HOW TO START A CONTENT REVOLUTION: Design the Future

Zed.TOCase Study
HOW TO START A CONTENT REVOLUTION
Invent the Future....
Part 1

byologyc
CASE STUDY
Part 1
GOzed.to

Why?
The Mission Business is an adventure laboratory and start-up
company based in Toronto that designs connected live-action and
online experiences. In 2012, ZED.TO broke new ground as a
participatory serial theatre production and with a highly successful,
thought provoking new business model.
Think theatre meets game, LARPing, ARGs... next level

What?
In 2013, ZED.TO ran as an 8-month narrative told in real-time
through an integrated combination of interactive theatrical events and
online content. Participants followed the story of the beginning of the
end of the world, from a viral pandemic created by ByoLogyc, a
fictional Toronto-based biotech company. Interactive ‘performances’
were staged in four unique, continuing productions charting the rise &
fall of an entirely plausible bio-tech company.

innovative cross-platform entertainment

transmedia from the start
‘ZED.TO was conceived from the start as a transmedia project. While reading
Max Brooks’s novel World War Z, the original creative team behind the project
became excited about the possibilities of telling an end-of-the-world story
across numerous platforms and media – effectively bringing the apocalypse to
audiences through all of the digital and physical channels in their lives.
While the narrative arc of the project, and many of the details, have been
constructed iteratively over the last three years, we have made many decisions
around who to bring aboard and in what capacity based on our desire to weave
a gripping transmedia narrative.’
Trevor Haldenby, Co-Founder, Designer, Evangelist, Foresighter

The Mission Business
INSIGHT:
‘In terms of communicating our vision to partners, we have found the use of
mirror-image touchstones in today’s corporate world an extremely useful
exercise.
Explaining ByoLogyc is best accomplished by asking partners (and audiences
alike) to “imagine what the world would be like if Apple were a biotech company.”
Or if “Proctor and Gamble was revealed to be in the same kind of scandal as
Lehman Brothers.”

next wave entertainment
‘Even early in the development process, we saw our story unfolding through live-
action interactive events and across online platforms. One of the main characters
of our story is a fictional biotech corporation, and we have made an effort to
present our story through many of the channels that such a corporation would
use to tell its own story.
In order to explore new business opportunities and creative roles while delivering
high-quality immersive entertainment experiences, we adapted our team out of
an existing social network.’
TEAM
Elenna Mosoff – Theatre Director
Trevor Haldenby – Designer, Photographer
Martha Haldenby – Arts Administrator, Actor
David Fono – Pervasive Game Designer
Byron Laviolette – Dramaturg, Director, Critic

ﬁnding the audience
‘In 2011, we conducted a survey exploring how audiences pay for premium live-
action entertainment experiences. This survey was designed by The Mission
Business and sent out to approximately 100 patrons and consumers of the arts in
our social network.
This helped define our audience quantitatively (who would pay for our
experiences, and how much?), and it was followed by an open spaces workshop
event at the University of Toronto dedicated to exploring themes that resonated
with people around the end-of-the-world.
These two activities helped us shape our audience enormously, which we have
subsequently come to acknowledge as a combination of established alternate-
reality game players, and consumers of arts and culture experiences in Toronto
who are hungry for more immersive experiences similar to those available in
larger cities like New York (Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More) and London (Future
Cinema).

genesis - The team identified a number of limitations
1. theater audiences are always the same people
question - how do you bring a new audience to the theater?
2. business model in theater is either single show ticket sales or
subscription model for a season of unrelated plays
innovation - what if you created a serial drama?
make it cross-platform to engage the curiousity of non-theatre goers?
stage a series of performances & use social media to expand the
audience base over time?

innovative business model
‘In terms of the business model behind ZED.TO, our live events are also our bread
and butter. We made a decision early on to adapt a business model often
associated with live theatre and sporting events to make ZED.TO financially
sustainable, so rather than charging for a subscription to online content, we have
designed our experience to generate revenue through the sale of tickets (and
various upgrades) to live-action interactive events.’

indiegogo campaign
- Endorsements from Cory Doctorow and Margaret Atwood pushed us through
almost 50% of the total in the final 12 hours.
- featured on IndieGoGo homepage and in weekly email newsletters
- ran February 16, 2012 - April 15, 2012
- close to 200 donors on final 48 hour weekend
- 333 donors in total (magic number???)
- $20,790 raised of $20,000 ask

