Page 191 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015191become repositories for the stories of a territorial community, provide access to new experiences based on content or be the physical meeting place for virtual communities.And speaking of physical places, stories are representations that can provide different expe- riences. Story37 is a concept store which “enacts” a programme of stories that introduce users to various purchase experiences.Selling stories has become an increasingly difficult task; creating added value through technology is one of the most interesting ways forward.AdvertisingA different and in many ways more active model is that which sets itself the goal of monetising the communities that stories are capable of bringing together. In this case, stores are not an area of innovation in themselves, but have the function of creating the maximum engagement possible in order to translate it into advertising revenues.It is no coincidence that precisely now, and in relation to the digital context, terms such as “content marketing” and “brand storytelling” have made a powerful comeback and are even being overused.Upworthy,39 launched in March 2012, is a clear example in this respect. The strength of this model lies in the selection made by a team of editors of stories already published on the Internet and in the ability to choose titles thatare accessible free of charge, and although the quality difference is sometimes evident, stories that have to be paid for are facing a new compe- tition. Selling stories has become an increasingly difficult task; creating added value through technology is one of the most interesting ways forward.In this territory which is expanding daily wewill witness the emergence of new narrative structures, forms and languages: the challenge is for them to give rise to a new content industry in which people recognise a value and are willing to pay a price that makes a new supply system sustainable.One of the most interesting areas in the development of storytelling is the so-called “Internet of Things”. The spread of sensors that establish relationships between objects and between objects and people opens up a totally new ground for the creation of stories. Lance Weiler,38 who defines himself as a “story archi- tect of film, tv and games”, is one of the most interesting practitioners of this new art, which he explains as follows:Historically, where technology goes, storytelling follows. This has been the case with production and distribution technologies. But now we are experiencing a shift; the ability to creatively embed stories within the real world will influence the next generation of social applications.In short, as pointed out, we live among stories, we have never lived in a period in which so many stories have circulated. Most of themMarco Ferrario