New Media

Transmedia Brand Expansions for Marvel

Dec 24, 2014

(Multiplatform Brand Expansion)

DOCUMENTATION OF ONLINE PRESENCE

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Transmedia Platform 1 - Phone App: “Avengers Trivia”

Transmedia Platform 2 - Video Game: “Avengers Academy”

Transmedia Platform 3 - PC: “Avengers Portal”

EXPLANATION OF KEY TERMS

ETHICAL ISSUES

PROS AND CONS

Pros and Cons – In General

Pros and Cons – Marvel Brand

APPENDIX

Appendix A - Avengers Trivia (Phone App)

Avengers theme travel game: Screenshots from Rock Hero game, which is a similar idea

Avengers theme music

Appendix B - Avengers Academy (Video Game)

Thor’s Astronomy Track: Screen capture of Interstellar Travel game

Appendix C - Avengers Academy (Video Game)

The Hulk’s Temper and Chemistry track: screenshot from Alchemy, which is a similar idea

Appendix D - Avengers Portal (PC)

Prototype

DOCUMENTATION OF ONLINE PRESENCE

The Avengers film provides an enormous universe of the Marvel superheros, and was a huge success. A second Avengers film is in post production, and a third and fourth film are set to be released in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Avengers grossed over 1.5 billion dollars in the box office worldwide, while their budget was 220 million dollars: the project was economically viable, and the aftermath of that movie was enormous.

The Avengers is a movie that incorporates superheroes from other Marvel superhero movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Avengers film has incorporated all the Marvel superhero worlds into a combined universe, where the superheros know about each other, and gang up for a common cause. The heroes use their different talents, and refer to their different worlds - and even travel back and forth to the different worlds - throughout The Avengers film, and the result is a broader picture of the Marvel universe that fans are thrilled about and want to know more of.

The Avengers film is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is a subsection of the Marvel Universe. The official Avengers website is http://marvel.com/avengers. Marvel also has an Avengers Alliance game on iOS App, Android App, Windows 8, and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/avengersalliance/info?tab=page_info). The Avengers has hit major social media platforms, such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/avengers), Twitter (https://twitter.com/avengers), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/MARVEL). With the Avengers being such a big hit in 2012, it inspired new TV shows in 2013: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (http://abc.go.com/shows/marvels-agents-of-shield), and an Avengers animated TV show, called Marvel Avengers Assemble (http://marvel.com/tv/show/188/marvels_avengers_assemble).

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was expanded so much by the Avengers film, that fans created their own fan sites, blogs, online forums and social media networks, and presence in media communities. http://www.blastr.com/tags/marvel is the Marvel page for the Blastr sci fi news wire website, edited by Scott Edelman. The Avengers has an unofficial Tumblr site http://daily-asgardian-news.tumblr.com/ and a reddit site http://www.reddit.com/r/MAA/, operated by fans. There is a fan site on how to style one’s own Tony Stark beard (http://www.malestandard.com/styling-a-tony-stark-beard-celebrity-beards/). Wikipedia has community edited pages for The Avengers (2012) film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%282012_film%29), and for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe).

The official and unofficial media presence for the Avengers is wide, and covers many media platforms. Marvel has intensified their world through the Avengers (2012) film, by combining their popular super heroes - with their own fans and worlds - into a joint universe.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Transmedia Platform 1 - Phone App: “Avengers Trivia”

First, the player must create his character with a face emulator function that uses the phone’s camera. The player takes a front snap, and adds it to an Avengers superhero or agent avatar, so that he becomes the superhero or agent. For example, this lets fans of Iron Man’s notorious beard emulate him by putting the Tony Stark beard on themselves, as shown in unofficial fan sites.

