Abstract
Advances in media technologies have afforded audiences greater control over how, and to what extent, they engage with brand content and advertising. In response, brands have pursued more immersive and participatory ways of reaching consumers, with transmedia storytelling—the coordinated communication of a narrative across multiple platforms with each medium contributing unique elements—emerging as one such approach. While scholarship has examined transmedia storytelling in brand contexts, research has largely centred on case studies of completed campaigns or conceptual investigations, leaving the dynamics of practice underexplored. Drawing on 21 interviews and a cross-national survey of 256 brand communicators, this study investigates the challenges of adopting transmedia storytelling, the industry categories perceived as most suited, and whether obstacles vary across sectors or are broadly consistent. Findings suggest that the most significant barriers tend to arise from external and organisational constraints rather than creative limitations. Although obstacles were largely consistent, sectors such as fashion, health and beauty revealed distinct implementation challenges, while categories like automotive and education showed more uniform patterns. Informed by these findings, the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice is reframed to emphasise the organisational and relational conditions shaping the practice in contemporary brand communication.
Introduction
The rapid evolution of media technologies over the past two decades, particularly in digital and social media, has given audiences greater control over how and when they engage with online media content (Hase et al., 2023; Kaur & Ashfaq, 2023). Rather than following linear consumption patterns, audiences construct their own pathways across media platforms according to their personal preferences and habits (Beauvisage et al., 2023; Dhingra, 2023). This reconfiguration of audience–brand relationships, characterised by unpredictable engagement pathways, has compelled brands to rethink how they connect with audiences (Spry et al., 2021). Transmedia storytelling, defined as the communication of an overarching narrative dispersed across multiple media platforms with each contributing distinct and meaningful elements to the whole (Jenkins, 2003, 2010), provides a response to this shifting dynamic. However, existing research has largely focused on the benefits of transmedia storytelling in brand contexts through case studies of completed campaigns and theoretical explorations of its potential (Coombs & Harker, 2021; du Plessis, 2019; Giovagnoli, 2018; Granitz & Forman, 2015; Piccialli, 2021; Scozzese & Cavallini, 2023), rather than on the logics underpinning practice. While some barriers have been noted (du Plessis, 2019; Giovagnoli, 2018), empirical investigation into practitioners’ lived experiences of producing transmedia storytelling campaigns remains limited. This study addresses that gap by examining barriers to transmedia storytelling from a practitioner’s perspective. Specifically, it investigates the challenges of adopting the approach, the client-based industry categories perceived to be most suited and which categories are perceived to experience the greatest obstacles. Viewed through a production studies lens, our findings indicate that barriers tend to be predominantly organisational and relational rather than creative or narrative in nature.
Applying a sequential mixed-methods approach, the study draws on 21 semi-structured interviews and a cross-national survey of 256 promotional industry professionals, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to enable the triangulation of data. Our findings diverge from existing transmedia branding literature, which commonly focuses on narrative construction or creative obstacles, and instead align with research in adjacent fields that highlight practical concerns and resource constraints (Buehring & Vittachi, 2020; Ureta, 2020). Interview participants frequently identified fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs); utilitarian categories such as construction, mining and insurance; and in some cases B2B as facing the greatest challenges. Yet, others argued that suitability depends less on category and more on finding compelling stories with ‘human angles’. Survey data revealed implementation challenges in the fashion, health and beauty sectors, whereas automotive and education industries exhibited more consistent barriers. These findings suggest that although client industries were perceived to face different obstacles, no sector is inherently unsuitable, with success shaped by relational and contextual factors rather than the industry category alone.
In light of these findings, this article evaluates the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice (Sutherland & Barker, 2023) and, in doing so, advances a reconceptualisation of transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts as an organisational practice rather than an isolated narrative strategy. Where existing models emphasise narrative construction (Zimand-Sheiner, 2024), audience engagement logics (Tenderich & Williams, 2015) or semio-narratological approaches (Scolari, 2009, 2018), the present study shifts attention to the structural and relational conditions under which transmedia storytelling campaigns are produced. Drawing from production studies scholarship (Banks et al., 2015), the model is reframed in response to barriers identified in this study, positioning transmedia storytelling as a coordinated practice shaped by client dynamics, organisational readiness and multidisciplinary collaboration. The article begins by outlining the conceptual foundations of transmedia storytelling and reviews existing literature on its benefits and limitations. It then details our mixed-methods approach, presents the findings and concludes with a discussion of their implications and the model’s utility for understanding how challenges may be overcome in practice.
