A transmedia toolkit for small businesses

Abstract

In the current market, social media plays a big part in how people shop. Despite the current pervasiveness of social media, it is only in recent years that bigger businesses have begun to use transmedia strategies in their marketing campaigns. However, with accessible digital marketing tools readily available to anyone, businesses of any size can now incorporate these tools into their everyday practices to enhance their brand awareness to their publics. Transmedia strategies can easily be implemented into these everyday practices, and some bigger businesses have already done this. Using transmedia marketing strategies helps brands engage with audiences and result in brand stories that cross multiple platforms. However, there is evidence that small businesses don’t have the manpower or enough resources to hire public relations specialists to handle their online presence.The goal of this project is to develop a transmedia experience that provides small businesses with a branding resource to improve brand presence and awareness online. Teaching business professionals how to use transmedia marketing in a user-friendly way can help them develop novel skills and strategies for brand development. The transmedia marketing tool proposed here is intended to help businesses to strategize their brand identities with audiences and cross-platform storytelling in mind. Keywords: Transmedia, social media, experience map, qualitative interview, user testing, Transmedia toolkit, co-creation session, website design