The phone app would be an Avengers Trivia game, where players must answer questions on plot details. If a player gets an answer wrong, an Avenger will attack the player’s personalized avatar in their unique way. Thor will throw or slam his hammer; Loki will jab with or shoot magic out of his sceptre; the Hulk will throw a punch or slam the avatar against the ground, like he slammed Loki against the floor from side to side like a dead fish in the Avengers (2012) film; Captain America will frisbee his shield; Iron Man will jetpack a punch or shoot a laser beam; Black Widow will smirk at the screen and say “I got what I needed,” like she did when she seemingly innocently interrogated Loki while he was held in the Hulk’s cage; or Director Fury will cross his arms and say to the screen, “Not an option,” like he did when Agent Coulson said that he was “clocking out” (dying) during the Avengers (2012) film.

If a player gets an answer right, the app shows the clip from the film that the trivia question was about. Each trivia round has an agenda, where the player must succeed in pushing a major plot device in the Avengers film, or in films from the Marvel characters who show up in the Avengers (2012) film.

For example, beating one trivia round will return Agent Coulson from the dead. Even though Loki kills Agent Coulson in The Avengers (2012) film, Agent Coulson shows up in the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tv show, which began in 2013. The tv show explains that Director Fury has a team of scientists use alien blood to perform procedures that no ethical doctor would follow, in order to bring Agent Coulson back to life. As the player progresses through the trivia questions, he becomes the scientist that finds the alien blood; later he will become the kid who transmits the news to Director Fury; and later he will be one of the scientists that performs the surgery.

Another example for a trivia round, would be to find Captain America when he was frozen in a block of ice for years. Captain America became trapped in the ice during the first Captain America film, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and was found in the same movie before the Avengers (2012) film, and put on the Avengers team by Director Fury. As the player progresses through the trivia questions, he becomes an agent that searches for the lost plane; later he will find the lost plane and Captain America frozen inside; later he will transmit the news to Director Fury; and later he will lead a team to extract Captain America from the ice. When the player beats the rounds, relevant movie clips will be shown, including Director Fury explaining to Captain America at the end that he was frozen for almost seventy years.

A third example for a trivia round would be to re-construct the Bifrost rainbow bridge, that was destroyed in the first Thor (2011) film, and reconstructed by the second Thor: The Dark World (2013) film. Thor and Loki use the re-constructed Bifrost to travel to Earth from Asgard in the Avengers (2012) film.

A player cannot pass to the next round, after he beats the previous one, without scoring high enough on the Avengers Theme Travel. The Avengers Theme Travel part of the app will occur between trivia rounds. They will be similar to rock-hero phone apps, where players must press incoming lit up dots in short or longer presses, to simulate playing a relevant song. The songs in the Avengers Theme Travel will be theme songs from the Avengers (2012) film, and from the Marvel films with characters who show up in the Avengers (2012) film. If the player’s accuracy is high enough by the end of the song, he levels up to the next trivia round (Appendix A).

As the player answers trivia questions correctly, beats trivia rounds, and completes each Avengers Theme Travel, he accumulates game credits. The player may also add credits by connecting his credit card. Players can use their credits on Avengers Energy Drinks to refill their energy bar, without having to wait longer for the bar to recharge.

Transmedia Platform 2 - Video Game: “Avengers Academy”

The video game will be the Avengers Academy software, which is an agent training school. Director Fury is the top agent and school’s principal. In Avengers and all of the Marvel media that Director Fury is in, he supervises the operation of a massive secret technologically forward transportation vehicle bases. Director Fury provides the training school’s technology and weaponry, and supervises the creation of the Academy grounds. Players will play on different training tracks, according to the Avengers characters.

Thor will lead the Astronomy track. Players will use the Tesseract as a portal to the Nine Worlds. When traveling from Asgard to another planet, players may also use the Asgard Bifrost rainbow bridge. At each planet, players can soar over and view specific locations shown in the Marvel movies. While soaring, the player may fall through Convergence portals that link worlds at random during rare alignments of the Nine Realms. As players level up in the other tracks, they will gain game credits, and more locations that were shown in the Avengers (2012) film and in Marvel films that characters from the Avengers movie show up in, will unlock (Appendix B).