Study Background
The Conceptual Foundations of Transmedia Storytelling
This study adopts a production studies perspective, approaching transmedia storytelling in brand communication as an industry practice shaped by the conditions under which professional work takes place. Production studies attends to the lived experiences of media practitioners and to the everyday processes through which work unfolds in professional settings, rather than treating communication practices solely in textual or narrative terms (Banks et al., 2015). From this perspective, transmedia storytelling is understood not simply as a narrative strategy but as a form of professional practice whose implementation is shaped by the practical realities of contemporary brand communication. Originally developed to trace the changing and increasingly participatory nature of the entertainment industries (Jenkins, 2006; Kinder, 1991), transmedia storytelling has attracted considerable academic attention and has been described as ‘commonplace’ across sectors including journalism, education, tourism, advocacy, arts and brand communication (Freeman, 2017, p.11). When applied to brand communication contexts, the approach is commonly referred to as ‘transmedia branding’ (Giovagnoli, 2018; Matteo & Zotto, 2015; Scolari, 2018), with Tenderich and Williams (2015, p. 16) describing the practice as ‘a communication process in which information about a brand is packaged into an integrated narrative which is dispersed in unique contributions across multiple media channels for the purpose of creating an interactive and engaging brand experience’. While the term ‘transmedia branding’ and the above definition have shaped scholarly investigations, omitting the word ‘storytelling’ diminishes a crucial element of the approach’s design and implementation. To address this consideration and provide greater specificity as the digital era matures, we conceptualise transmedia brand storytelling as a guiding logic through which brands make scalable and flexible choices to achieve strategic outcomes by developing a fiction or non-fiction storyworld across platforms, with each component contributing to an immersive, creative and participatory experience (Sutherland & Barker, 2023). Conceptualising transmedia storytelling as a logic aligns with Jenkins’s (2010) emphasis on its fluid and continually evolving nature. In addition, this definition situates transmedia storytelling as being achievable in both an expansive and a more contained fashion. This is achieved by responding to audience insights and offering meaningful opportunities for audience participation.
Reflecting the still-evolving nature of transmedia branding, scholarly research has explored the practice through various methodologies and theoretical lenses. Using a case study analysis, du Plessis (2019) examines the role of the ‘prosumer’—the conceptualisation of audiences as both consumers and producers of media content. Granitz and Forman (2015) provide empirical research on categories of transmedia brand stories and consumer content preferences. Giovagnoli (2018) considers transmedia branding through the lens of cross-cultural communication and gamification, while Scolari (2009, 2018) offers a model for analysing transmedia branding using semiotic and narratological dimensions. Recent scholarship has also sought to systematise brand storytelling practice, with Zimand-Sheiner (2024) proposing a four-dimensional model encompassing story, meaning, ritual and transmedia distribution. While presenting a complete review of transmedia storytelling literature is beyond this article’s scope, a core theme in existing research is the diversity of theoretical perspectives. Yet despite this conceptual breadth, there remains a marked absence of empirical research that captures and analyses practitioner perspectives. Furthermore, much of this work privileges narrative structures, audience engagement or symbolic meaning, offering limited insights into the organisational and professional conditions under which transmedia storytelling is produced. This emphasis leaves the conditions of practice underexamined, particularly the industry, economic and institutional factors that shape how transmedia storytelling campaigns are conceived and executed—concerns central to the production study scholarship (Banks et al., 2015). This gap is particularly significant given the growing interest in transmedia storytelling across the entertainment, marketing and advertising sectors (Davis, 2025, p. 291), where professional decision-making, client dynamics and organisational structures play a central role in shaping creative outcomes.
The Benefits and Challenges of Brand Storytelling Across Platforms
Existing literature identifies a variety of transmedia storytelling benefits in brand communication contexts. A common theme across scholarly and popular business literature suggests it can help achieve market growth or open new markets (Buckner & Rutledge, 2011; Elias-Zambrano, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015). Giovagnoli (2011) highlights the utility of transmedia storytelling in repositioning brands, and Granitz and Forman (2015) identify its effects in terms of increased brand awareness, greater participation and the communication of brand meaning. Other studies have emphasised the ability of transmedia storytelling to enhance brand messaging reach, longevity and intensity (Tenderich & Williams, 2015). Employing narrative transportation theory, Coombs (2018) examines the persuasive influence of transmedia storytelling in shaping consumer responses in CSR communication. In addition, Giovagnoli (2011) highlights the role of emotive and sensory experiences in successful transmedia projects. While such studies demonstrate the capacity of transmedia storytelling to achieve audience engagement on a conceptual level, the question of how practitioners implement and adapt the approach in practice remains underexplored.
Scholars have identified some challenges to the successful implementation of transmedia storytelling. Coombs and Harker (2021) argue that transmedia projects often encounter stumbling blocks when viewed as a series of tactics rather than as a cohesive strategic framework. Audience participation is widely seen as central to transmedia storytelling, yet it is also acknowledged as a source of risk, capable of producing both positive engagement and negative backlash (Costa-Sánchez, 2014). Scholars also note challenges in sustaining ‘eventful’ stories over time (du Plessis, 2019) as well as in meeting the demands of building rich, complex narratives across platforms (Giovagnoli, 2018). Within this body of scholarship, challenges are therefore more often framed in terms of narrative development, audience engagement or creative execution, rather than as structural or relational concerns. At the same time, existing literature has yet to consider how implementation may differ across industry-based brand categories or whether certain industries encounter greater difficulties and are therefore more or less inherently suited to the strategy.
