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I used to love them as a child. Books where I could determine how the plot unfolded. How the book ended depended on the decisions that I made.
My childhood days are over and choose your own adventure stories have lost their popularity – or at least that’s what I thought! Recently, however, they have been cropping up again. And in digital form. And the best part is that these new story formats are not just for children.
Below is a summary of which channels these formats are available on and why they might be of particular interest for digital communication and therefore for corporate digital marketing.
1. Choose your own adventure TV story
In the HBO series “Mosaic“, viewers can decide for themselves from which perspective they want to view the story from next. In the app linked to the show, users can put together the half-hour sequences on their own like a mosaic or a puzzle and in this way influence the chronological order of the narrative thread.
If you listen to rumours from Bloomberg, Netflix is also planning interactive episodes for the fifth season of Black Mirror, where the audience will be able to determine the dystopian ending. It will certainly be interesting!
2. Choose your own adventure Instagram Story
Fans of the Netflix series Stranger Things have the opportunity to control what Steve and Dustin, two of the main characters, talk about and do. Poll stickers on Instagram stories will be used in a creative way to decide how the story unfolds.
3. Choose your own adventure Story via Voice-assistant
At the end of 2017, the BBC’s research and development department launched an interactive audio drama for voice assistants, such as Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. The experience starts with the command “Alexa, open The Inspection Chamber”. What follows is a radio play that depends on the interaction with the listener. Sections of the 20-minute story change depending on the spoken responses from the user. There are three different endings in total.
Why are these formats so interesting for digital marketing and communication?
Choose your own adventure books drew me in so much when I was younger that I would read them several times over just to find out how the story would have changed if I had made a different decision at a certain point in the book.
With exciting content, this high level of attention and commitment leads to long periods of time taken up with it. A creative way for brands and advertisers to draw in their customers and build loyalty.
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