DATA DRIVEN STORYTELLING - "We don't know all that much about our audiences" - Gunther explores the merging of behavioural research and monitoring with new form film, TV branding and it's ultimate effect on storytelling. 'The internet is a giant focus group and we can build applications and services that identify behaviours which can then fuel future projects' and he goes on to say that this is nothing new for product distribution which has developed since the 1950s when understanding what consumers did with new products influenced the next wave - but now this can be done in real time and that knowledge can be used not only by the marketing and distribution channels but by the creatives themselves. But most tools used today whether social media filtering or other crude measurement tools is making it almost impossible for users to find content but also producers to reach them effectively. Using case studies and references to his work with big brands and studios Gunther talks about a future of audience usage AI, semantic automation, advanced monitoring techniques, adaptive development and much more to make the case that storytelling needs to be much more aligned with what users actually need and want - a data/story evolution.

Data Driven Storytelling - A 30 minute presentation by Gunther Sonnenfeld, given at the StoryLabs & Screen Australia Film 3.0 labs and digital ignition seminar held in Sydney in late Nov 2012. StoryLab's Podcasts: Recorded and Produced by Gary P Hayes

Gunther Sonnenfeld (USA) – http://flavors.me/goonth Gunther Sonnenfeld has spent the majority of his 18-year career exploring the intersections of storytelling, entertainment, technology and brands. He's taken his experience marketing films and TV into the multi-platform arena, and has been involved in various platform builds, from a music storyworld ("Talentzville" for WB Music) to digital asset management (Sony and Sony Classics) to an anti-piracy initiative (Paramount Studios), as well as numerous branded campaigns (Toyota, Rockstar Games, Kraft, Motorola and NRDC). Gunther is currently a producer on "Algren", a feature documentary and cross-channel narrative on the life of Nelson Algren, an American beat writer who inspired numerous well known artists. He’s a co-developer and strategic advisor of CODOC, a unique storytelling and annotative video platform incubated by Virgin Media Innovation Lab that connects documentary-style narratives to communities and content creators around the globe. In 2006, he won Best Feature Documentary at X-Dance for his work on "FLOW", the story of The Channel Islands Surfboards brand. As a social technologist he’s acquired several awards including a 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award for work identifying online influencers on behalf of Adobe. In 2011, Gunther's advisory and product development work for Coincident TV helped the startup garner a couple of Emmy nominations.