Given the relative scarcity of research addressing the limitations of transmedia storytelling from the perspective of brand communication practice, studies on challenges in other communication fields provide a valuable context for the present investigation. In an examination of the transmedia storytelling barriers faced by Spanish broadcasters, Ureta (2020) identifies budget cuts, a lack of convergence strategies, professional skill gaps and limited collaboration with other cultural organisations as primary obstacles. Davis (2025) highlights organisational challenges in the ‘resource-intensive endeavor’ of transmedia storytelling, including regulatory concerns and managing platform complexity. Adding to this broader picture, Buehring and Vittachi (2020) found that limited resources, difficulties engaging non-expert audiences and challenges in translating research into accessible narratives hindered its use in financial services communication contexts.
Existing literature reveals both the benefits and, crucially for this study, the challenges of transmedia storytelling as a creative communications campaign strategy. While prior research has identified resourcing pressures, narrative complexity and strategic integration as recurring concerns, these issues are most often discussed in relation to campaign design or audience engagement rather than the organisational and professional conditions shaping their emergence. As a result, the constraints surrounding transmedia storytelling are frequently treated as secondary considerations rather than as central features of practice. Examining these challenges from practitioners’ perspectives enables a more critical understanding of how transmedia storytelling is negotiated within contemporary brand communication contexts. The following research questions support this aim:
RQ1: From a practitioner perspective, what challenges do brands face in applying transmedia storytelling? RQ2: To what extent do these implementation barriers vary by brand category, and which categories face the greatest challenges?
Methodology
Our study utilised a sequential mixed-methods approach, combining semi-structured interviews with an online survey to enable triangulation. This methodology enhances research rigour by integrating the strengths of qualitative and quantitative approaches, thereby mitigating the limitations inherent in each through their complementary strengths (Dawadi et al., 2021). By focusing on the perspectives of those responsible for developing and implementing such campaigns, this research design supports the identification of new knowledge on an emerging and evolving form of creative communication. Participants provided informed consent, and all research adhered to standard human research ethics principles, including confidentiality, privacy protection measures and anonymisation of identifying information for analysis and publication.
Interviews
Our qualitative research took the form of expert interviews with purposively selected practitioners who had been involved in transmedia storytelling and immersive brand communication projects. These participants were identified through online searches of industry award sites, creative agencies, professional associations and LinkedIn profiles based on the demonstrated professional involvement in such work, with recruitment conducted internationally to capture global perspectives. Practitioners without direct involvement in the conception or production of transmedia or immersive brand communication projects were excluded. Participants were contacted via publicly available e-mail addresses or through social media networks with an invitation to participate in an interview. A total of 21 practitioners agreed to participate in an online video interview. The recruitment process resulted in interviews with experts from Europe, North America, South Asia and Australasia. While all practitioners were approached due to their involvement with a particular project, their roles in its production varied. This was a deliberate decision to gather insights from the different specialisations involved, rather than, for example, just focusing on those responsible for creative concept development (Table 1). Interviews lasted between 30 and 50 minutes and followed a broader protocol covering various aspects of transmedia storytelling. However, the present study focuses specifically on responses to questions concerning the challenges of conceiving and producing campaigns across platforms and suitable client industry categories.
Interview Participants (Sutherland & Barker, 2023).
Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis model, an approach well suited to studying a nascent phenomenon with limited prior empirical investigation, was applied to draw inferences from the interview data gathered. The data were categorised and coded using NVivo15 software. Two members of the research team participated in the coding process to support reliability and refinement, with coding undertaken during the interview stage until theoretical saturation was achieved (Faulkner & Atkinson, 2024). Analytical trustworthiness was further supported by a reflexive approach, with the interpretive role of the research team recognised and discussed throughout the coding process.
Survey
Participants were recruited via Qualtrics Research Services, which provided access to an expert panel of brand communication professionals. Survey participants were required to be currently working in, or have prior professional experience within, brand communication–related roles; respondents who did not have this background were excluded. They answered an 18-question online questionnaire developed following our analysis of practitioner interviews. These questions were designed based on the analysis of interview data and were piloted with a small group prior to the release of the survey to the broader panel. In total, 256 surveys were completed by respondents in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australasia. Our sample included professionals with backgrounds in marketing communication, advertising, digital media content and public relations, reflecting the diverse range of specialisations involved in contemporary projects. While the survey included 18 questions, this article examines two areas of investigation central to the study’s research objectives. Specifically, it considers relationships between key categorical variables in participant responses, identifying: (a) the client industries best suited to the application of transmedia storytelling and continuous variables and (b) the barriers brands face in implementing such approaches and their associated level of challenge (1–5). A limitation of our quantitative research is the use of single-item measures for each distinct challenge in practising transmedia brand storytelling. While these items were informed and grounded in qualitative findings, subsequent studies could build on these identified dimensions to develop a reliable and valid multi-dimensional, multi-item scale. This would support more detailed measurement and allow for the examination of these challenges in relation to other constructs of interest to brand communication scholars.
Findings
Qualitative Data Findings
Barriers to Transmedia Storytelling
Although the benefits of transmedia storytelling are well documented, important questions remain about its challenges in practice. An analysis of qualitative interview data reveals a series of recurring hurdles. These themes, discussed further below, are client risk aversion, attracting audience engagement, strategic integration challenges and budget constraints.