Iron Man will lead the Designing and Engineering track. The engineering track will include workshop games on superhero suit creation and transport vehicle maintenance. Players will be supplied with the parts to recreate Iron Man’s suits that Tony Stark continually updates in the Iron Man and Avengers films. As players finish forming a suit, they gain game credits, and further suits with better capabilities are unlocked for the player to recreate.

Black Widow leads the Spy and Cryptography track. The player must play spy strategy and code breaking games, in order to graduate from the track. Tony Stark’s (Iron Man’s) J.A.R.V.I.S. will supply tips if the player needs them. J.A.R.V.I.S. stands for Just A Very Intelligent System, and is Tony Stark’s artificially intelligent computer that speaks to him in a British accent from inside every update of his Iron Man suits. Upon beating the spy strategy and code breaking games, players receive game credits.

Captain America leads the War Strategy and Leadership track. Players must lead a team of Avengers into enemy territory to rescue hostages and eliminate a threat. Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S. will give the player instructional hints and valuable information about the enemy’s location and technology vulnerabilities, and the player must command the Avenger characters by their different abilities. When the player returns victorious from his mission, further missions open up. Each mission can be played on harder levels, where the missions go into more depth and have a greater amount of steps. Different missions open up when players beat at least level 1 of the previous mission. Players gain credits by opening new missions and higher levels, as well as by using the Avenger’s talents within missions.

The Hulk will lead the Temper and Chemistry track. Players must select and drop chemicals on top of each other in order to combine them into a new chemical - similar to the Alchemy phone app (Appendix C). As the chemicals add up, they become emotions. Emotions can be added to chemicals or other emotions, and will create other chemicals or stronger emotions. Not all chemicals or emotions can be added to other chemicals or emotions. As the player finds more and more correct combinations, he will gain credits while a Bruce Banner avatar at the side of the screen will slowly rip its clothing, turn green, and enlarge into The Hulk.

Credits may also be used in the Avengers Academy video game. Players can use their credits on Avengers Energy Drinks to refill their energy bar, without having to wait longer for the bar to recharge. In the Avengers Academy video game, unlike the Avengers Trivia phone app, however, each Avenger’s energy drink will only refill the energy bar for its specific track. For example, Black Widow’s black raspberry energy drink will only refill the energy bar for the Spy and Cryptography track. When players have no energy left, they must wait for it to recharge, and play other tracks in the meantime.

Every month there will be ten winners according to their final score. Winners get free access to stream Marvel Cinematic Universe films from the Avengers Portal site. The highest scorer each month will be invited to the premiere showing of the upcoming Avengers movie in the series, which the real actors attend. Prizes restart each month, and free streaming to Marvel Cinematic Universe films are locked if the player is not among the top ten in the next month. However, those invited to the next Avengers premiere will keep their ticket.

Transmedia Platform 3 - PC: “Avengers Portal”

The Avengers Portal website site will be a user base for the Avenger Trivia phone app and the Avenger Academy video game, where players can sign in and will have access to their game stats. The computer site will have stat widgets for the Avenger Academy video game, a Prize Stream widget, the Avenger Trivia phone app, a Portal widget, a News widget, an Avenger Messenger widget, a User Chat, and a Credit widget (Appendix D).

The stat widget for the Avenger Academy video game will show the user’s current levels within each track, and their high score compared to the top scores. The stat widget for the Avenger Trivia phone app will show the specific trivia rounds that the user finished or is in the middle of, and how far he has gone in the round.

The Prize Stream widget will open if the user is a top scorer, and has gained free access to stream Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The films will be in HD quality, and use fast loading software.

The Portal widget will be a button that users can press to switch to a specific Avenger’s world. In each world, the screen background changes to show a picture of that Avenger within a scene and planet specific to that Avenger. A bank of backgrounds according to Avenger will provide a number of different images per character-portal page. When entering a new character’s portal, the screen will randomly show one of the images from that character’s bank.

