I came across this AP News article and couldn’t stop thinking about it: https://apnews.com/article/heated-rivalry-winter-olympic-569baff2ce0ae2e...
Heated Rivalry isn’t just a hit show, it’s starting to exist outside of the screen in a really tangible way. Olympic athletes are talking about it, naming things after the characters, and fans who had never followed hockey before are now buying tickets and showing up to games. NHL tickets are up over 20%! It’s wild to watch a story not just gain an audience, but actually shift behavior.
What really stands out to me is how naturally it’s happening. This isn’t just marketing or promotion, it’s connection. People are seeing themselves in the story, engaging with it emotionally, and then carrying that experience into real life, into conversations, into communities that weren’t even the original target.
That’s such a fascinating space for transmedia storytelling. When a story stops being contained to one medium and starts becoming part of culture, part of identity, part of how people relate to something bigger.
It makes me wonder how often we think about that when we’re creating. Not just “how do I tell this story well?” but “how might this story live beyond the page or screen?”
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you seen any other projects recently that made that kind of leap into the real world? Or is that something you’re intentionally trying to build into your own work?
And if you’re curious to dig deeper into how Heated Rivalry works from a storytelling perspective, Stage 32 is hosting a FREE webcast breaking down the pilot this Friday, March 20th. You can sign up here: https://www.stage32.com/education/products/heated-rivalry-breaking-down-...*If you can't make it live, you'll get the full recording to watch at your convenience, so make sure you sign up!