A recurring theme in the interview data was the perception that clients were often reluctant to embrace creative risks. Participants commonly described a desire for certainty and predictability among clients, which constrained opportunities to experiment with innovative storytelling techniques. As one Canadian PR director explained: ‘You need a certain level of bravery from the marketing team that’s involved … a lot of brands create something that’s nice but doesn’t stick’. This sentiment was echoed by a Spanish creative director, who referred to the prevalence of ‘vanilla clients’ who invest heavily in campaigns with little impact. A desire to replicate successful work produced by other brands was also noted by a mixed reality content producer from the United States: ‘[Clients] tend to go quickly to something that had worked for somebody else’. In a similar vein, a Netherlands-based advertising agency creative director explained that brands often want to jump on a trend: ‘It’s like, guys, it will be an epic fail because you are copying a trend. You are not creating the trend’. Underlying this conservatism was a desire for an assured return on investment. As a Canadian creative director observed, ‘[Clients] want guarantees … [transmedia storytelling is] a less guaranteed kind of universe, but with much greater opportunities’. As participants emphasised, the unpredictable and unconventional nature of transmedia storytelling makes it less appealing to clients seeking certainty, thereby limiting opportunities for campaigns to deliver the novelty required to attract and sustain audience attention.
Practitioners commonly discussed the content-saturated media landscape and its influence on audience attention as another core challenge. In the words of a senior European creative interviewed: ‘You’re competing against Netflix, ridiculously talented TikTokers, influencers, every form of entertainment possible … the barriers are many’. As such, it was important for practitioners to spend considerable time and effort understanding the audience’s increasingly complex and diverse media consumption patterns: ‘There’s no one place you can go to reach more than a few percent of the audience … you’ve got to go hunting for them’ (art director, Australia). Interestingly, this recognition of fragmented media consumption presents a paradox, as transmedia storytelling itself has emerged in response to the very disruptions and platform proliferation practitioners now find challenging.
Concerns around operational alignment emerged as a relational barrier for many interviewees, with several describing how different specialisations often operated in silos, as exemplified by the following reflection: ‘The publicist might have her own pitch … you’ll have your social media team doing their thing … But very few people actually sit there and go, ‘We all need to come together’ (creative strategist, Australia). A brand manager, also from Australia, described collaboration on transmedia campaigns as highly fragmented due to the number of specialists involved, often resulting in an inability to ‘align to one goal’. This perception underscores the difficulty of achieving coordination in projects that are, by nature, complex. Overall, practitioners reported that the failure to align diverse teams and objectives frequently led to disjointed campaigns, ultimately compromising the cohesion required for transmedia storytelling projects, which depend on the orchestration of a unified narrative across platforms (Sawhney, 2019).
Budget pressures were mentioned during interviews as a significant barrier. Transmedia storytelling was discussed as costly and often concerning for clients, as campaign evaluation is less standardised and established when compared to traditional media campaigns, making it challenging to prove the effectiveness of significant expenditure. A US-based creative strategist explained that ‘It’s just a really hard sell to clients’ due to the time and budget required, while an Australian participant felt that the ‘top tier’ exemplars of transmedia storytelling often came from brands with ‘lots of money’ and, as a result, made the approach less applicable or seemingly unachievable for clients with limited budgets. However, not all participants shared this view; several argued that budget challenges were less a prohibitive barrier than a matter of budgetary trade-offs, highlighting, for example, publicity, modest production values and organic social media content as ways of working within constraints.
Overall, the most commonly articulated challenges of implementing transmedia storytelling campaigns reinforce the complexity of its practice, particularly when pitching to clients who were often seen as averse to unfamiliar approaches or requiring firm ‘guarantees’ of efficacy before allocating appropriate budgets. In terms of campaign implementation, the fragmented nature of transmedia storytelling was seen as a challenge due to the required involvement of specialists from multiple domains. For some practitioners in the study, these barriers had made them sceptical or wary of pitching large-scale storytelling projects. Yet the problem-solving orientation of brand communicators meant that many, without prompting, offered solutions to the challenges identified. These insights have directly informed our novel application of the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice, positioning it as a framework to guide cohesive workflows and strengthen the case for transmedia storytelling’s efficacy.
Most Suitable Client Industry Categories
Identifying which client industry categories are most and least suited to transmedia storytelling from the practitioners’ perspective provides empirical insights into its utility. Our analysis reveals that while some interviewees expressed firm views on the suitability of transmedia storytelling for particular brand categories, others emphasised that it could be applied across any category, provided certain strategic and creative conditions were met.
Regarding the suitability for specific brand categories, automotive brands were considered well suited due to consumers’ often longer purchase consideration periods. Similarly, entertainment brands, including films, television and gaming, were identified as highly compatible due to their inherently immersive nature and often established fan bases. Luxury brands across categories were also noted as being highly suitable as they typically evoke an emotional attachment or have ‘cult followings’. Not-for-profit brands were discussed as ‘doing … [their] best’, in the words of a US-based mixed reality producer, as they were perceived as more willing to take risks with storytelling approaches than corporate brands.
Varied responses emerged when interviewees discussed less-suited client industries. While FMCGs were often identified as being well positioned to apply the approach, specific products within this category were discussed as being unsuited, for example, everyday household products, due to lower levels of consumer involvement in the purchase decision. For example, a US-based creative director framed the distinction as ‘things that you have to use in your life versus something you want to use—it might be easier for the latter to get that emotional engagement’. In addition, utilitarian categories, such as construction, mining and insurance, were perceived by some as unsuitable, given their more limited storytelling opportunities.