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
crystallizes,
+ Martha Haldenby.
ZED.TO is planned!
Inititally conceived as a series of
connected live events, then also as a
massively transmedia future scenario
Discussions begin around multiplex innovation
in Toronto entertainment through new
models, and new stories...Trevor Haldenby,
Elenna Mosoff, Byron Laviolette & David Fono
ZED.TO!
March --> November
Dec 2012 + Feb 2013
ByoLogyc appears in sold-out keynote
presentations at Autodesk University and TED
2013.
May 2013
The Mission Business extends the ByoLogyc
story through a high-proﬁle event to launch
ZED.TO launches with
IndieGoGo campaign
Events Timeline :: Zed.TO

Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec
2013
BYOLOGYC: PATIENT ZERO
NUIT BLANCHE
CHURCH OF THE TRINITY
BYOLOGYC
20YEARS FORWARD
INGRAM
GALLERY
BYOLOGYC
WHEREYOU BECOME NEW
TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL
BYOLOGYC
RETREAT
EVERGREEN
BRICKWORKS
Indiegogo
campaign
Zed.TO
website
TheMissionBiz.com
website
Twitter accounts
Events Timeline :: Zed.TO

Story mapping
‘Zed.TO utilized a variety of social media platforms to map the parameters and
details of the ZED.TO story. We have no single centralized “Bible”, but instead
relied heavily upon a series of Google Documents shared between the core
creative team as well as performers and other contributors. These documents
break down the progression of each live-action event, and also connect specific
experiences within those events as well as larger-scale narrative twists and arcs
between events and storytelling across platforms.
A typical event document shows the passage of characters through time on a
grid, mapping their time in 10-15 minute chunks, and creating a mesh with which
we can evaluate the use of space as well as the specific production elements
that need designing.’

‘Everything in ZED.TO is designed to fit into a story about the rise and fall of a
fictional biotech corporation called ByoLogyc. All of our live events are intended to
fit within the confines of how an innovative corporation would behave (including
red-carpet product launches, 20th anniversary celebrations, demonstration
evenings, and even public health clinics). But the same design philosophy applies
to our online storytelling as well, and in 2012, there’s no way to bring a biotech
corporation from the near future to life without weaving a story that credibly
integrates digital and social media.’
Storyworld...

a fully realized product history, philosophy & vision

Deep Back Story on Facebook Page

Extensive In-Game Video Content
on Vimeo Channel
link here

20 years forward
ingram gallery
HIGHLIGHTS
• A main cast of 3, and a supporting
cast of 10+, including ByoLogyc
employees, reporters, and
suspicious bartenders moving
seamlessly through the crowd.
• Free sampling of all of ByoLogyc's
signature products.
• A live opera performance from a
fictional character.
• Secret notes, hushed arguments,
and incidents between ByoLogyc
staff members provided a hint of
conflicts to come.
Live Event #1
March 20 2012

20 years forward
ingram gallery
innovation: create tiered points of entry for audience
members, shift from voyeur to active participants
The In-Game Sell:
‘The Versatile Intern Program is ByoLogyc's new initiative
aimed at creating innovative new synergy between
corporation and customer in the quest for a better tomorrow.
Learn more at vip.byologyc.com’
Invitation be a VIP for initial ‘launch’ at the Annex Fringe
show.
Live Event #1

encourage
engagement
‘We made a decision early on to make the online experience as much of a
participatory adventure as the live-action events we were designing. Through the
“VIP” (Versatile Intern Program), an online research-driven internship program that
allows regular Torontonians to participate in the miracles of innovation taking place
at ByoLogyc, we were able to integrate our audiences directly into our fictional
corporation in a way that is totally credible, extremely easy, and attractively open-
ended.

‘An excellent example of our execution on this strategy [of converting from passive
to active] is the ByoLogyc VIP program, and the monthly ByoSphere newsletter.
Audience members who sign up to become VIP’s (Research Interns) at ByoLogyc
are presented with a frequently updated slate of questions and tasks that help
ByoLogyc learn more about them… the results of these questions (from “What
would you bring with you to the end of the world?” to “Depict three unexpected side
effects of an untested lifestyle biotech product”) are highlighted in each month’s
ByoSphere issue, providing audiences with a low-friction funnel through which to
convert from passive to active. If VIP’s then get in touch with various ByoLogyc
department heads to inquire about the purpose of this content being shared
(anonymously) in the newsletter, they face an opportunity for a confrontation, and
another upgrade to the integrated level.’
encourage
engagement

