Digital storytelling is on the brink of yet another transition, which will affect the way we interact with each other while consuming media. Saurabh Varma pre-empts us what's to come.

What a transient world! Everything we believed in, vigorously defended and championed for, no longer has any meaning. It's quite a shock realising that the opposite of what we believed in and cherished is actually true. Contradictions rule. Someone once said that the opposite of a great truth is a great truth. He/ she couldn't be more right.

It's not even 10 years when we propagated the theory of media-neutral planning or integration (you can have your pick). The hunt was for the one big, unifying idea. Our storytelling was about maximising the idea across all touch-points. The same message would get repeated, confirming the brand's promise. The more the message got repeated, the better the brand would do. Simple.

And then it all changed. Suddenly, we woke up one day, smelt the coffee and realised how wrong we had been all along. It was no longer good enough to have a single message. Now, the message would change depending on the context. We started calling it context planning. If we could plot the consumer's purchase journey and understand the challenges along the journey, we could find the relevant solutions. The emphasis shifted to customised solutions. We quickly abandoned all existing theories on integration. Discussing the "big idea" became as un-cool as the USP. Storytelling had evolved. It had become fragmented and meaningful.

Here is my prediction: before we know it, it's all going to change again. Why? Well, for starters, context planning only looks at solutions from a perspective of a purchase funnel. The weakness lies in always looking at human beings first as consumers. Second, it doesn't acknowledge the impact of media fragmentation in our lives. Storytelling, the way we know it, is going to go through yet another transition. And this time around, it will evolve not in the way we buy stuff, but in the way we interact with each other while consuming media.

The basic premise is simple. Media has become so fragmented that it would be impossible for a single consumer to trace every medium and channel. So chances are that someone who plays a game is actually not watching TV. This would lead to the formation of closed communities across the platform, with shared passions. What we are now talking about is an opportunity to use all these channels differently, to create a non-linear narrative. Henry Jenkins, founder of MIT's comparative media studies programme, in his book, "Convergence Culture", dedicated a chapter on how The Matrix has used this form of trans-media storytelling. Each platform, whether it is the video game or the comics, chooses to reveal a different part of the story. Not the same. The really interesting bit happens when each of these individual platforms triggers word of mouth. Now, imagine what happens when consumers who belong to separate networks connect through a third and common platform or channel and start putting the puzzle together. That is what genuine engagement is all about.

To explain the point further, I am going to use examples from the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). For Barthes, WWF has been about a "spectacle of excess". For me, it is one of the best examples of contemporary storytelling. Henry Jenkins in another book, called "The WOW Climax", talks about how "WWF provides us with multiple sources of identification, multiple protagonists all locked in their own moral struggles against forces of evil." Storytelling in WWF unfolds across multiple fights, multiple characters, interviews and enacted encounters. The narrative is always ongoing. The really interesting bit is that the storytelling from a consumer's perspective at a point of time is never really incomplete. The closure happens every time a bout gets over. But each bout in itself is only a sub-plot. There is always a larger narrative at play, which is always kept fluid and open. The resolution of one fight does little to dull the storytelling. The WWF knows how to use its platforms to always keep alive the constant tension. TV is used differently to the monthly magazine. The pay-for view specials has yet another role. The tension is raised in one medium. The resolution happens in another. It is almost like an epic soap where each plot happens in a different medium. What drives the consumer to each of the channels or platforms is the passion for the story. And remember it is not the same consumer across each platform. When consumers with the same passion meet and interact, they are able to, together, create a new story. My sense is that non-linear storytelling structure gives vent to new myths. It gives consumers a chance to create and interpret their own version of what is really going on. 

Our challenge going forward will be in, one, understanding humans better. Not consumers. Remember, in WWF, they are not first consumers of wrestling but actually of a deeper need to resolve the conflict between good and evil. Our second step will be in understanding the role of each medium in their lives and the way these mediums interact with each other. Our final step will be in engineering storytelling across the mediums. Simple, right?

Saurabh Varma is chief strategy officer of Arc Worldwide Singapore and head of engagement planning at Leo Burnett Singapore. Read full bio.