The News widget will show headlines specific to the Portal that the user is on, and when pressed, will present the article in the center of the screen. Articles will talk about the latest news and spoilers for future Avengers films, and for future films of the superheros who star in the Avengers; and will include updates on what the Avengers actors are up to in real life.

The Avenger Messenger widget will open onto a messenger screen, where the user is the Avenger who’s portal the user is on. The user can communicate as that Avenger, to a list of the Avengers from The Avengers (2012) film. Depending on catch phrases the user uses in his messages, the Avenger that he is talking to will provide an automatic response relevant to their character type. For example, when messaging with Iron Man, Tony Stark will make fun of the user. (User: “I need to clean my apartment.” Iron Man: “You need to clean your face.”) When messaging with Captain America, Steve Rogers will encourage the user in whatever the user writes about. (User: “I’m eating ketchup.” Captain America: “Eat that ketchup.”) When messaging with Black Widow, Natasha Romanova will interrogate the user. (User: “I’ve been playing the Avengers game all day.” Black Widow: “Who is Avengers Game, and why are you hanging out with her.”)

The User Chat will be a chat window to talk to other users. Users can ask questions about Avengers and Marvel Cinematic Universe material, Avenger Academy strategy, questions from the Avengers Trivia phone app, and other related issues; and other users and site administrators can answer them. The Forum Messenger will be on the opposite side of the site as the widgets.

The Credit widget shows the amount of credits that the user has accumulated from the Avenger Trivia phone app and Avenger Academy video game. Users can add their credit card, use their Paypal account, or connect an Avenger account to their credit card or bank account in a similar way as Paypal. Game credits are discounted from user purchases. The Avengers Store provides in-game products (that are also accessible in the video game and phone app), as well as out-of-game merchandise. The in-game products will include Avengers Energy Drinks, to be used in the Avengers Trivia phone app and the Avenger Academy video game.

EXPLANATION OF KEY TERMS

A cross-platform message sends unique and different messages on different platforms, each of them contributing uniquely to the plot. The phone app, video game, and computer website are three different transmedia platforms that provide messages best suited to their platform, and contribute uniquely to the Avengers storyline and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One of the characteristics of transmedia storytelling is that the story unfolds across multiple media platforms. The Avengers (2012) film is the main plot, but extra parts of the plot are created in the Avengers Trivia phone app, the Avengers Academy video game, and the Avengers website.

In the Avengers Trivia phone app, completion of each trivia round pushes a major plot device in a Marvel film with Avengers characters. For example, beating one trivia round will have the player return Agent Coulson from the dead. Beating another trivia round would have the player find Captain America when he was frozen in a block of ice for years. Beating a different trivia round would re-construct the Asgard Bifrost rainbow bridge from when it was destroyed and recreated between films. The player is the one to push these parts of the storyline, while playing the Avengers Trivia phone app game.

In the Avengers Academy video game, each Avenger leads an agent training track that is relevant to the Avenger’s talent. The story unfolds across this video game platform, because players get to learn how to gain Avenger talents by playing related games. Having the Avengers lead the tracks creates a new part of the Avengers world, by placing the Avengers superheroes as agent training instructors.

On the Avengers website, the Portal and News widgets and the Avenger Messenger, push extra parts of the Avengers plot. The portal widget enables users to access any Avengers superhero’s planet, while such a feat is harder in the movie. The news widget leaks spoilers to future films, and adds to the storyline before the new film comes out. The Avenger Messenger lets the user message the other Avengers, as the Avenger he is according to the portal he is messaging from. This adds to the storyline, because it lets Avengers communicate like they are talking from their individual bedrooms.

A second characteristic of transmedia storytelling is that each transmedia platform must provide a distinctive and valuable contribution to the plot. A distinctive contribution involves including extra information that is different than the main plot, and cannot be found on the show itself. A valuable contribution must add value to the plot, rather than an insignificant detail that does not affect the storyline.

The Avengers Trivia phone app is distinctive because the face emulator technology, using the phone’s camera, lets the player put their face on the Avengers avatar that they want to play as. The Avengers Trivia phone app adds value to the plot, by letting the player push the major storylines when he completes trivia rounds.

