TMC Chatsfield Case Study & Interview with Alison Norrington

The Chatsﬁeld - Case Study & Interview with Alison Norrington
Harlequin’s Transmedia Storyworld
GO

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The
Chatsfield
1
WHAT IS IT?
Harlequin Mills & Boon has launched an online story world
spun off from a series of Harlequin titles, with 8 novels set in
The Chatsﬁeld, a luxury hotel in London imagined as as the
destination for the swinging set the 1960s.
!
Social media platforms extend the story and detail the lives
of characters.
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Fans can engage through multiple entry points & can
contribute their own stories expanding on existing stories or
creating new ones.
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Get ready for Alison Norrington’s spin on the world of
publishing & fan engagement

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The
Chatsfield
Alison Norrington is a writer/producer, CEO, Founder &
Chief Creative Director of storycentral, a London-based
entertainment studio that incubates and develops
ground-breaking transmedia properties with global
partners in ﬁlm, television, publishing and gaming.
As CEO/CCO of storycentral, Alison has worked on a
range of intellectual properties that are founded on robust
story worlds and have genuine and relevant touch points across a host of media channels.
She specializes in fan incubation and engagement, extending IP, community building
through story and storyworld strategy, incubation & development.
Alison is a best-selling novelist and playwright, with an MA in Creative Writing & New Media
and a PhD researcher. Over her 20-year career she has worked with and consulted to Walt
Disney Imagineering, FOX International, Harlequin Mills & Boon, F&W Media, Eurovision
Broadcasting Union, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, First Hand Films.
Alison is writer and producer of webseries The Loedown, author of 3 bestselling novels –
Class Act, Look Before You Leap and Three of a Kind and creator of the ﬁrst transmedia
romcom Staying Single. She has also written plays A Fish & A Bonsai and Pistols at Dawn.

!
degrassi
1
TheKidsof
Created by Linda Schuyler
!
Aired originally on CBC
!
The series followed the lives of a group of Elementary School children
living on Degrassi Street in Toronto and ended when the kids had
finished Grade 6
!
It began as a short film adapted from a children’s book, Ida Makes a
Movie (1979), though the children’s book had anthropomorphic cat
characters.
1979-1986

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The
Chatsfield
1
GENESIS
SO: Alison, how did you come on board?
!
AN: It began when I was called in over a year ago. Tim Cooper the
Harlequin Mills & Boon MD, said “there’s a continuity series we do
every year. We create a story world in house with 8 authors who
each take on dimension of the story world to write a novel.” Tim
wanted to know could we do something like that with more than
books.
!
I read the overview of the 8 novels & I could immediately see where I
had opportunities to do more, something web series based as
Harlequin Mills & Boon expressed a keen interest in webseries/TV
episodes...There were two characters in the existing book series
story world, Adam Brightman & Jesse (exec. PA) then we introduced
two new characters, Ally the Chambermaid and Daniel Northman,
our murder mystery character. So we had 4 to play with. I didn’t
want to push more than 4 – at least not for Season 01.
!
We knew the murder mystery story very tightly, Rob Pratten
(Conducttr) worked with us & wrote the mystery story. We then had
authors & in house editors working together on the Ally and Daniel
stories, and we had Jessie’s story. Jessie is the eyes and ears of the
hotel. She sees everything so she’s a great person to put at the
centre, but she needed a story.

!
degrassi
1
TheKidsof
!
!
finished Grade 6
!
characters.
MULTIPLE ENTRY POINTS

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The
Chatsfield
2
GENESIS
AN: The initial strategic work was built on detailed synopsis for
the 8 books but as the full manuscripts were delivered and I
realized they all had ‘happy ever afters’ it was clear we needed a
rethink. It’s a closed storyworld to an extent, but the Harlequin
Mills & Boon promise is HEA.
!
Question #1 was then how do you expand this if the stories are
all locked down and finished – the HEA suggests little conflict –
only in matters of the heart – and I didn’t feel it was strong
enough or intriguing enough to offer deep levels of immersion or
interaction...
I’d conducted the original strategy work in September 2013 and
it was late November when the manuscripts came in and we
realized we had the HEA problem.
!
Coupled with a definite launch date of the 1
st
book for May 2014.
Panic Time! We knew we needed to amplify the online
characters.
happy ever afters

