Starlight Runner's CEO, Jeff Gomez, spends a lot of time talking about "transmedia," a hybrid editorial, product development and marketing strategy that extends intellectual properties across multiple media and product platforms. In the contemporary world of product development and brand recognition, "transmedia" is a hot topic, and the results of this approach can be seen in blockbuster multiple-platform properties like the video-game Halo as well as multimedia publishing projects like HarperCollins's Amanda Project and Scholastic's 39 Clues.
Founded by Gomez and Mark Pensavalle, Starlight Runner specializes in creating these kinds of multiple-media programs. The company's job is to maximize "the value of entertainment properties and consumer brands by extending them across multiple media platforms," Gomez said in an interview at the Starlight Runner office near Union Square in Manhattan. Gomez has written, produced and overseen a variety of big-ticket media properties for the comics, video-game and movie industries and has produced transmedia campaigns for such companies as Hasbro (Transformers), Mattel (Hotwheels), Disney (Pirates of the Carribean), Microsoft (Halo) as well as consulting on the strategy for many others.
Gomez says the term "transmedia" was first used by Henry Jenkins, an MIT professor, in his 2006 book, Convergence Culture. Jenkins makes the point that in a contemporary marketplace enabled by digital technology, media properties easily morph into new forms, and consumers not only expect to see their favorite narrative properties in new formats, they demand it. "The idea is to build a fictional world for a property so you have a resource that can generate hundreds of hours of content," said Gomez. And that content includes everything from books and comics to games and Web sites.
He's quick to note that transmedia campaigns are not the same as branding or licensing. "It's not a cash-grab," Gomez explained. Although the process entails identifying "a master story" and "archetypes" at the heart of the product that can be attached to both the company and the product, it also means creating original stories set within the universe of a property rather than literally adapting a story into a new format. Gomez emphasized using a "literary approach," to create new story lines. "We are modeling Tolkien, not Shrek," said Gomez. "We mine the classics by using deep characterizations [in our new storylines] to give new product lines credibility," he explained. Indeed, Gomez says the process involves soliciting input from fans and even hiring academics in order to create high-quality content. "Fans are the torchbearers. If they love it, they will follow the story anywhere," said Gomez.
Currently, Starlight is working on a transmedia campaign for Coca-Cola based on The Happiness Factory, a popular animated commercial broadcast during the Super Bowl. The spot creates a story around what happens when a coin is placed in a vending machine, revealing a vivid fantasy world of little creatures scurrying around inside the machine to deliver the bottle of Coca-Cola.
Starlight Runner also has a publishing unit, Kissena Park Press, which is releasing Lightsurfing: Living Life in the Front of My Mouth 1992--2003, NYC by Marrus, a New York City artist and former club kid who moved to New Orleans and used multiple art forms and different media to express her life. Gomez said the book and Marrus's life offer a humane and noncommercial example of transmedia at work.
"At the end of the day, ww're fans and geeks ourselves," said Gomez. "We fall in love with a property. We protect it, and we create immersive literature that is real and potent."