While some interviewees considered B2B brands as unsuitable for transmedia storytelling, others maintained that the approach was applicable for this category. As one Australian brand storytelling agency founder argued, B2B briefs can yield compelling narratives when approached through ‘a human angle’. Other participants shared similar views, including an Australian brand manager with experience in both the luxury goods and energy sectors, who described the idea that transmedia storytelling suitability depends on the industry category as a ‘myth’. For this practitioner, the extent to which ‘the storytelling itself is done in an engaging way’ was a core determinant of success. A creative director from the Netherlands noted that any brand can apply the approach with the condition that ‘you have to find the right playground’—a perspective that suggests the need for careful consideration of the audience and creative storytelling territories that encourage engagement. Others similarly emphasised that effectiveness depended less on the client industry category than on alignment with broader marketing objectives, noting that transmedia storytelling had particular merit in contexts where emotional connection with the audience was paramount.
Overall, these qualitative findings highlight that while some practitioners identified specific industries as more suited to transmedia storytelling, others argued that suitability is better understood in terms of emotional resonance, communication objectives and the strength of the narrative, rather than the category itself. This variation in perspectives, along with emerging themes around practical constraints, reinforces the value of turning to quantitative data to explore broader implementation patterns and perceived barriers.
Quantitative Data Findings
For the purpose of quantitative analysis, we focused on the automotive, fashion, education, health and beauty industries, as these are among some of the most active adopters of transmedia storytelling, given their strong emphasis on brand identity, consumer engagement and multi-platform communication (Bange et al., 2020; Raji et al., 2019). To determine whether these barriers varied by industry, survey items that ranked the impact of five barriers—budget constraints, creativity, client acceptance, platform complexity and identifying outcomes/evaluation—were examined with attention to how these varied based on the perceived suitability of transmedia storytelling for an indicative cross section of client categories. For barriers, a 5-point Likert scale was used (1 = least challenging, 5 = most challenging). For suitability, participants indicated whether they believed transmedia storytelling was not suited (coded 0) or suitable (coded 1). A series of MANOVAs (multivariate analyses of variance) was then conducted, using the perceived suitability of transmedia storytelling for each industry (interchanging industry in each MANOVA) as the independent variable and the dependent variables being participants’ ratings of the level of challenge across the five barriers.
Automotive
A MANOVA testing the suitability of the automotive client industry for the barriers of transmedia brand storytelling revealed non-significant differences, with all p values exceeding .84.
Fashion
The MANOVA results for the fashion industry indicate mostly non-significant differences between groups on perceived barriers to applying a transmedia storytelling approach. The only significant effect was for creativity (F = 5.31, p = .022, partial η² = .021), with those who reported it not suitable for this sector reporting the barrier as being a greater challenge (M = 3.57, SD = 1.38) than those who identified fashion as being suitable (M = 3.14, SD = 1.47). All other barriers—budget constraints, client acceptance, platform complexity and identifying outcomes—were non-significant (p > .16).
Education
The MANOVA results for the education industry group revealed non-significant differences across any of the five perceived barriers to transmedia storytelling projects with p values equal to and above .453.
Health
The MANOVA results for the health industry group revealed a small but statistically significant difference when considering the barrier of client acceptance (F(1, 250) = 6.076, p = .014, partial η² = 0.024). Specifically, participants who identified health brands as suitable for transmedia storytelling reported higher levels of client acceptance challenges (M = 3.40, SD = 1.18) compared to those who viewed the category as unsuitable (M = 2.93, SD = 1.21). The other four variables had non-significant differences.
Beauty
The MANOVA results for the beauty industry group revealed two statistically significant findings: budget constraints (F(1, 250) = 4.615, p = .033, partial η² = 0.018) and creativity (F(1, 250) = 6.443, p = .012, partial η² = 0.025), suggesting these were perceived differently compared to other groups. Specifically for budget, those who identified beauty as suitable reported the challenge of budget to be higher (M = 3.41, SD = 1.48) than those who reported beauty as not being suitable (M = 3.14, SD = 1.36). However, for creativity, those who reported beauty as suitable reported the challenge of the barrier of creativity as lower (M = 3.02, SD = 1.22) than those who reported beauty as not suitable (M = 3.54, SD = 1.43).
Cross-industry Patterns
Statistically significant differences emerged across three client industries in perceptions of transmedia storytelling barriers, particularly in the case of fashion, health and beauty. Non-significant differences were identified for the automotive and education categories, indicating that while industry differences in perceptions of barriers do emerge at times in some industries, there are consistent views on the degree of challenge posed by barriers. These results are consistent with patterns in the qualitative data, suggesting that many practitioners view transmedia storytelling barriers as broadly similar across client industries rather than strongly category-bound. However, an analysis of interviews also reveals notable yet minor variations in practitioner views, with one group of practitioners considering transmedia storytelling as being suited to specific client industries and another seeing the approach as being within the reach of all brands if strategic and creative requirements were addressed. Triangulating these findings suggests that, overall, the barriers and challenges associated with transmedia storytelling are largely consistent across industries.
