Going Beyond Text: Multimedia Powers New Storytelling Experience on Wattpad
A couple of months ago, we began to roll out a new multimedia feature. The new feature lets writers use multimedia elements likes GIFs, images, and videos in stories to create graphic novels, travel diaries, fashion blogs, and more. They can also insert media into existing stories to create a more immersive entertainment experience for readers. Since the roll out, the community has shared hundreds of inventive and original stories filled with rich multimedia. Mixed media stories from major brandsSony Pictures is the first entertainment brand to leverage inline multimedia. To promote the upcoming release of Pride, Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ), the studio commissioned Wattpad writer Jen Wilde to create a zombified fanfiction of AFTER, an international bestseller and Wattpad favorite with over one billion reads.
Shared on the official PPZ profile, the AFTER + Zombies story puts main characters Tessa and Hardin in the middle of a deadly zombie outbreak. Images, GIFs, and videos, including the official movie trailer, enhance the story experience and also build excitement for the upcoming release.
Coca-Cola took advantage of the new multimedia feature for their holiday campaign on Wattpad. The brand invited writers of some of the most popular Wattpad stories to share a letter to Santa, written from the perspective of their fictional characters. The letters included branded images to reinforce the brand’s spread happiness and #ShareACoke message.
WE.org, the organization that empowers people to change the world, uses multimedia to take fans behind the scenes at WE Day celebrations. The Off the Stagestoryon Wattpadfeatures video interviews with celebrities like Shawn Mendes and Selina Gomez, as well as photos and video clips from WE Days held around the world.
A second non-profit, Kiva, has also joined the community and will take advantage of the multimedia storytelling capabilities on Wattpad. The micro-lending platform is serializing Dreams, stories about the people and ideas that benefit from Kiva micro-loans.
Comics and graphic novels now availableThe introduction of multimedia has also led to the very first comic on Wattpad, courtesy of DC Comic’s Vertigo Imprint. Vertigo shared the Black & White preview of Luciferexclusively on Wattpad.
Transmedia production company Nanomyte Studios, has also released Injection, a serialized comic for the Wattpad community. Injection features static graphics as well as animated scenes.
Walt Disney Studios animator, illustrator, and author Brian Kesinger joined Wattpad to share Otto and Victoria, a illustrated story that chronicles the adventures of a young Victorian lady and her pet octopus. He is also serializing his comic The Intrepid Molly McGuinnesson the platform. Brian also created a Star Wars and Calvin and Hobbes mashup illustration exclusively for the Wattpad community.
Comic industry legend Dave Elliott has brought his acclaimed series, The Weirding Willowsto Wattpad. The graphic novel mashup takes characters from classic fairy tales, horror, fantasy, and sci-fi literature and completely reimagines them. Dave is using Wattpad’s multimedia feature to create an entire Weirding Willows world, complete with field guides and new artwork for fans.
Exclusive content from horror legends and social influencersBest known for having written the novels that became the Hellraiser and Candyman movies, Clive Barker is one of the world’s premier authors of horror and fantasy literature. On Wattpad, Clive shares an exclusive version of The Book of Blood that features dark and creepy art.
The Betches, the site for millennial women, shares weekly recaps of The Bachelor with fans on Wattpad. The recaps feature The Betches’ trademark snark complemented with reaction GIFs and other multimedia. The Betches will also share their all-time favorite Bachelor moments, as well as provide a sneak peek of their new book, I Had a Great Time and Other Lies … exclusively on the platform.
Comedian Grace Helbig share essays from her new book Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It exclusively on Wattpad before the book release later this month. The essays on Wattpad include images, GIFs, and videos to make the content come alive.
Inventive stories from the Wattpad communityMany Wattpad writers have also adopted the new feature to bring their stories to life. Bel Watson shared a story composed entirely of text messages, and Rebecca Sky inserted custom illustrations into her story A Lifetime According to Karma Rose.
Version One Ventures, a top early-stage investment fund, is using graphs and other images in their non-fiction story A Guide to Marketplaces to illustrate marketplace principles and practices.
Since 2006, Wattpad has radically changed the way people discover and share stories. As the first platform to connect readers and writers on a global scale, we’re eager to see how the launch of multimedia will continue to push the boundaries of storytelling in today’s mobile and social age.