The Avengers Academy video game is distinctive because in the Avengers (2012) film, the Avengers do not lead agent training tracks. This adds a new dimension to the Avengers’ roles. The Avengers Academy video game is valuable because each track lets the player learn more about the specific skillset of each Avenger.

The Avengers Portal website is distinctive because the widgets and site apps cannot be found in the Avengers (2012) film. When Avengers want to travel to other planets in the Avengers (2012) film, they must use the Tesseract or the Asgard Bifrost rainbow bridge. In contrast, on the Avengers Portal website, users can travel to other planets by clicking the Portal widget. Further, the Avenger Messenger widget is distinctive because the Avengers in the film do not have this communication application. The Avengers Portal website is valuable because the User Chat opens the site to become a collective intelligence forum that lets user fans and game players discuss the News widget’s spoilers and contribute game strategies.

The conditions for collective intelligence to happen, must include an online platform for collaboration; the ability for people to contribute from their own expertise; and a shared goal, for people to collaborate and try to reach new knowledge in a specific domain, in answer to a specific question. The User Chat from the Avengers Portal website is an online platform for collaboration; it allows users to contribute from their own gaming, film-viewing, and spoiler-reading expertise; and enables users to discuss spoilers and game strategies in answer to other users’ specific questions. Shared knowledge, by contrast, is information that is held by the entire group. The Avengers Portal website is more than a shared knowledge medium, because of its User Chat forum.

A third characteristic of transmedia storytelling is that each medium should do what it does best. Each medium has aspects unique to its platform, and should be capitalized upon. The Avengers Trivia phone app uses the phone’s camera to create a personalized avatar that gets knocked down by an Avenger when the player answers a trivia question incorrectly. The phone’s small screen is perfect for showing short clips of the player’s avatar getting beaten by an Avenger when he misses a trivia question, as well as of movie clips from the Avengers film when the player gets an answer right. The Avengers Theme Travel uses the phone’s sound and touchscreen to play a rock hero game using theme songs from the Avengers (2012) film and from Marvel films that characters from the Avengers (2012) movie show up in.

The Avengers Academy video game involves elements that are easiest to play on a game system. The player can change academy tracks by going into menu settings. In Thor’s Astronomy track, the player can use the joystick to soar through Avengers scenes and view their planets. In Iron Man’s Designing and Engineering track, the player can scroll through Iron Man suit parts and add them together using the joystick and A and B buttons. In Captain America’s War Strategy and Leadership track, players explore enemy territory using the joystick, and call upon Avengers’ talents by using the A, B, C, and D buttons. The Hulk’s Temper and Chemistry track uses the joystick to move from chemicals and emotions, and the A button will select and drop them on top of other ones in order to combine them.

The Avengers Portal website provides widgets, Avenger- and user- messaging forums, and articles to scroll through. These actions are best done on a computer.

A fourth characteristic of transmedia storytelling is that each medium must be as self-contained as possible. Each extension must be independent, where users do not have to have seen the show or film in order to make full use out of the medium. The Avengers Trivia phone app may seem like it is not self-contained, because players must know details topics from the films in order to correctly answer the trivia questions. However, an Avenger attacks the player’s avatar in a cool way when the player answers a question wrong, so that getting a question wrong is still interesting. Further, players will have more chances to re-answer the trivia question after they have gotten it wrong, in order to guess the correct answer. When the player taps the correct answer, they are shown an interesting quick clip of the Avengers scene where the trivia question comes from – that is still long enough to explain the trivia answer. The Avengers Trivia phone app includes a rock hero Avengers Theme Song game, as well, where players do not have to know Avengers film content in order to win.

The Avengers Academy video game will provide independent games along each Avenger’s track, that are not rigidly based upon the Avengers (2012) film’s plotline. A player who has not seen the Avengers film will understand that they are training to be as skillful as a superhero or special operations agent. Each game inside the tracks do not require previous film knowledge, in order to play.