Discussion
Interpreting Practitioners’ Perspectives
Adopting a production study perspective, this article makes a conceptual contribution by showing that transmedia storytelling barriers tend to be predominantly structural and relational. This shift positions transmedia brand storytelling within the domain of organisational practice: overcoming these barriers requires a focus on operational readiness and client dynamics alongside narrative construction and creative capacity. As such, the discussion examines the Transmedia Storytelling Model for Practice as a means of guiding practitioners in navigating these barriers within brand communication contexts.
While both interviewees and survey respondents viewed media, arts and entertainment, gaming and automotive clients as being well placed to apply transmedia storytelling, survey respondents further identified fashion, education, beauty, health, and food and beverages as suitable industries. Results from our study were mixed regarding the primary barriers preventing brands from implementing transmedia storytelling approaches, with the interview and survey findings emphasising different constraints. Interviewees consistently identified client risk aversion and strategic integration challenges as the most significant barriers. Yet, the descriptive data from the survey sample ranked budget constraints as the top barrier (39.09%), followed by creativity (29.63%), with other barriers (client acceptance, platform complexity and outcome evaluation) trailing behind. The disparity between interview and survey findings may stem from several factors. First, in terms of creativity, the interview participants were specifically selected for the study due to their expertise in working on brand storytelling and immersive campaigns, making it reasonable to suggest that creativity did not pose a significant barrier to this group. In addition, their emphasis on risk aversion and siloed specialisations reflects the kind of nuanced understanding of client behaviours and intra-organisational dynamics that semi-structured interviews are well suited to explore in greater depth. In contrast, the survey sample encompassed a broader range of roles and experiences across marketing communication, advertising and public relations, with budget constraints and creative challenges emerging as the primary barriers to adopting transmedia storytelling.
Our MANOVA analyses indicated that perceived barriers to applying transmedia storytelling were largely consistent across industries, with most differences proving statistically non-significant. However, isolated exceptions did emerge, including challenges related to creativity in fashion, client acceptance in health and budget in beauty. While the qualitative interviews did not attribute barriers to specific industries in this way, participants’ broader reflections on creativity, client risk aversion and budget pressures nonetheless provide context for understanding why such differences may surface in particular sectors. For instance, fashion brands are required to respond to rapid shifts in consumer preferences and seasonal offerings, thus reducing the time frames required to accommodate creative outcomes. Client risk aversion is understandable for health brands, given the heavily regulated nature of this industry. And budget concerns are likely to emerge for beauty brands due to the high production value content necessary to depict their product, a cost factor that increases when unique content is required for multiple platforms. Yet overall, our analysis points to barriers that, despite some sector-specific variations, appear broadly consistent across client industries.
When situated within the existing literature, our findings suggest that external, rather than predominantly internal, factors pose the greatest challenges for practitioners when applying transmedia storytelling. This argument extends scholarly understandings of the practice when viewed from a production lens and, as later sections of the article will show, provides guidance for implementation.
Our finding that transmedia storytelling campaigns generally require significant budgets, supported by the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, aligns with existing scholarship, most notably with Giovagnoli’s (2018) characterisation of the approach as resource-intensive and, therefore, not always achievable for every brand. Beyond transmedia branding literature, Ureta (2020), Davis (2025), and Buehring and Vittachi (2020) also discuss the challenges of adequately resourcing such campaigns. Our research builds on these perspectives by showing that, while practitioners commonly acknowledged these concerns, they also described ways to mitigate them by exploring innovative narrative angles capable of generating organic attention and employing cost-effective tactics.
Interviewees in our study frequently identified the saturated and increasingly complex media environment as a barrier to attracting attention and eliciting audience participation. Existing literature recognises the difficulty of encouraging participation in campaigns (Álvarez-Rodríguez et al., 2023), with authors such as du Plessis (2019) and Giovagnoli (2018) linking this barrier to the challenge of creating stories compelling enough for audiences to co-create campaign content. Costa-Sánchez (2014) further notes that participation can produce both positive and negative responses, introducing an element of risk. While these perspectives emphasise the narrative development challenges of engaging audiences, our study adds nuance to existing scholarship by revealing that interviewees were acutely aware of external pressures and of how these obstacles shaped both their creative and pragmatic choices, often prompting innovative responses.
du Plessis (2019, p. 180) has argued that some brands may struggle to achieve effective transmedia storytelling campaigns due to an inability to develop sufficiently ‘eventful’ stories that can be sustained over time. Similarly, Giovagnoli (2018, p. 251) discusses the challenge of building the ‘expansive narrative machines’ required to maintain audience engagement. If we frame this as a question about the ability to create novel brand stories, our research challenges these conceptualisations. While interviewees did not view creativity as a significant barrier, survey respondents identified it as a concern. As mentioned above, survey participants represented a wider spectrum of marketing communicators and, as such, may not have possessed the same level of familiarity or experience with brand storytelling practices. This suggests that, while brand storytelling experts view creativity as manageable, those with less experience in the field may perceive it as a challenge. This divide indicates that transmedia storytelling may still function as a specialised practice requiring specific expertise rather than serving as a universally accessible approach.