!
The
Chatsfield
3
GENESIS
AN: Now usually It takes me a year from a seed of an idea
to being able to write. I need that time to get to know all of
my characters, the layers and all that goes there. However, I
had an earlier project, Staying Single, from 2006 that I’d
created for my MA in Creative Writing and New Media.
!
I’d already written three bestselling books & was writing my
4th about a woman trying to stay single. The Staying Single
story propelled my character into celebrity-dom, she ended
up on talk shows, breakfast shows. All these guys are after
her. Yet, then she can’t tell if they’re really like her, or if it’s
just an ego thing, if it’s the challenge of getting her to break
from being single…
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So I pulled out my Staying Single story, shifted it. I had the
premise and the character and I knew how she would react.
I really need to know my characters.
story / themes

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The
Chatsfield
1
RESEARCH
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AN: As part of researching Jessie, I joined two dating sites. I
didn’t put my picture up but I used a lot of my experience as
part of the research for Jessie.
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SO: With Jessie on actual dating sites - is Jessie getting
responses from real people?
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AN: Yes she is! Cupid.com partnered with us and we worked
with them to write some emails to Jessie so that they appear
in her inbox (which serves as brand awareness for
Cupid.com too. To avoid some random woman receiving
emails from Jessie’s fans I secure her user name JustJess29.
I’ve noticed in the last few weeks she’s been getting a lot
more attention.
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I made up a dating site as a spoof, MeetYourMate.com, and I
deliberately wrote the emails tongue in cheek, so there have
been a few people interacting with her on MeetYourMate.
platform: dating sites

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The
Chatsfield
2
RESEARCH
AN: I like to put a lot of things out there, plant a lot of seeds & see
what fans like. With the way we designed it, Jessie gets a lot of
emails and a lot people are interacting with her through Facebook
messages. A lot of messages are from guys, they don’t want to
post on her wall because they don’t want to be seen, so they
message her privately. So that’s quite a challenging task!
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Sheena Bhattessa, the actress we cast as Jessie for our 4-day
shoot, was fabulous! Apart from being gorgeous and great to
work with she comes as very down to earth, intelligent, well-
educated & self-deprecating. I think there’s something about that
mix that guys really like. They all want to rescue her. Jessie has a
lot of private Facebook messages, along the lines of, ‘let’s just run
away together, reach for the stars & never look back.’
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I’m trying to keep it all on track as I learned the hard way from my
Singles Project that I did for my MA degree, where there were
guys who sent the most bizarre emails. One guy sent a message
that he’d bought two tickets to Venice one with my character’s
name on it and he wanted to know ‘when are we going?’
avid fans!

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The
Chatsfield
1
TARGET
AUDIENCE
AN: I was quite strategic in my plan to offer levels of immersion,
for people who want to watch passively for a few minutes to people
who want to dive right in. So the tapestry is quite vast.
Having said that, our audience was always going to be quite
fragmented. We defined the median age of the Harlequin fan as
45-47. We knew they enjoyed reading on ebooks and devices.
They’ve got that functionality in hand, so we picked up on that in
our design and the murder mystery targets that age group. We
wanted to dig into a James Patterson style of clue finding to make
engagement quite easy, and the barriers are quite low.
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You simply have to send an email to Jessie, saying ‘I’ll spy for
you.’ There’s a series of other ways you can interact with the
characters on the web and on mobile. That was our push out of the
comfort zone for the traditional older audience
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Our older audience is concentrated in the channels we’re talking to
them in, checking in to The Chatsfield, then picking up on the
Murder Mystery, following & responding to back and forth of the
emails. We’ve also been looking at what we can take out to get
them to the end quicker.
older audience

The Loedown: web series, newsletter,
Facebook, Twitter

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The
Chatsfield
2
TARGET
AUDIENCE
AN: Harlequin Mills and Boon also wanted to look at a younger
audience, an 18-29 age group, which worked with one of their imprints,
MIRA. With the Loedown, fans help Jessie on her quest, and keep her
on track. We designed short chunks of video for the Loedown that are
broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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The audience was always going to be fragmented with a series of entry
points but the main hub site, thechatsﬁeld.com, is where you sign in, get
your badges & rewards.
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It’s quite early days and we’re very much in R&D and data analysis
mode.
We worked with an amazing romance writer Sarah Wendell who blogs
as SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com. Sarah has written the Bliss Undone
story (based on an overview and story arcs that we developed in-house).
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She understands romance writing and has over 30,000 fans on Twitter,
which is great too!
We recently ramped up blissundone.com as fan feedback was strong
and vocal – it was not salacious enough for the readers. We received
many comments request more of a ‘naughty’ 50 Shades of Grey style of
writing.
younger audience

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degrassi
1
TheKidsof
!
!
finished Grade 6
!
characters.

