Steal This Idea: Your Next Transmedia Brochure
The Metropolitan Opera just posted their new online brochure, and it has a few clickable links to audio and video plus photos that make it look more like an edgy contemporary theatre than the keeper of the flame for a legacy artform.
I kind of dig it. You can check it out here.
The only thing I don’t dig? They have put their “brochure” in a frame that still conforms to the traditional idea of a season brochure- page flipping, intro letter, etc.
If we are going to go multimedia with our season brochures, and believe you me I think we’re crazy not to, then let’s really GO there. Build a brochure that’s like a flow chart or a tree, with branches to follow based on your preferences and bents, and intriguing side discursions into videos, explainers and secret pop ups. Instead of pull quotes, have pull audio from the artistic director or an artist in the show. Instead of a welcome letter, it should be a welcome video from the company. And every unfamiliar title should link to a “5 Things to Know” post. And at the end, instead of a one size fits nobody season subscription offer, a pop quiz that ends with a customized subscription offer based on your answers to questions like:
“Performances should…
a. Challenge me
b. Amuse me
c. impress me
d. Make me think
I’m not positive, but I think this whole thing could be built for free on wordpress by anyone with a video ready camera and the time to make it happen.
But let’s say you don’t have the time or resources to build a full interactive online season brochure. How can you, right now, with the tools you have ready to hand, build an email invitation to participate in your season that is more interactive, more visual, more multi-media, more engaging?
Get on it.
Thanks for sharing, Trisha. Personally, I wouldn’t call The Met’s brochure transmedia. Transmedia is the sharing of an experience or story typically over three or more media platforms. Your point of the article is actually that. It’s just a re-publishing of their printed season brochure.
I totally agree with you, I’d love to see a true transmedia brochure that offers experiences of the season spilling out onto the web. Interactive doesn’t just mean clicking and watching a video, it should be something the user wants to delve into. A rabbit hole where we discover fun new items about the theater.
One easy (ish) solution for something like this would be Prezi. It is very easy to use and, at the very least, allows for video integration and movement bounded only by your imagination.
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