Mattel pushing the transmedia envelope...

Check out Headsets & Highballs post on the internal workings of Mattel and their transmedia musings here.

Aina Abiodun, Film Futurist blogger, has something to say about Disney and Transmedia

"Is Iger a fool or a maniac? To which I reply: Neither."

Check out Abiodun's extended comments here from her Film Futurist blog.

I agree that maverick may be more appropriate than maniac.

Kidscreen Transmedia Commentary...

Meredith of Y Pulse offers a great insight into happenings at the recent Kidscreen meeting in New York City. Thanks!

Cinekid's Junior Cross Media Market Steering Committee

Check out the press on Cinekid's Junior Cross Media Market and it's new Steering Committee for 2010. Players include: Jeff Gomez, CEO at Starlight Runner Entertainment, Brenda Bisner, licensing director at Cookie Jar Entertainment, Andrew Kerr, executive director of consumer products & marketing international at Classic Media, Rebecca Denton, senior producer EMEA at Turner Broadcasting/Cartoon Network (UK), Alessandro Traverso, VP of commercial development at HIT Entertainment (UK), Lou Murrin-Honore,youth director at Turner Broadcasting/Cartoon Network (France), and Justine Bannister, head of international Sales at TV-Loonland (UK/France). More here compliments of Kidscreen.

Another Surprise...Kids and Teens Use More Media

The latest Kaiser Family Foundation's study on kids and media consumption can be found compliments of Kidscreen here.

Kids Have More Cellphones: Surprise, Surprise

MRI, in their 2009 American Kids Study, have determined a 68% increase in cell phone ownership. Read more from Kidscreen here.

Don Norman on Transmedia

Don Norman somehow reminds me of a Hunter Thompson character from his photo, which is why I posted it along with his piece on The Transmedia Design Challenge. He gave a keynote at 21st Century Transmedia Innovation Symposium in Korea this past September. Find more on him at Interactions Magazine, published by The Association of Computing Machinery.

Faris Yakob's Video Touches on Transmedia

2010: Entertainment and Communication from Faris Yakob on Vimeo.

Transmedia and Avoiding the Economic Crisis: The Goldman Bad Boys

Goonth's Posterous writes a cool piece on the Gretchen Morgensen and Louise Story piece in the New York Times this past week (Thursday, Dec. 24th) on how the global banks, namely Goldman Sachs, forecasted the implosion of mortgage-related securities, created a marketplace for C.D.O.’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations), and then made bets against them from which they profited...and ties it all into transmedia.

READ IT HERE.

I am reading this while listening to vintage Ron Paul from 1988.

WATCH IT HERE.

This stuff is really fascinating, if you are into Economics and the Hidden Hand. Check it all out.

The Transmedia Equation, Part 1

Jeff Gomez talks Top Down Development with jawbone.tv here.

In LA...and Looking for Henry Jenkins

I am in LA and wanting to have coffee with Henry Jenkins – Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts, USC. We'll see what happens. Watch this space...

This video from the Keynote from Futures of Entertainment 4: Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: Five Key Principles of Transmedia Entertainment

In the Transmedia Trenches: A Conversation with Mike Monello

Aina Abiodun speaks with Mike Monello during FOE4. Read the full story here.

Nuts for Social Media

Check out this article with fab examples of favorite strategies + others that need "improvement."

Full article here by Natalie Zmuda & Kunur Patel from Advertising Age.

Four Tips for Brands Embracing the New Methods of Storytelling

Check out the full story here, which was written by Christine Huang of GlobalHue.

It is more on the results of the Futures of Entertainment and highlights 4 important points of interest, as told by Henry Jenkins.

Brent Friedman of Electric Farm on brands embracing Transmedia

"My prediction moving forward, is there's going to be a greater stratification of web content. You're going to see more professional content come in with higher budgets and become more ambitious. And the user gen and amateur content isn't going to go away. I just think you're going see a little more disparity between the haves and the have nots in terms of budgets. And what I think you're going to see with the bigger budget projects is it's not just going to be about the webisodes anymore. It's going to be creating much more of an integrated entertainment experience."
Source: Larry Kless' Webblog

Wired picks up on Transmedia...

Check out this article by Alison Norrington entitled "Transmedia tales and the future of storytelling"

WVUGal93 on Hasbro and Social Media

Check out this nice little piece. I am interested in Hasbro and Lego at the moment, thus the post.

Follow Up: Futures of Entertainment @ MIT

If you want to read more about what went down at Futures of Entertainment, then visit this blog.
From thetrendwatch.com
Last weekend a motley assortment of tweedy academics, game designers, jargon-slinging marketeers, artists, and communications gurus, collected in Cambridge, MA for the fourth “Futures of Entertainment” conference at MIT. Over the next few days, I’ll aim to unpack a few of the more interesting ideas that came up during two days of panel discussions.

Catch Jeff Gomez in Toronto: Nov. 30 to Dec. 1

nextKEYNOTES
Visionaries at the forefront of digital media are ready to share with you their knowledge and experience.

* Gavin Purcell, Supervising Producer, NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – “Public Participation: Lessons Learned Re-Launch of NBC Late Night” online and on television ”
* Chuck Porter, Co-Chairman, Chief Strategist, Crispin Porter + Bogusky – “digital Darwinism – Survival of the smartest”
* Tara missrogue Hunt ‘- “Make Whuffie”
* Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Open Text – Digital Media and Next Generation Social Web ”
* Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment – “The Power of Transmedia Storytelling”
* Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image “Creating conversations”

Heroes' Tim Kring Talks Transmedia

Continuing the narrative even down to your merchandise packaging...