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: Our first SuperFan was in our forum space – The Chatsfield
Lounge, very exited to have 625 points and have completed the
murder mystery, but wasn’t sure what to do next!
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We needed a new plan – and fast. To leave our first SuperFan
unrecognized would mean that she could potentially blow the
cover of the murder mystery story in the first week we’d
launched it.
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We devised a strategy for Superfans. Careful to use our ‘out-of-
world’ voice (Harlequin Mills & Boon) she was included in The
Chat (newsletter which goes out every week), she was rewarded
with a gift basket with Chatsfield notebooks & cool stuff.
!
Then we invited her ‘in’. SuperFans are so important and we
invited her to be a Chatsfield guru. So if a player/reader is
struggling with next steps for the murder mystery they approach
our guru and say ‘I’ve hit a brick wall with this, what did you
find?’ We’ve tried to bring all of the SuperFans on as quickly as
possible as they will keep driving the experience forward.
SUPER FANS
fans to evangelizers

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: We’ve found a direct correlation between website visits
and sign ups/check ins. This is great but we still ﬁnd that the
interactions are private. Interestingly there doesn’t seem such
a desire to ‘chat’ about this on social media – the emails and
messages are private to Jessie’s inbox or Facebook.
That’s what I found with my Staying Single project, a lot of
emails directed to my character yet they don’t want to shout it
out publicly, like on a big trombone.
!
I have to reply carefully & say, ‘Check out my video diary
here…’ and then they’ll see what’s up. I’m trying to take them
back but do it in a genuine conversational way.
!
It’s a whole different thing writing for women. I don’t like to
segregate yet men are reacting to different things, messaging
Jessie on Facebook.
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There’s still a lot we can cover and a lot to learn.
FAN
ENGAGEMENT
managing expectations

Jessie Loe
Executive PA at The Chatsﬁeld,

unlucky in love, glass half full, dating expert

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The
Chatsfield
1
SO: Harlequin UK’s aim was to “build the audience, rather than
to try to promote the books? This isn’t a marketing campaign
for those books, it is about creating an environment where
those stories are told differently, and by building an audience
we can monetise in various different ways—including product
placement. It’s a ﬂuid process, so we’ll learn as we develop.”
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SO: What design strategies did you use to meet the project
goal of building an audience? 
AN: It began with identifying core themes and topics that
would be small campﬁres for gathering, opinions and
discussion.
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From there I continue to evangelize that the triggers for
interaction should be within the content - to break from old
school marketing to new school conversations.
PROJECT
GOALS
interaction triggers

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The
Chatsfield
2
AN: The triggers to interaction are embedded in the
content:
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The list of 24 romantic movies that Jessie’s friend, Katie
has given her to watch during her quest.
 
Her secret admirer and the gifts and clues to follow up on.
The murder mystery story & a lot of little things you
discover as she’s been on seven dating sites. Jesse loves
the chase, hates the catch.
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So there’s lots for fans to resonate with but also to add to
within the topics and conversations
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PROJECT
GOALS
embedded content

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: What we’re seeing is a surge of trafﬁc 300-350 views for
each Loedown video within 2-3 days of them going live. Coming
into week 7, about half way through I can see that people are
going back to the beginning. Earlier videos are picking up more
views as new viewers go back to the ﬁrst one to watch for the
context, What you can see is a tidal wave effect as viewership
builds.
!
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has demonstrated that it takes time for
that movement to happen and to build. So we’re not jumping
straight into new content after Aug 1, as we want to see how this
pans out.
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There are a lot of guys liking her page on FB. Some are really
genuine.
!
I hadn’t expected that to happen. There are a lot who are really
connecting with it being a story, saying I’m glad you’ve left the
dating sites, and you’ve got to value yourself. And then there’s
those who have the ‘let’s run away stuff’ And quite a few
poems… (laughs)
TRAFFIC
building views

