Group 9- Updates

Weekly update #1

Hi all!
This is our first weekly update. We do not have that much to tell yet, but we did lay out our basis for the project we have planned.
As you might know, we had three ideas and were not sure which one we wanted to go through with. However, miss Kapoor has given us her blessing to make the TV series ‘Suits’ our transmedia project.
What we have decided on so far is who is going to work on what part of the assignment. We have brainstormed a bit about the extensions we want to incorporate in the project and have chosen 4/5 extensions and will all think about it in the coming week to work out the details. Furthermore, we agreed to set a deadline every Friday for the weekly update and for our written parts to be done. For next Friday, we all have to have at least one part finished; for example, one person will write a piece about the premise and purpose of the project.
We are looking forward to working on the project and developing the extensions! Check our weekly update next week to see how the Suits transmedia project is doing.

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Weekly update #2

The first pieces of our project are written by now. We have come to a definitive conclusion about which extensions we are going to use. The Suits transmedia project will include:

– Twitter accounts for some of the characters of the show
– A clothingline of suits that resemble the ones worn in the show
– A mobile app that enables the user to photograph suits and provides information and details such as brand and costs, but also suggests other suits the user might like based on the photographs he/she made. The clothingline will be integrated with the app.
– An alternative reality game that will be accessible on your mobile phone. Players can be the characters of the show and have to solve lawsuits. In order to win the lawsuit, they will have to go to places in the real world, check in, and documents and the like will be unlocked so they can proceed in the game.
– A blog will be started from the viewpoint of one of the characters of the show.

In addition, the levels of the ARG will become more and more difficult, and the players of the game will have to use information from the blog, tweets and episodes of the TV series in order to level-up. In this way, the extensions of the TV series will be linked together and provide a more engaging environment for the fans.
With our innovative transmedia platforms, we aim to entertain our audience and keep them engaged in Suits’ participatory culture.
We have agreed on the setting, which will remain the same as the TV series; New York. The ARG will therefore involve places such as Central Park, or the Empire State Building.

However, there is one more main aspect of our transmedia project, namely the launch of the whole campaign. This will be a reality game, starting before the launch of the extensions, but also continuing afterwards.
The rough idea is we select several cities in the US to run the game, leaving one of the cities to be decided by the votes of the public, so the hardcore fans of suits will definitely tell people around them to vote for their cities, providing another point of entry for those who are not following the TV series. There will be live updates on Facebook and twitters so that people must like our Facebook page or follow our twitter accounts to get access of the game. The background of a lawsuit will be announced before the game starts and people need to find clues, either documents or even a person, based on the live updates in the social media platforms, in the city and take a picture with it by the apps we are going to release. Once you find the right thing, a new message will be sent to your phone and you’ll have more ideas on how to win that lawsuit. We can have several clues to be set in the city in a particular day so everyone in the city will engage with the game and even those who don’t play the game can still notice what we are doing. And in the process, we can give out gifts like the demo of the video games, products of our clothing lines, tie for example, to provide a reward to attract people to play the game and in the meantime, promote all the platforms that we are going to release, kind of linking everything together. We can even cooperate with the TV series that we leave an open-ended episode with some hints mentioned in it but without coming to a conclusion yet, and the reality game in the following week will be investigating the lawsuit in the last episode. So if people did watch the episode careful enough, they can find something that helps them win the game. The potential winner will have to find clues through the reality game and gives a solution to the lawsuits, where he or she will know the answer after watching the next episode, as a way to keep people watching the TV series. If he or she gives the correct answer, they will be qualified to win the ultimate prize, which needs to be a really big one – we have not decided on it yet –  so that people will be willing to play it, as the game requires quite a lot effort.

We would not want to spoil everything before our pitch, so this is it for this week. We would love to hear what you think about our project so far.

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Weekly update #3

By this time, we are pretty far in the project. The pieces we have all written for the report mainly need to be finalized and put together and then the presentation will grow out of it. One might say we had a major break-through today, as we developed a big hoax to launch the whole transmedia campaign. The hoax will require fans to actively participate and engage in the story and solve a lawsuit. Well, you are probably curious to hear the story of the hoax, so here it is.

A big event will be organized for fans to meet actors, gather free samples and gadgets etc. On this event, a giftbag will be handed out, which will contain several samples but also a QR code. When the fan scans this QR code, he/she will discover a blog with a YouTube video on it of a crying girl who tells her story.
Holly Johnson used to work at the Jen&Harry’s cookie factory, but she was recently fired because the company is convinced that Holly is the one who stole and leaked the famous cookie recipe. However, Holly claims she did not do this, that she was framed,  and suspects her colleagues Nikky and Keith (we still need to think of their surnames). The company is suing  Holly for her suspected deed and Holly asks for your help in proving her innocence.
When the fan looks Nikky and Keith up on Facebook, they will find their profiles which show where they hang out most of the time. The fan can then follow their trails to their favourite hang-out spots and find clues there that will help them in proving Holly’s innocence, such as messages from Nikky to Keith because she left her Facebook account open in the library she always hangs out at. In the meantime, the fans will receive messages from Nikky and Keith to leave them alone and stop following them. In the end, all the players will be led to Central Park, in which they will bust Nikky and Keith on their plan; they wanted to take Jen&Harry’s down in order to start their own famous cookie factory and put the guilt on Holly.
As a reward for solving the lawsuit, the fans will get an exclusive preview of the first episode of the new season and will be given the videogame we designed for them (this is one of the extensions we have thought of).

We are going to shoot the movie of Holly, create her blog, create the Jen&Harry’s website and an item on Nakshart that shows where they hang out.

We hope you are as excited about the hoax as we are, since a lot of thinking went into it today! 🙂