sell
interactivity
fans become advocates
VIP Samantha Wu blog post (July 9, 2012):
‘ByoLogyc is not a play, it’s an experience. It takes viral marketing and interactive sharing
to a whole other level. From the introductory phone call and the separate info line you’re
encouraged to call to the hands on experience inside the event. From the need to think
fast and speak up when asked to progress the experience to signing up online for the VIP
program and speaking to the characters over Twitter and on the forums.
Your experience grows the more you interact. You are not bored when you participate. You
are a vital and integral part of the show. The fourth wall does not end in front of you, it
extends and ends behind you so it is up to you as an attendee not to break that
experience.’
Original post here

Fan Posts Promote
Original posts here & here

ByoLogyc
Story?
‘Everything in ZED.TO is designed to fit into a story about the rise and fall of a
fictional biotech corporation called ByoLogyc. All of our live events are intended to
fit within the confines of how an innovative corporation would behave (including
red-carpet product launches, 20th anniversary celebrations, demonstration
evenings, and even public health clinics). But the same design philosophy applies
to our online storytelling as well, and in 2012, there’s no way to bring a biotech
corporation from the near future to life without weaving a story that credibly
integrates digital and social media.
The websites that ByoLogyc’s story is revealed through (including their official site,
www.ByoLogyc.com, as well as the online homes of the hackers assaulting their
security systems such as www.ByoLeaks.org and www.EXEishere.org ) are just as
important to the ZED.TO story as the live-action events, and are strengthened by
ByoLogyc presence on social media like Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook as well.’
Create a counter story:
hackers

• Facebook page & Tweets disseminate
conspiracy findings to group members
• post leaked videos & whistle-blower
messages from within company
• ByoLogyc fans & VIPs receive warning
messages via Twitter, Facebook &
emails
• ByoLeaks protests at events & hands
out anti-ByoLogyc propaganda
hacker group

clever staging of hacks & counterattacks

Run a Graphic Novel & Blog
ByoOptic
- ran June 8 - November 3 2012
- 13 blog posts combining graphic novel panels & written blog entries
- blog entries are presented ‘in-game’ & narrate comic artist Ariel Hume’s
experience as drawn into world of ByoLogyc over 5 months
- teasers are seeded into blog posts flagging characters & events as mysterious
- numbers views?
Original post here

JUNE 8, 2012
Welcome
‘I’m Ariel Hume, a comic artist. You are entering the world of ByoLogyc, as seen through the eyes of
its employees, and rendered in the form of a graphic novel. This is the core component of my thesis
- I am completing my Joint Master of New Audiences and Innovative Practices at the Iceland
Academy of the Arts.
I’ve heard so much about ByoLogyc, but like many, I know so little about what goes on there. I got
in touch with the CEO, Mr. Chet Getram, who seemed enthusiastic about the possibilities of
branding his company in a new, innovative way.
Through illustration I investigate. My research will centre on Mr. Getram, ByoLogyc and the
concepts of ‘Leading and Guiding’, ‘Performance and Communication’, ‘Entrepreneurship and
Project Management’ and ‘Action Research’. Each comic is a small excerpt from my final thesis,
and shows an event from the past or present as seen through the eyes of a different employee.’
Original post here

• CEO Chet Getram & Innovation Officer Trevor Haldenby started the session
introducing the company and outlining the goals of the company
• ‘Davian Baxter’ then took over session & invited audience to participate in ‘test’
by tweeting their responses to a series of images shown on stage using #nxnei
hashtag. Tweets would be analyzed tracking emotional responses revealing
psychological states
• With the last image revealed, the projected Twitter feed was flooded with attack
tweets accusing ByoLogyc of a variety of suspect practices to crimes
• The video feed used by Davian was then hacked by ByoLeaks, a group
dedicated to exposing ByoLogyc’s nefarious practices
• fan blog post with Twitter feed captures here
nxne june 15 2012
Create more buzz..