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: There are two things I was concerned with from the start.
1. engaging fans prior to launch as we had real time
constraints. We did reach out to HQ’s fan base as they have
1.6 mill fans on Google +.
2. I’m concerned about the hard stop on Aug 1 when the
delivery of new The Chatsﬁeld content will end.
!
We’ve created a cliffhanger as there are 4 people Jessie could
be with and I’ve extended the social media beyond Aug 1. So
my major concerns have been with the runway & the exit
strategy & I’m still concerned. However, the ground we’ve
covered in R & D For Harlequin is huge. Next time round, we
could be much more swiftly on point & focused much more
tightly.
!
We’ve got great analysis. The Conducttr platform is brilliant for
understanding what’s working & what’s not. The inbox was
designed by BTL & the engine behind it is Conducttr, which is
new way of operating for them, so it’s a testing time for us all.
CONCERNS
runway & exit strategy

Conducttr
Pervasive Entertainment Platform

http://www.tstoryteller.com/

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: The hardest things? Time constraints, resources, budget.
We have over 800 pieces of linked content. The Loedown is 39
episodes, at 1 1/2 minutes - 2 min - over an hour in total. The
webseries was challenging to write – I had to keep the story on
track and pacy but introduce her emails on the screen and make
references to topics and threads in her inbox.
!
I spent a lot of time digging into the premise of her story, her
character archetype. She & Dan ultimately save each other. I’ve
had to map the way the story turns, the deep intrinsic elements,
and the interactive elements. I created a mini-bible just for the
Loedown. Expanding Jessie’s story would be very easy to do.
She has 11-15 people writing to her and I had to be very
strategic with writing the emails to show different tones of voice..
!
Sometimes it’s slightly too elegant and nuanced and when she’s
mad with them she might take two days to reply, and then when
she’s over him, it’s instant. I had to ﬁgure out the triggering of
timing, though I think it’s lost a little bit in the inbox.
CHALLENGES
work with what you have

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The
Chatsfield
1
AN: You’ve got 11 story lines in Jessie’s inbox: the storyline with her Mom,
Jason her ex (always crazy), Dan, her friend Katie in New York. With all of
them you ﬁnd out more about Jessie.
!
I’d like to put these together in sequence & publish these as a book. Then
you have a physical artifact that could drive people back to Jessie’s online
inbox - they could read the book and watch the Loedown. You can always
check out the inbox for Jesse.
!
I’m writing a report on things that can be improved, things we missed the
point with and things we were totally on point and we need to amplify
further. Come August I may be able to share more with you! there are a lot of
learnings.
!
In my experience writing for a female audience, they’re tough cookies!
!
If you create content and they think you’re wasting their time and just trying
to get their eyeballs, they take no prisoners. But if you’re genuine, with a
female audience especially, and you’re open about what you’re trying to do
& where you think your failing, there are a lot of learnings: turn up the volume
on some of it, and down on others, as you get a lot of response.
create a book of season 1
FUTURE
EXTENSIONS

!
degrassi
1
TheKidsof
Jessie Loe’s Inbox

Multiple characters & story lines

!
The
Chatsfield
1
AN: Dan & Jessie’s relationship is key, there’s such a lot of resonance
with their exchanges as he really plays cat and mouse with her in the first
half of the story, then she finds out he’s got this horrible thing in his past,
and he’s desperate, sad, & looking for revenge. Her sister died, took an
overdose 10 years ago in a nightclub in NY and she’s been through the
revenge/justice thing. There’s the moment when she realizes that he’s not
really a barman, he’s here in the hotel to catch someone in the hotel who
was responsible for a death… the power shift then changes
!
At the end with the murder mystery story, we’ll see whether the audience
wants him to go for revenge or justice. It’s an open ending & we can
spin it either way. Something happens at the end that can be quite
responsive to the audience’s wish. With a female fan base you think
they’ll go for justice.
!
Jessie advocates for justice, she advocates for that revenge feels better
but it’s a short term fix. Whereas justice, you can live with that because,
you’ve done what’s right and what happens to the person after that is out
of your hands.I was expecting the female audience to go for that but I’m
starting to think they won’t. They’re getting their claws out and they want
revenge!
MURDER
MYSTERY
let fans decide the outcome

!
The
Chatsfield
1
AN: This project is a very interesting study as to what people are
connecting with. Some of the short stories around The Chatsﬁeld's 8
books have come as offshoots that were written within the Loedown,
In one of the early episodes Jason, her ex, goes out of his room and
then goes into the wrong room with a couple in bed and gets into
bed with them and it’s chaos. He’s an absolute klutz & everything
goes wrong wherever he goes.
!
Harlequin had the vision to reach out to some of their other
authors to write short stories. There’s one that tells the story with
the couple in the bed who just got engaged and another with a guest
who leaves a suitcase full of S & M gear in a wardrobe. I love the fact
that Harlequin Mills & Boon is looking for these opportunities and
they’re the things they really do best.
!
So what I’m trying to do is embed a new way of thinking, though
putting this into actionable things as a new way of thinking is quite
easy. Developing in house resources that aren’t traditionally there.
That’s a bit of a learning curve and I’ve come so far with it now.
They’ve got it all there, so it’s just learning how to use it a bit more.
STORY
EXTENSIONS
multiple authors / new stories