While managing the complexity of a transmedia storytelling campaign is touched on by Giovagnoli (2018), the transmedia storytelling literature in fields beyond brand communication highlights that this is a significant concern, as noted by Ureta (2020) and Davis (2025). Aligned with this, our interviewees highlighted the siloed nature of brand communication as a challenge and survey respondents viewed it as a moderate concern. The identification of these constraints underscores the complex ecosystem in which transmedia storytelling operates and, as such, reinforces the need for a considered approach to managing areas of expertise and client dynamics, just as much as the creative act of storytelling itself. Coombs and Harker (2021) do not specifically discuss managing complexity as a challenge in their conceptual research on transmedia storytelling; however, they argue that the approach can face stumbling blocks when viewed as a series of tactics rather than as a cohesive strategic framework. This point highlights the need for a holistic approach to transmedia storytelling, one that integrates strategic coordination across disciplines rather than relying on fragmented tactics, which our findings suggest may currently be lacking in practice.
Our analysis identified a series of novel constraints. Previous literature has not significantly considered the role of the client in the production of transmedia storytelling. However, this topic was frequently raised during interviews. In some instances, participants felt that clients were more comfortable with creative or narrative approaches that were familiar to them or had already been applied by other brands. Participants also discussed this in relation to other challenges, such as clients seeking guarantees of successful outcomes or immersive applications to brand storytelling being difficult to ‘sell in’ due to the sizeable budgets required. This perceived risk aversion among clients presents a significant challenge, as it limits practitioners’ ability (or willingness) to experiment with innovative storytelling territories and techniques, a production concern that has also recently been identified in research on advertising creativity in the digital era (Bilby et al., 2023).
Study participants discussed the challenge of measuring campaign success, another area that has not been substantively addressed in existing literature. Interviewees identified longer campaign durations, the fragmented nature of content consumption and the complexity of the audience journey as key obstacles to effective evaluation. More broadly, evaluation is a recognised challenge in marketing communication (Zerfass et al., 2017), highlighting its relevance as a wider industry concern. In the context of transmedia storytelling, findings from this study indicate that evaluating engagement, audience interaction and long-term campaign efficacy remains particularly complex. These specific challenges point to a need for novel evaluation frameworks that can account for the fluid, multi-platform nature of transmedia narratives and the evolving ways audiences engage with brands.
Extant literature argues that transmedia storytelling is an effective strategy for brands with an existing emotional bond with audiences or those that can readily connect to existing cultural narratives (Elias-Zambrano, 2018; Giovagnoli, 2018; Tenderich & Williams, 2015). Our research extends these theoretical perspectives by finding that although some industries may appear more naturally suited to transmedia storytelling, interviewees often pointed to broader contextual factors that shape campaign success. One practitioner, for example, noted that not-for-profit clients are often more willing to take creative risks due to the absence of corporate bureaucracy and the need to innovate within tighter budgets, echoing the adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. This suggests that transmedia storytelling may not be the sole domain of well-funded brands but can emerge from the innovative approaches of resource-limited organisations willing to take creative risks.
A Model for Practice: Overcoming Transmedia Barriers
The barriers identified in the present study call attention to the need for frameworks that can support the application of transmedia storytelling in contemporary brand communication practice. While existing models delineate the conditions required for effective storytelling across platforms (Tenderich & Williams, 2015; Zimand-Sheiner, 2024), the analysis of practitioners’ lived experiences highlights implementation barriers arising from organisational and relational constraints. This empirical reality necessitates a framework that explicitly addresses the conditions of production under which campaigns are developed. One such model, the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice (Sutherland & Barker, 2023), was originally developed as part of a larger research project to capture the key phases and processes involved in planning and executing transmedia brand storytelling campaigns (see Figure 1). By re-examining the model in light of practitioner perspectives on barriers and the suitability of client industries, this article demonstrates the framework’s capacity to address production challenges. In this context, the model functions as a ‘roadmap’ to guide collaboration, clarify processes and support the development and presentation of campaign approaches to risk-averse clients. Each stage of the model (Figure 1) is explained below within the context of how it could be deployed to overcome the barriers to transmedia storytelling highlighted by our research.
Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model (Sutherland & Barker, 2023).
Problem Identification (Client Brief, Multidisciplinary Team Brainstorm)
This first stage addresses challenges related to strategic integration and silos within the creative team by fostering early collaboration among different specialists. This approach is crucial for complex projects common in sectors like automotive or B2B, where technical product complexity and extended consideration cycles necessitate integrated specialist expertise. Moreover, this level of collaboration helps to clarify objectives upfront, which can also counter client risk aversion, a prominent practitioner challenge, by aligning expectations early to provide common reference points for measuring success.
Research
Research is an essential practice in overcoming barriers as it directly attends to the obstacle, as articulated by study participants, of attracting engagement in a saturated media landscape by grounding the strategy in insights relating to audience media behaviours and consumption. Furthermore, research informs the identification of stories that resonate directly with the target audience, potentially reducing client risk aversion by providing evidence, offering another shared basis for decision-making and strengthening evaluation capacity. This is vital for finding the ‘human angles’ discussed by participants in the context of utilitarian categories such as B2B, insurance or construction and for creating differentiation in competitive consumer markets such as automotive, food and beverages, beauty and fashion.
