Cross media is mostly used to extend an advertisement campagne, however not all advertisement campagne using multiple media are real cross media. In my opinion the definition of cross media is: in a project multiple kind of media are used (internet, television, mobile ect), but all media are individual products. Here are two examples of what I thing are good examples of cross media.
These days you can not watch a television show without being asked to vote or text message to support your favorite dancer or B-star. The first tv-format who successfully implemented multiple media is, of course 1999’s ‘BigBrother’. In this show 12 stranger were put together in a house for 100 days and where watched by dozens of cameras. The ‘adventures’ of these people were broadcasted live on the internet. And daily a summary of the feed was broadcasted on the television. The audience could call and email (maybe text message) to support their favorite person.
A program like AVRO’s 2007’s ‘Op zoek naar Evita’ (from the BBC-format ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria’) took this concept but changed it. The two media are not tv and internet but tv and theater. In this tv-show a jury is searching for the lead actress, the part of Evita Perron, in the musical/theater show ‘Evita’. This is also a vote/text message kind of show but it is mainly a mix between television and theater. The audience can participate in a musical through the use of television.
It is to bad television producers do not came up with new groundbreaking concepts…
MediaCrossroad's Blog 
hi Mediacrossroad,
We agree those examples are using cross media too. It has not always something to do with advertising. On the other hand, the second example could be an advertisement for the theater show. You can vote on your favorite person and after she won the show, you probably want to see her perform in the theater. Or you would like to visit the theater show after hearing all the nice songs they were singing during the tv show.
However, it’s not a demand that cross media is used only for advertisements. It’s a way to reach a big group of people, to reach your future customers, to get publicity.
cheers,
ifyou
You are right; ‘op zoek naar Evita’ could be seen as an advertisment. Althoug it is as much a advertisment a is the show ‘Idols’ for selling cd’s. The tv-show ‘Evita’ is a independent show without visiting the theater. I did not said cross media is only used for advertisment, but the majority of the examples shown in the course manual are advertisments. That is why I state: “Cross media is mostly used to extend an advertisement campagne”.
We have found as well that most CM examples have commercial influences. This also creates a threshold for a lot of consumers to not participate in CM initiatives. They don’t want to be part in another form of commercial. This leaves us with a problem as well, for we now have to convince our consumers that we are not trying to sell them anything. Have you’ve given any thought about this problem and do you have possible solutions?
Kedengkedeng g1 (Piet van Rosmalen)
We do not have a solution for this problem, but it will effect the look of the project/product. It should not look very commercial, I guess.