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The
Chatsfield
2
SO: Here we have, Harlequin, whom some might see as the least likely
studio/producer/producer, suddenly at the cutting edge of transmedia,
working with multiple authors creating content around story worlds &
extended content. Can you access these stories through the Chatsfield
site?
!
AN: You can access Chatsfield books through the Quick Book link, which
was intended to suggest booking a room, but really zips you across to
buying the books! There are a series of fabulous short stories all available
on Amazon. One of my favourites is this one – The Real Adam Brightman -
http://amzn.to/1tbKQYv - totally gives a flip on everything you thought you
knew about the man. The majority of them directly tie in with rooms and
stories from The Loedown, Jessie’s Inbox or the Chatsfield book series.
!
SO - Clearly, this seems to open up fan fiction possibilities.
!
AN: I’m trying to encourage that with Harlequin Mills & Boon. I’m convinced
a large sector of their audience are wanna be writers of romance fiction.
That’s something I’d love to expand in the next season. And we’ve started
to see that people are starting to share their hotel stories in the Lounge.
STORY
EXTENSIONS
harlequin & fan fiction (of course)

The Lounge
Discussion Hub & Fan Story Sharing

Video Uploads Powered by Theatrics

!
The
Chatsfield
1
SO: Can you talk about The Chatsﬁeld Lounge where readers can contribute
their own stories and hotel adventures? I understand it’s powered by the
Theatrics video storytelling platform & can sync with Conductrr via API.
!
AN: I’d been speaking with Nick DeMartino about Theatrics integration for
some time. I’d researched what had been done with Welcome to Sanditon
vs Beckinﬁeld (and other Theatrics powered hubs) and could see some
value in amplifying community behaviours. However we struggled with The
Lounge a little as I suspected Harlequin Mills & Boon fans woudln’t want to
share video of themselves. That they’d be sitting at home, having a glass of
wine, or on the train, immersed in the story world, and they wouldn’t want to
turn the camera on themselves. I felt very strong that fan generated video
wouldn’t work.
!
The Lounge is really the hub for interaction and we struggled to let fans see
that they should treat this space as they would a Starbucks or a hotel lobby.
!
Once the fans arrived and looked around we could see them starting to talk
and share their love/hotel stories.
It’s an entirely new facility for these fans that aren’t used to really talking to or
meeting each other, but I’d love to develop these ‘friendships’ and
behaviours
FAN CREATED
CONTENT
theatrics platform: the lounge

Theatrics
Video Communication Platform

theatrics.com

!
The
Chatsfield
2
AN: We did want to open up the portion for them to create stories
and characters. And we’re starting to see this in the Lounge
where they’re sharing their own hotel stories. I want to encourage
this, though it needs to be managed properly. I worked a few
years ago with Penguin on the Million Penguins Wiki and it was
absolute chaos! There wasn’t a clear call to action, not enough
rules, everybody wanted to be famous. It was a mess. So to open
it up to fans of Harlequin, we need to be quite clear, have a core
team of characters and ask them to run with them.
!
SO: It seems that The Lounge can really work to cultivate new
writers based on fan response if Harlequin Mills & Boon are into it.
Fans get so excited when they can become a recognized author.
!
AN: Yes, and then they can be heard. Just sending in a DM to
Jessie on Twitter, saying, ‘I’d really like to do a story about you
and me doing this…’ That’s what it’s all about. Now that I’m
focusing on the Lounge, I really want to pull in the conversations
that are happening there
theatrics platform: the lounge
FAN CREATED
CONTENT

!
The
Chatsfield
3
AN: Right at the beginning when I asked Robert Pratten to come in with
Conducttr & Nick DeMartino with his Theatrics team, I’d mapped a user-
journey as a figure of 8.
 