Values (Central Narrative Identification: Audience, Culture)
This phase involves identifying the core narrative of the transmedia storytelling campaign and ensuring its alignment with the client’s brand values, cultural dynamics and audience relatability. Such alignment contributes to overcoming the creativity barrier noted particularly among the broader survey sample. This dimension also aids in developing narratives with the emotional resonance necessary to achieve a brand’s communication objectives (Coombs, 2018; Giovagnoli, 2011), especially in categories perceived by practitioners in our study as being less inherently engaging to audiences, such as B2B or FMCG brands.
Pitch Development and Client Interaction (Pitch Development to Deeper Audience Research)
This sequence directly addresses client risk aversion and acceptance barriers by presenting a research-informed, structured proposal while also allowing for iterative refinement based on feedback. This process is vital for gaining ‘buy-in’ for potentially large campaign investments in sectors including automotive or for overcoming instances of client scepticism mentioned by study participants.
Budget Allocation and Platform Selection
Budget constraints can be addressed when client investment is committed according to strategic goals and platform choices informed by ongoing audience research, rather than being limited by the issue of short-term thinking (Coombs & Harker, 2021). This applies across sectors but is key for automotive, food and beverages, beauty and fashion, where budget and client acceptance were perceived as significant hurdles. This phase of the model also emphasises research-informed ideas and cohesive storytelling over a high media spend, supporting the scalability for smaller or not-for-profit brands. Additionally, this goal and audience insight–centred approach can help to manage platform complexity (though a lesser barrier for the study participants overall when compared to the others identified) by ensuring choices align with the narrative and audience.
Storyworld Structure (Audience Co-creation Tactics)
This stage focuses on systematically planning audience interaction, which responds to the audience engagement challenges noted by participants and the inherently participatory nature of transmedia storytelling (Granitz & Forman, 2015; Sawhney 2019). It does this by providing the structure for narrative expansion, which can further guide creativity and support cohesion across platforms.
Execution and Evaluation (Testing and Refinement, Storyworld Execution, Storyworld Evaluation)
The final stage of the model directly responds to evaluation challenges by defining goals (reach and engagement) from the outset and integrating evaluation into the workflow. Embedding such an evaluative approach is essential for industries such as automotive, food and beverages, education and health, where practitioners frequently highlighted evaluation as a pressing concern due to the difficulty of assessing outcomes across expansive, multi-touchpoint projects. This final stage flows into the first, indicating a circular process in which both formal evaluation processes and tacit knowledge gained from one campaign inform the planning of future projects.
In sum, the Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice offers a production-informed logic for navigating the implementation barriers identified in this research. Echoing Jenkins’s (2010) view of transmedia storytelling as a coordinated yet adaptive and evolving practice, it supports practitioners working across client sectors both by providing a framework that accommodates industry-specific barriers and by fostering innovative responses to more universal challenges.
Conclusion
Drawing on both interview and survey findings, this article indicates that external and organisational constraints tend to play a more decisive role in shaping the application of transmedia storytelling than creative or narrative considerations. This emphasis on operational barriers deviates from much of the existing literature, which has tended to focus on the storytelling demands of transmedia and, to a lesser extent, budgetary concerns. Interestingly, our study revealed that the perceptions of barriers differed between the interview and survey samples. The brand storytelling experts interviewed commonly cited client risk aversion, audience engagement, collaboration and budget issues as the primary barriers to transmedia storytelling, while the survey sample highlighted budgetary and creativity constraints as posing the greatest challenge. While external constraints emerged as the most significant barriers to implementation, our findings also suggest that practitioners recognise its potential across industries when anchored in a compelling central narrative. Adopting a production studies lens, the article extends transmedia storytelling scholarship by reframing core practical challenges as predominantly organisational and relational, highlighting the centrality of multidisciplinary coordination and practitioner–client dynamics. The Transmedia Brand Storytelling Model for Practice has been examined as a framework to guide brand communicators and help address the challenges identified in this article. The study addressed a gap in transmedia storytelling scholarship by providing empirical practitioner insights into overlooked operational barriers and exploring a practice-informed model as a potential solution. Our exploratory study was limited by the sample size, the self-reported nature of the data and the loss of details resulting from the need to merge some survey categories. Future research avenues could include testing the model through action research with practitioners, empirically examining client perspectives on transmedia storytelling adoption and further developing evaluation frameworks for participatory, narrative-led campaigns.
Transmedia storytelling has emerged in response to changing media dynamics and is widely seen as aligning with the contemporary consumer culture, where audiences seek immersive, participatory and multi-platform brand experiences (Coombs & Harker, 2021; du Plessis, 2019; Granitz & Forman, 2015; Piccialli, 2021; Scozzese & Cavallini, 2023). Ultimately, bridging the gap between the promise and practice of transmedia storytelling in brand communication contexts requires addressing not just what stories to tell but also how organisations, practitioners and clients can collaborate effectively to bring those stories to life across platforms.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Approval
Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Sunshine Coast Human Research Ethics (Approval No. A211547).
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all participants.