Toronto Fringe Festival, Annex Wreck Room, July 4-15 2012
‘More than 1000 ticket holders got to know ByoLogyc, when it opened its Versatile
Intern Program, and invited members of the public to join up at the launch party,
held at a nightclub. Over 12 shows, participants became embroiled in bitter inter-
office dramas, competed in some fun activities, sampled ByoLogyc's latest product,
and witnessed the creation of the super-virus that would destroy our world.’
http://zed.to/
Live Event #2
where you become new

• Participants were encouraged to take an active role, by asking questions and
performing tasks.
• Loads of rabbit holes leading to the deeper world of ByoLogyc, including its
website, its phone support line, product videos, a documentary comic, and
mysterious phone calls received by participants from someone with a grudge
against ByoLogyc.
• A scripted climax where participants watched staff members respond to an
escalating crisis, before being evacuated from the building.
• The world of ByoLogyc spilled beyond the show, into the rest of the Fringe, with
company representatives moving through other festival venues, offering
product samples.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Participants were split up into
departmental groups, each led by
a member of ByoLogyc's senior
staff, who guided them through a
number of activities that illustrated
the high and lows of life at
ByoLogyc.
• http://zed.to/
Live Event #2

where you become new
Toronto Fringe Festival, Annex Wreck Room, July 4-15 2012
During our live event at the Toronto Fringe Festival, a number of boxes containing
conﬁdential ByoLogyc content were scattered across Bloor and Bathurst
neighbourhoods and theatre venues, which could only be unlocked with keys
discovered at the Fringe. Numerous audience members spent quite a bit of time
badgering ByoLogyc “staff” performers at the live event for the locations of these keys!
http://zed.to/
Live Event #2

Zed.TO
website data
Sept 2012
We have time-on-site data for the ByoLogyc website that indicates a very
healthy level of engagement with our content – average visit durations since the
launch of the website have averaged almost 6 minutes, and numbers of pages
visited per visit have averaged over 5. In the time we have been running live-
action interactive events, the ByoLogyc website has attracted over 4,000 unique
visitors for almost 10,000 visits and nearly 50,000 pageviews.

Zed.TO
As this extraordinarily deep and extensive transmedia production has such a
wealth of detailed content, here ends Part 1 of the Zed.TO ByoLogyc Case
Study tracking the rise of ByoLogyc.
See Part 2 to follow how The Mission Business played out ByoLogyc’s
spectacular fall.... plus all kinds of tasty analytics & inforgraphics

BIG THANKS TO
TREVOR HALDENBY & BYRON LAVOILETTE
FOR ALL THEIR HELP
IN CREATING THIS CASE STUDY!
For the curious and the obsessed, know that there is
MUCH MUCH MORE
out there to be documented on the extraordinary experience that was
Zed.TO...
Fan blog posts
Facebook exchanges & posts of pics & videos
Twitter content
Reviews on theatre, culture & digital culture blogs....

You can find Trevor Haldenby’s MRP (Major Research Paper) submitted to
the Master of Design, Strategic Foresight & Innovation, OCAD U here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/164913914/Bringing-the-Future-to-Life-Pervasive-
Transmedia-Scenarios-and-the-World-of-Worlding
And you can also watch two of Trevor’s recent talks here:
here here

urls...
http://www.byologyc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/zedtoronto
http://www.themission.biz
http://www.zed.to
http://www.byologyc.com
http://www.vimeo.com/byologyc
http://www.youtube.com/user/exeishere
http://www.twitter.com/byologyc
http://www.facebook.com/byologyc
http://www.exeishere.org

slide specific urls...
Slide 28: http://www.mooneyontheatre.com/2012/07/09/zed-to-byologyc-
where-you-become-new-the-mission-business-2012-toronto-fringe-review/
Slide 29: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jksrDhk6fOA
http://4dfiction.com/2012/03/drugs-are-bad-bring-on-the-zombie-
apocalypse/
Slide 32-33: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ByoLeaks/277701005669084
Slide 34-35: http://byooptic.tumblr.com/post/31315565576/olive-swift-the-
woman-who-almost-had-it-all
Slide 36: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=947099

The Zed.TO Case Study is released under a
NonCommercial ShareAlike Creative Commons license to
be shared, remixed and expanded non-‐commercially, as
long as you credit the TMC Resource Kit, the creator of
the Case Study, Anthea Foyer and/or Dr. Siobhan
O’Flynn, and license your new creations under the
identical terms.
Images from third parties retain original copyright.

Get in Touch
Zed.TO Case Study was prepared by:
Dr. Siobhan O’Flynn
siobhanoﬂynn.com @Sioﬂynn
contactus
TMC Resource Kit
info@tmcresourcekit.com
tmcresourcekit.com

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