The Avengers Portal website will be user-friendly enough to enable any site traffic to register a username and access widgets that are open to him. New users will have a good time using the Portal and Avenger Messenger widgets; they can learn about the Avengers characters using the News widget; and they will be able to direct any Avengers world questions they have to the User Chat. The Avengers Portal website’s monitors and administrators will be helpful, as well, on the User Chat.

The fifth characteristic of transmedia storytelling is that every extension or platform is an entrance point to the story. By participating on the media platforms, they will get the participant interested in the plot and lead him to watch the show or film. The Avengers Trivia phone app continually shows quick clips of Avengers characters when they beat up their avatar for getting a question wrong, or when they show a clip from the Avengers film for getting an answer correct. Seeing the Avengers’ distinctive talents in action will get the player interested in the Avengers superheroes. Additionally, by playing the Avengers Theme Travel within the Avengers Trivia phone app, players will hear the superhero’s theme songs, and will pay closer attention when they hear the theme songs again in a advertisements and trailers for Avengers films.

The Avengers Academy video game can be played without knowledge of the Avengers’ talents in the Avengers (2012) film, because their talents will be made apparent as they enter their different agent training tracks. For example, while playing Captain America’s War Strategy and Leadership track, they will see that the types of missions they are set out on are rescue missions. Captain America is a United States propaganda tool to advertise America as an ethical country and political system. Because the types of missions in the video game always involve an element of rescue, the player will get to know Captain America’s personality from the Avengers film. The games in Iron Man’s Designing and Engineering track will paint a picture of Tony Stark’s character in the Avengers film and in his Iron Man films, as the players slowly figure out how many suits he has created for himself. Thor’s Astronomy track show the planets and beautifully created scenes in the Avengers (2012) film and in Marvel films that characters from the Avengers film show up in. Marvel used fourteen visual effects companies in the Avengers (2012) film, alone. Marvel films starring Avengers characters have such beautiful, complex, and high quality shots - that when players travel through the super bright Tesseract and ridiculously stunning Asgard Bifrost rainbow bridge portals, and travel around the Avengers’ planets and special effect film sets - they will want to understand the story behind such beautiful filmography.

The Avengers Portal website will have a spectacular bank of backgrounds for the Portal widget to fly through, and will have a similar effect as Thor’s Astronomy track in the Avengers Academy video game, on users who have not yet seen the Avengers film. The Portal widget, the News widget, the Avenger Messenger widget, and only viewing capabilities of the User Chat, will be available for non-registered users of the site. These applications are enough to persuade someone who does not want to register as a user, to understand the enormity and popularity of the Avengers film. He may become invested enough to look up the film trailer or watch the movie.

The “hidden game” of producer-audience interaction in transmedia storytelling, is for the producer to keep hardcore fans on their toes. By continuing the storyline along other mediums separate from the original one, fans will form online collective intelligence communities to discuss, debate, predict, and critique the continually evolving and enlarging storyline. Marvel Studios, LLC produce new films with Avengers characters every few years, and are producing further Avengers films as well. In doing so, they continue to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so that there is more information and a wider storyline for fans to discuss and predict.

ETHICAL ISSUES

Online communities are online platforms that enable group interaction, interpersonal relationships, community ethics, and trust. When a fan uses a forum in ways that do not align with the forum’s system of communication, the online community will break their trust with that fan. For example, if a fan joins a forum as a new user, and automatically tries to establish himself as a valuable source of spoiler information, the online community may suspect that he is really one of the producers who is trying to redirect the online community’s conclusions if they come too close to figuring out storylines for future movies or episodes in the series.

Forum administrators would deal with community ethics, and question suspect users, before tagging them as suspected producers or blocking them for trolling.

Further ethical issues may include sensationalizing violence in the media. The Avengers gang up to fight common enemies and neutralize threats. Children may learn to deal with issues through violence, from watching the Avengers (2012) film and playing its expansions.