The Lounge (Theatrics) is the hub, the centre where everybody congregates,
then through discussions fans would have about the characters or the
murder mystery, they would go out with their devices, texting Jessie, calling
her phone & getting messages or emails back that gave them additional
information. Then they return to the hub and share their findings.
Conducttr is working on a personal 1:1 dialogue,whereas the Lounge is more
about fan discussions.
!
We debated whether fans would be in-world or out-of-world, characters in
the hotel or talking about the Chatsfield. We realized that the creation of new
characters could impact severely on the murder mystery story, so for this
instance we decided against it.
!
So we made the Lounge like a real coffee lounge in a hotel; somewhere
where the guests would sit and chat about what they’ve seen or found.
The way that Theatrics & Conducttr work together is quite fantastic. -
together they make the figure of eight. You have a solo experience or you can
share.
platforms: conducttr & theatrics
DELIVERY

!
The
Chatsfield
4
SO: You used Conducttr as transmedia delivery platform. What content is being
delivered by Conducttr?
!
AN: Conducttr is powering the inbox and emails, texts, voice messages and
social media posts from the key characters. Content is scheduled for
publication from the various characters in many conversation threads.
!
SO: How much is automated & how much is live in terms of character
response? For example, Jesse’s inbox provides an ongoing narrative of what is
happening with her & her interactions with key friends & associates.
!
AN: To a degree it’s automated, but I’m running Jessie’s social media and if
we’re watching the interactions so that we can dive in if necessary. To say
they’re automated takes the heart of it a little and we worked hard with
Conducttr to create a tapestry of scenarios and responses so that it doesn’t feel
soulless and automated.
!
We want our characters to be responsive and conversational.
To a certain degree following story lines with the inbox & the script for The
Loedown allowed us to preempt but I haven’t used Conducttr so much for real-
time responses. It’s a balance.
DELIVERY

!
The
Chatsfield
5
AN: We were careful to write a series of automated responses
for Jessie that depended on key words so if they used certain
terminology in the subject line, for example, they could get 8-12
different responses from Jessie.
!
There are quite a number of characters involved in the murder
mystery, so they could get responses from back from Ally &
maybe 4-5 different Spanish people involved.
!
The Daniel Northman responses are a bit more one-dimensional
really, just to have a bit of back & forth. With the murder mystery,
there’s so much you can automate as those drive the story on.
DELIVERY

!
The
Chatsfield
6
SO: What is ‘the Bond folder’? it’s described as ‘content that’s
personalized to each individual based on how they make progress
through a multiplatform interactive mystery.’
!
AN: Once you’ve registered at the hotel, you can dig into the Bond
folder, and you ﬁnd more people to interact with. Their responses
are progressive & these also take you through the story.
!
However, I’m really not a fan of automated responses. People are
so savvy, they know they’re automated. With more bells &
whistles, people go ‘what the hell! who cares?’ We were quite
careful to avoid that.
!
But we did realize the more luddite fans of Harlequin Mills & Boon,
really liked the fact that they got something back, but they didn’t
need to reply or do something back. They liked the fact that Daniel
N replied but they didn’t need to carry on talking with him. The
novelty factor worked fro them We made a conscious decision.
platforms: conducttr
AUTOMATED
DELIVERY

!
degrassi
1
TheKidsof
!
!
finished Grade 6
!
characters.
JESSIE’S OFFICE
INTERACTIVE ONLINE SPACES AS POINTS OF ENTRY

!
The
Chatsfield
1
AN: I found, though, was that there was no ‘out- of-world,’ no
place for Harlequin to generate anything around the project.
They can’t do that in the Lounge, and I missed that.
!
Now I’m encouraging fans to use Google+ as the place they
can be really really proud of what they’ve done, to share their
badges and points. You don’t have to engage with the murder
mystery to win badges, by clicking on something or emailing or
texting.
!
There they can be really proud of The Chatsﬁeld and share,
‘this is what we’ve done, and this is how you win badges.’ We
needed this as I hadn’t built that out- of-world space. It’s quite
critical.
‘out-of-world’ hub
FAN HUB

