GUIDING LIGHT IN THE NEWS

Why limit your brand communication to advertising? Today marketers can create a story franchise around their brands that can be told through books, comics, videogames, Web shorts, feature films and virtual worlds, says Jeff Gomez, chief executive and president of Starlight Runner Entertainment....

Forbes: Transmedia is often used to promote TV shows and movies, entertainment properties that already have a story built into them, but how does it work for marketers?

Gomez: Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG - news - people ) has used transmedia to extend the narrative of a soap opera, which is an ad vehicle for the company. In 2007, the packaged-goods giant commissioned Guiding Light: Jonathan's Story, a novel published by Simon & Schuster that revealed the adventures of a major character that had been mysteriously absent from the daytime drama. The book, hyped in ads on the soap and in a blog bylined by one of the novel's protagonists, was a media sensation and became a New York Times best-seller.

More at Forbes.com.