piracy
Content that’s designed for a purpose
Determine goals
• Awareness• Advocacy• Sales• Insights
Cost-justifying the investment
• Awareness– Comparison with other methods (e.g. paid ads)
• Advocacy– Net Promoter (word-of-mouth economic framework)– Customer Value Matrix
• Sales– New revenue from new customers– New revenue for existing customers
• Insights– reduced cost of product development– reduced cost of scrapped
Awareness
Awareness
• Awareness is measured by recall• Recall is significantly higher for rich media
than for TV or banner ads• In measuring cost-effectiveness, the question
is “how much do I need to spend for the same level of recall?” (e.g. not for number of views)
• Free content lives on long after paid advertising has been spent and replaced
Recall comparisons
Advocacy
Net Promoter Word-of-Mouth Economic Framework
Net Promoter is another approach to measuring the ROI in empowering advocates. The methodology places customers along a spectrum from Detractor (negative word-of-mouth) through to Promoter (positive referrals).
Calculating a Customer’s Worth
Customer Value Matrix (Harvard Business Review)
low high
low
high
Cust
omer
’s Li
fetim
e Va
lue
Customer’s Referral Value
Affluents Champions
Misers AdvocatesDon’t buy a lot but are
strong marketers
Buy a lot but don’t market well
In the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article How Valuable is Word of Mouth?, researchers found that a company’s most valuable customers were those whose word of mouth brought in the most profitable new customers regardless of how much they bought themselves. Well-designed transmedia will have the impact of increasing referrals (and hence customer value) in all segments, effectively converting the least valuable Misers into Advocates and Affluents into Champions.
Why Should Free All Be Spreadable?
The Consumer Funnel
brand awareness
brand consideration
brand preference
buying intention
purchase
customer advocacy
customer loyalty
brandimage
emotional response
attitude towards rich media
consumer sees rich media
love the media
share/remix
contentcreation
cons
umer
funn
el*
*Borrowed from Elaboration Likelihood Model, Richard E Petty and John T Cacioppo
Cost-justification
customer advocacy
customer loyalty
brandimage
emotional response
attitude towards media
consumer sees rich media
love the media
share/remix
contentcreation
brand awareness
brand consideration
brand preference
buying intention
purchase
A. Comparison with other media in terms of basic awareness generation.
B. Calculating the word-of-mouth referral and customer lifetime value (CLV) benefits.
Free content & experiences are social media (e.g. meant to be shared)
• Uncreative or clumsy attempts to motivate audience to “buy now” destroy the social capital inherent in forwarding content to a friend and hence significantly damage its chances of spreading
• Capturing sales will be best accomplished by combining marketing methods.
• Calls-to-action in free content should offer prospect of further engagement - directing audience to homepage where new calls-to-action motivated the buy.
Does free content generate sales?
• impression-based & rich media advertising influenced purchasing decisions as many as 30 days out from the actual sale
• click-through rates were 22% higher for search advertising campaigns assisted by impression-based ads.
Microsoft’s whitepaper, The Long Road to Conversion, criticizes what it calls “the last advert model” in evaluating marketing ROI in which calculations over-attribute sales success to the last click before conversion. After studying 17 million sales conversions between May and September 2008 they found that:
That is, although impression ads and rich media are generating sales, few marketers record their full contribution to success because the “click” is attributed to the final search ad and because measurement of ad spending rarely looks far enough back in the history of the consumer’s contact with the brand.
Sales
Justifying free content for existing fans
• Increase in advocacy generates: – increased margin per fan (e.g. up-sell to “collectors
edition”)– market for new products (role-play, belonging, gifting)– new sales to new audience
• Increase in life-time value of IP– deeper mythos = more sustainable (from cult to pop),
more opportunities… greater longevity– increased customer life-time value
Summary
• Transmedia storytelling is increasing audience engagement (and hence revenue) by telling stories across multiple platforms and allowing audience participation.
• Return on investment can be measured by an increase in:– Awareness– Advocacy– Sales– Insights
Transmedia Storyteller
Robert Prattentwitter.com/zenfilms
www.transmediastoryteller.com