TheKidsof
IN-GAME ACHIEVEMENTS

!
The
Chatsfield
1
SO: With Harlequin Mills & Boon, as a good segment of sales will be digital,
is there any physical marketing? Are bookstores a useful touch stone any
more?
AN: I don’t think they are. Harlequin functions very much in a digital frame &
ebooks are a real driver. So there’s not much in physical spaces. Budget &
resources put a cap on everything.
We worked with David Varela, who has a sideline cocktail company –
www.shakencocktails.com . He advised on and created all the recipes and
the bespoke Chatsfield cocktail. We had a couple of pop up cocktail bars
serving Chatsfield cocktails at events in London and BTL Brands (our design
agency) created some beautiful branding for real life products. We’ve made
Chatsfield notebooks, door hangers, even champagne with exclusive
packaging. http://www.packagingoftheworld.com/2014/07/the-chatsfield-
hotel.html
We had a week of press lots of PR, was featured in Wired, The Telegraph,
USA Today, Grazia and Heat magazine. In the lobbies of the media groups,
we had the pop up bars, & invitations to come & check in.
SO: Do teasers go out in newsletters?
!
AN: There is a newsletter, The Chat, what’s coming up in the next week,
what’s happened to Jessie, click on the video, and you can find out what’s
happening with other characters, the cocktail of the week.
traditional vs innovative
MARKETING

!
The
Chatsfield
2
AN: Harlequin Mills & Boon have a blog called Socialize. One of
the challenges is to push away from traditional marketing and
understand that the triggers are in the content.
So I would like to have Jessie give an interview or write a blog
piece for Cosmo… to say ‘this is me, I’m trying to stay single, I’ve
left all these dating sites,’ and make it relevant n the real world.
I’m still working on how to seed the characters in the story who
are very relevant to women today out in the right channels. It’s like
trying to hit a moving target all the time.
!
SO: Or she could be interviewed by key bloggers?
!
AN: That’s what we’re looking at.
!
Thinking about the timeline it was November when we realized we
couldn’t use a real story, we had to create new characters, we did
a 4 day shoot in Feb. Then we had to be ready to go live with the
testing by ﬁrst of April. There are lots of things I would like to do
better. But we’re pushing through and analyzing as we go. It will
be much easier to launch a Season 2.
traditional vs innovative
MARKETING

!
The
Chatsfield
1
SO: How big is the team?
!
AN: The project was led initially by Tim Cooper MD, then 
passed to Jo Kite, marketing manager.  
I worked closely with Pippa Roscoe, a Harlequin editor on the storylines
and we had social media support in Harlequin from 1 person. 
Stu Lewin and Santeri Lohi of BTL Brands handled all of the design and
interaction hotspots on the website. We had Robert Pratten and Natalie
Rios from Conducttr and a team from Theatrics. 3 writers collaborated
with me on the back & forth of emails and we had a team of 2 from
ElektrikZoo for the shoot. Jo, the marketing manager & I, were joint
project managers. She knew the Harlequin business model & she had
access to information I didn’t.
 
There were times where Jo took on the bigger role, and then there were
times with the strategy, story, audience and management that I took on
that. We worked together quite tightly in-house with maybe 3-4 people.
They all had other jobs to do, and my contract began as 16 hours a
week!
the team
ROLES

!
The
Chatsfield
1
AN: None of us expected it to explode when it went live – there was a
lot that we just couldn’t preempt. For example, I never expected to write
the content as initially the storylines were hinged to the novels. I wrote
The Loedown 3 weeks before the shoot! I had storylines for the email
threads and mini stories mapped out but I needed more writers.I
needed some surprise interactions and responses to Jessie’s dilemmas.
 
I’d love to pull in more writers from Harlequin. There are a few I spoke
with who really loved it and got it. Melanie Milburn was fantastic. The
writer I worked with for the Dan Northman story was skeptical at ﬁrst but
soon loved writing in this responsive style. I’d write her an email from
Jessie, give her direction as to a response (i.e., you’re really annoyed at
what I’ve just said) and she’d reply in-character.
!
I had the overall story arc and the A B C storylines. We knew what was
driving them and where they were going. The Daniel Northman email
author was giving me a hard time with her answers & I was ‘Damn,
how’s Jesse going to respond to that!’ It’s a great writing exercise and
makes you up your game
collaborative writing
INNOVATION

!
The
Chatsfield
2
AN: Writing like this really helps you with your writing style. If you’re
writing in a quiet room to what you think people will like that’s one
thing. Here you’re writing and responding to someone and
someone’s looking at your work straight away
They won’t critique you but in character they’ll just say, what did you
just say? that’s a lame answer! I’d love to do more of this.
!
SO: When you dig into what you’ve developed, this is deeply
fascinating.
!
AN: Yes I think so. As much as it’s been fun and challenging, it’s from
now that it’s going to get really fascinating. Because the story has
had some time to embed.
!
People are starting to know that it’s there and now is the time to
encourage people to step forward. The doors have been open for a
while and people have been dancing around in the entrance, and
now is the time to bring people in and get people writing stories in
the Lounge.
!
collaborative writing
INNOVATION

!
The
Chatsfield
3
AN: There was some initial uncertainty from some writers about
the interactive and responsive email writing style for Jessies
Inbox.. So I was very clear and said I’m going to email you in
character & at the end of the email I’m going to give you a
direction and as a result of this, you’re really ticked off as you
have to come into work for the weekend, or you’re really
playing with me and you’re not going to respond to what I’ve
said. 
 
