Last night concluded Season 5 of HBO's wildly popular True Blood. It was, to say the least, a gory mess. One that succeeded for all of the classic reasons -- it spun fun and intense stories, it engaged its audience with characters that audiences care about and it left them wanting more.
So what about that might change by the end of this decade? Maybe less those core elements -- says a recent study by technology research firm Latitude -- and more how they expand to platforms, how they listen to audiences and how they stretch across time.
Latitude, which has consulted some of the most successful digital media TV brands (eg. ESPN, MTV, BBC), surveyed a 158 "early adopters focused on generating new possibilities for interacting with stories." They asked them to think like producers, using a favorite story, with the goal of "re-inventing the way that audiences might experience that story."
Those who work or read in the fields of Social TV, transmedia, Smart TV, etc. won't be too surprised by the findings. Latitude breaks down its primary results in four "I's" (see graphic at top): Immersion, Interactivity, Integration and Impact. It boils down to this: Early adopters want to know more, with more people on more platforms for more results.
But what caught my eye was a section called Best Practices and started, "The perfect story would ..." Applying it to True Blood, let's take a look:
Meet basic information needs. Whatever Bill Compton is now, we know he was once a soldier in the Civil War. By creating media worlds that delve into those back stories, intermingled with real history, audiences could be even more compelled by his current quest for power.
Offer a new vantage point. True Blood's creativity with perspective could one day be taken to another level. Much like gaming, being able to choose from which lens you watch the show -- through a character's eyes, from high above, a fly on the wall (more of that in this case) -- will not only deepen viewer experience but also generate a lot of re-watching.
Offer a somewhat active experience. AND Converse with the real world. Latitude's study says only 12 percent of respondents want to be completely passive while watching (these are early adopters after all). So again using gaming as a model, when Jason, Sookie and crew were storm the compound, the audience could vote on which choices some of them made, ultimately dictating at least some characters' fate. (You can also make humans vampires if they die.)
Be long-running. Says Latitude: "Thirty-eight percent thought the perfect story would be 4+ installments, while 31% felt never-ending would be just the right length." Never-ending is something a vampire can understand. And we'll see how audiences feel about it now that Alan Ball is taking his leave from the show. I, for one, know plenty of shows that lived well past their creative death. But as Internet delivery of streaming content becomes more prevalent -- and networks have fewer cost restrictions on what can be produced -- true believers might make a lower-cost, stream-only long-run option financially viable.
HBO is already on the forefront of many of these strategies, using Social Media, interactive story layers and off-season interaction to keep their brands moving. Which is to say that its leading show is on the, ahem, bleeding edge toward Latitude's vision.
