The Roswell Experience

Transmedia storytelling for America’s small towns

Robert Pratten CEO & Founder, Transmedia Storyteller Ltd

@robpratten

The Roswell Experience

• The Brief – create a pilot experience for 2013 UFO festival

• Goals – introduce visitors to wider local history

– incentivize visitors to visit local businesses

– discover critical success factors

Overview

• True history of town told through the lens of a fictional alien from outer space

• 2-week game based on location check-ins

• Simple (5min) SMS-based casual games

• Conducttr managed all sign-ups, publication and interactivity… and kept local retailers informed

Experience components

• Live activities: – crop circle – UFO sightings – radio station interruption – prize draw

• Conducttr: – range of casual and deeper interactive games – story publication to social media – personalized content – points-based leaderboards – merchant outreach & notification – marketing contact list – mobile app

Audience acquisition & entry points

• Local flyers & check-in notices

• Noticeboards at certain locations (mall, stores)

• Website sign-up (via Conducttr)

• Mobile app (Conducttr)

• Local word-of-mouth

• Local media (TV & radio) and social media

Crop circle

Mall noticeboard

Location flyers

3-fold flyer

In-world (e.g. fake) newspaper (flyer)

Give-aways

Mobile app

2-week game Find GPS coordinates of alien landing. Daily question emailed to subscribers for 14 days. Answers unlocked via check-in at local stores and points-of-interest

Example casual SMS games

• Alien encounter readiness (on next slides)

• (more challenging) Hidden message – Reply with the hidden msg to win Oppenheimer badge:

hygpkijhgvgtfrthUm&nszw1LLzb3zr3pl&c3dz6yzm&chin3syh76deswnhyga

• (more challenging) Anagram – Reply with the answer to this anagram to win the Billy the

Kid badge (5/8/6/6) ONSLNCRIFTGICDAYAIEINBEFL

Alien encounter readiness (SMS)

TEST your readiness for alien encounters! Reply TEST to answer two questions that will reveal more about yourself than you knew!

– Q1: You suffer an alien abduction but are returned to Earth. What do you do? Reply keep SECRET or GO PUBLIC

– Q2: You find yourself impregnated with an an alien child. What do you do? Reply give BIRTH or KILL it.

Results create personalize experience

You are a PERFECT HOST for alien explorers. Your willingness to

keep an alien lovechild and tell nobody has been noted and will

be rewarded.

You are an EXHIBITIONIST who seeks celebrity in two solar

systems. We are wary of you but we may use you if it suits our

cause.

You are a SILENT RECLUSE. You crave alien attention but are

afraid to show your affection.

You are an EARTH WARRIOR - ready to make a stand against alien invasion and exploration.

You are not to be trusted.

SECRET PUBLIC

BIRTH

KILL

Results of last 4 days (following several iterations)

• 30% of target demographic in daily visitors

• 3.9 interactions per visitor

Critical Success Factors

Engage, don’t explain.

• Design story to be location-aware but not location-dependent – requiring physical travel creates big barrier to adoption – represent stores “virtually” on online platform and entice

journey to real store (not the other way around) • Assume nobody wants to read a set of rules. Start with

direct call-to-action (“do this!”) and have visitors discover the “rules” as they explore

• Give rewards early and frequently – make it fun and surprising

• Keep it simple, frictionless and fun – minimum intellectual demands, physical demands, time

commitment, technology demands

Planning

• Design for existing behaviors – What do visitors already enjoy?… enhance it

• Understand visitor dynamics, demographics, habits – public transport vs driving? Open road or gridlocked?

– visitor metrics – age, size, income, education, volume, frequency, occupancy

– technographics – familiarity with social media, smartphones etc.

• Know the geography – foot traffic/pedestrian friendly?

– wifi? 3G?

– hot climate? rainy climate?

Business as usual?

• Local retailers must help with audience acquisition (discovery), not solely expect to benefit from it: – in-store staff involved in call-to-action – consistent and clear presentation (e.g. flyers displayed in window, not

inside store e.g. like “wifi inside”)

• Integrate the experience with town website & marketing materials with early audience capture during vacation-planning stage

• Use interactivity to capture “visitor heat maps” and other market research

• Integrate with the town’s social media strategy • Iterate

Transmedia Storyteller Ltd http://tstoryteller.com

USA: +1 415 287 4150

Europe: +44 207 193 4567