Transmedia what?!

Welcome ad-fans! As this is my first post, excuse the incoherence, I am sure that after a while, this will pass. After casually reading about transmedia planning, it all seems a bit dis-coordinated and saying a lot for consumer behaviour and mentality and its role in communications exercises, which obviously must be fully understood before anything is undertaken, but I think that there's something in it.

How far do I agree that the 'whole is better than the sum of its parts' where brand ideas are concerned? I am not sure now. If consumers are both fuelling and feeding off the complexities of the modern media environment, aren't they going to want something more than a big idea on a plate? For a start, the idea must fit into the lives and lifestyles of many disparate consumer groups, particularly when you think of commodity brands, but must also be made up of credible facets, particularly if it is going to appeal en masse.

With more active and self-actualising consumers, they have the ability to pull pieces together from media channels as they wish, as they won’t be forced to. This is the hook of transmedia planning, consumers can, so let them. They probably want to too! A brand idea as a formation, as a process, is going to be more entertaining and engaging for our media-fragmented consumers and it is going to prove to be a differential point for the brand in the marketplace. All-in-all, this process is consumer-initiated, one which results in the culmination of a brand idea, built by the consumer, for the consumer.

Maybe this transmedia non-linear narrative will only work with people who are personally disposed to ‘seeking’ activities, but who isn't? Consumers who are active, 'C21st' and want to work things out for themselves, can equate to anyone on MySpace, anyone with a mobile phone, anyone who stays up to date with the news, anyone who shops.. that's a lot of people, not just tech-savvy-Gen-Yers!

So what does this say for effective targeting if transmedia planning works better with overarching traits than paring down to particular consumer groups? For brands that are not constrained by demographics, gender, geo-demographics etc, Transmedia would be very fitting. I see the next Andrex campaign, or should I say, seek!