You’ll come back with a really cool line that makes me
frustrated. So in four emails it was pinging. Really great fun,
banter back & forth, parameters were set, and the story beats
were there.
!
That made it easy to do. That’s what I feel we need to do with
fan ﬁction around this. Say ok, Ally is doing this…. in two weeks
time she needs to go there, so bring someone in to make that
happen. We need to give them kind of direction, something to
work on.
working with harlequin writers
INNOVATION

!
The
Chatsfield
4
AN: We had a great gal, a chick lit aﬁcionado on twitter, and
she sent me a message “I’m really loving Jessie, I really want
to party with her in Adam Brightman’s suite, can I write a
story about it? Can I write a blog post as if we’ve been to a
party?”
Now I’m completely “Yeah! He’s having a party Saturday
night and Jessie’s not going to go. She says she is, but she’s
not going to go. So if you can write it, ﬁne.”
So she wrote this great little short story about going to a
party in Adam’s suite. This is what we want more of.
This model is exactly what we need - in a hotel imagine all
the people who could come in and out of that. I’m so excited!
!
SO: It’s the coolest frame as you’ve got this publisher and
you have this studio of writers you’ve galvanized and brought
into the project and a fan base that wants to be writers
INNOVATION

Jessie Loe on Twitter
Executive PA at The Chatsﬁeld,

unlucky in love, glass half full, dating expert

!
The
Chatsfield
5
AN: When I spoke initially with the writers on a conference call
there were mixed responses. Some weren’t so sure about it
being more than a book but others were very excited and
responded with, ‘You mean to say he’s going to do this on a
certain day and we could put it out on Facebook as if it’s really
happening???’ 
And then you could see this excitement...to bring their work to
life in real time. It was fantastic! Harlequin have some great
storytellers, an erotica writer named Tiffany Reisz, and I’d love
one of her characters checking into The Chatsﬁeld and
spending a few days there.
!
There’s so much opportunity for cross pollinating the stories
so we really need to look into it to see how it can work in
future.
INNOVATION

!
The
Chatsfield
1
SO: Has Harlequin Mills & Boon explored other possibilities for
monetization? Merchandising? Novels obviously - any other
avenues?
!
AN: We did have many conversations on branding &
merchandising, The design agency, BTL Brands, co-created a
portfolio of products merchandise for us, casino chips, macaroons,
cufﬂinks, chocolate… aiming for the shop if we move into Season
2.We are looking for partners and brands - bathrobes for example.
!
We want to explore a ‘make it to order’ model, starting with, if you
could choose between these 5 things, have it for real, what would
you like to go with best?
!
Then we could go intelligently forward to have products made that
fans want. We’re discussing with spa brands & others to make The
Chatsﬁeld like a lifestyle brand. Dating advice, spa experiences
Make it like the ultimate 5 star hotel. There are a lot of opportunities
though we need to analyze what’s gone on so far.
creating brand partnerships
MERCHANDIZING

!
degrassi
1
TheKidsof
!
!
finished Grade 6
!
characters.
THE CHATSFIELD BAR
INTERACTIVE ONLINE SPACES AS POINTS OF ENTRY

THE CHATSFIELD CASE STUDY & INTERVIEW
WITH ALISON NORRINGTON 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, Dr. Siobhan
O’Flynn, and license your new creations under the
identical terms.

!
Images from third parties retain original copyright.

BIG THANKS to…
Alison Norrington
http://storycentraldigital.wordpress.com/

THE CHATSFIELD CASE STUDY &
INTERVIEW WITH ALISON NORRINGTON
was prepared by:

Dr. Siobhan O’Flynn
TMC Resource Kit
info@tmcresourcekit.com

tmcresourcekit.com
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TMC Chatsfield Case Study & Interview with Alison Norrington

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TMC Chatsfield Case Study & Interview with Alison Norrington