Therefore, the Avengers Trivia phone app, the Avengers Academy video game, and Avengers Portal website are transmedia expansions that include nonviolent tasks and games. The most violent task involved in these platforms is Captain America’s War Strategy and Leadership track in the Avengers Academy video game. Therefore, the missions available to players involve elements of soldier rescue and Avenger teamwork, so that they are not asked to perform meaningless violence.

A further ethical issue that may arise and be challenging in the Avengers transmedia storytelling is viewers being seduced by United States propaganda. Avengers superheroes always fight for America against a threatening country, or fight from America against a threatening planet.

However, the threat that Captain America faces in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), where he is established as an Avenger, is Hydra, a Nazi organization dedicated to global domination. Because the Nazi party is globally recognized as evil, and because Steve Rogers was chosen to become a super agent specifically because he was an antibully, Marvel Studios dealt with this challenge.

PROS AND CONS

Pros and Cons – In General

Transmedia storytelling has pros and cons. It is a worthwhile venture because it provides fans with a deeper experience of the story. This creates a buzz with the existing fan base, as well as motivates the formation of a larger fan base. Transmedia storytelling also works to create a collective intelligence community, because it collaborates its essential plotlines on the original media. This lets the original media and the transmedia platforms work off of each other’s information, and more easily create hidden storylines throughout the main plot. Online communities and forums are created because of this, so that they can collaborate information about the hidden storylines to guess further aspects of the media’s world, and future plotlines and details in upcoming series additions.

Transmedia storytelling additionally creates innovative advertising opportunities for the original media. Through the different medium, the original media can access different subgroups who may not have become fans before identifying with a certain transmedia platform that the original media advertised on.

Transmedia storytelling may also have negative effects. Multiple platforms to extend a storyline creates a high demand on viewers. As each platform adds information to the storyline, it is time consuming to go through the increasing volume and types of content. Fans must play all of the games and fully experience all of the transmedia platforms, and they will want to collaborate information on collective intelligence forums.

Transmedia storytelling is also difficult to produce. According to the five characteristics of transmedia storytelling, it is not easy to figure out how to connect the different expansions from each medium. It is also costly for production companies to produce multiple expansions. If production companies do not create expansions themselves, they will hire outside companies to help them. Licensing challenges occur, however, when producers that were not hired by the original medium’s production company create expansions for the original medium. Rerun challenges may also occur where television networks play reruns of transmedia expansions, without the permission of the original medium’s production company.

Pros and Cons – Marvel Brand

The Avengers Trivia phone app, the Avengers Academy video game, and the Avengerscomputer website provide a deeper experience into the Avengers world. The Avengers expansions will create a buzz with the existing fan base who have already watched the Avengers film, and will motivate new fans who watched the Avengers film after experiencing an Avengers transmedia expansion.

The Avengers Portal website provides a forum for an online community, to discuss the transmedia expansions. The Avengers Trivia phone app and the Avengers Academy video game use advertising opportunities for the Avengers Energy Drink by making them a part of the games. Fans will notice the Avengers Energy Drinks in stores.

However, the Avengers Trivia phone app and the Avengers Academy video game connect through stats and credits to the Avengers Portal website, and players and users may feel burdened by the amount of expansion material that they must go through in order to gain the full experience of the Avengers storyline. Gaining this full experience is also time consuming: fans could be doing work instead.

Creating the Avengers phone app, video game, and the computer website may be difficult to produce because it will be difficult to figure out how to connect them in further ways than by linking stats, credits, and energy drink bars. It is also costly to create the transmedia platforms because Marvel Studios must devote their budget and time to creating them - or to hire outside production companies to create the platforms for them. If unofficial producers create Avengers transmedia platforms without partnering with Marvel Studios, this may create licensing challenges for the unofficial producers.

Transmedia platforms may add personality to the original media’s characters, that are not actually part of the character. The Avengers do not lead agent training tracks, and adding this aspect may damage their brand in the Avengers film.