Pictured: Zeros to Heroes built multi-media content in the form of an interactive “Briefing Book” for This Hour has 22 Minutes.

There’s a fundamental problem when it comes to communication between partners, according to Andra Sheffer, executive director of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, and that needs to change.

“It’s astonishing,” she remarked at the Toronto New Media Seminar on Wednesday afternoon. “Eighty percent of failed projects come from that failure to communicate. The TV producer gets wrapped up in production, and doesn’t check in with the new media company. Digital can’t be secondary.”

Sheffer was among the panel speakers at the seminar, which Vancouver’s Zeros to Heroes (Z2H) has been taking across Canada to help producers make sense of the digital media landscape in terms of planning and funding.

“In this country, we tend to ‘finance and forget,’” said Sheffer. “I can’t understand why some partners aren’t invested. We watched a $500,000 online project that received zero hits after it launched. It’d be ideal if everyone cared.”

Shawn Bailey, director of Chocolate Liberation Front, advised producers to really understand why they should pursue their digital content initiatives: “If you have an iPad or iPhone app, ask yourself: ‘What are the intentions?’ Think of how it would relate to the audience and why they would use it.”

Bailey’s advice also reflected an earlier point from Z2H president Matt Toner, who suggested that wanting something “cool” was an inappropriate goal when trying to flesh out a project, as that’s what everyone’s trying to do.

Innovation was also a hot topic as many try to find ‘The Next Big Thing.’ Sheffer noted innovation used to be a requirement for the Bell Fund, but that “producers innovated so much that they wanted to use those innovations.”

But not everything has to be never-been-seen-before. Marblemedia creative director Johnny Kalangis said, “When I see something new, I like when I get it right away and it can still be innovative.”

He used the example of MySpace, which was all the rage when it hit the web, but then along came Facebook – it had many of the same social networking principles, but still a different platform.

When it comes to finding audiences for your brand, especially a smaller brand, Jessica Clark-Bojin said, “You have to be more clever about it, but it’s unlikely you’re starting from nothing.”

The head of entertainment business at Vancouver Film School added, “You have a theme, maybe a writer or actor people know. If some part of your brand already has an established audience, that can make life so much easier. If you can leave room for strategic partnerships, do it.”

And though it may seem like obvious advice, knowing your audience is key.

“Some broadcasters say: ‘This targets 50-year-olds, and we want to use online to attract teens.’ And it doesn’t work,” said Sheffer. “Successful projects we’ve seen target the same demos. If your project targets the 18-24s, then that’s probably your audience online.”