Good morning! You’ve made it to the end of SXSW. Congrats! Now what? What’s the lesson to take back home from Austin to your agency or brand team? While the Interactive Festival felt smaller than in past years—with arguably lackluster programming—the brands still came out in full force to deliver awe-inspiring activations. The difference this year? Brands were more calculated. I know what you’re thinking—brands are always strategic when it comes to activations. They’re spending big bucks. Well, yes and no. Over the last few years, as activations have become a bigger part of SXSW, many companies came to Austin, took over a space, gave away free swag, food and drinks and called it a day. This year, brands recognized that while it's cool to get a new tote bag (side note: with regard to swag, this year it’s all about the drink koozie), that’s not nearly enough to get people excited about your brand. Take, for instance, Sony’s party last night. It wasn’t just a showcase for artists Khalid and Tinashe; it was a way for Sony to showcase an innovation—Khalid's "Young, Dumb and Broke," the first music video to ever use VR projection mapping technology, according to a rep for Mission, the agency behind the activation. Debuting that kind of tech during South By—especially this year, when the lines between the Interactive, Music and Film festivals blurred more than ever—made Sony’s event more meaningful and memorable. (Watch for our upcoming story on this.) That might seem like a simple thing to take away from South by Southwest: be focused, calculated and strategic with activations. But it's proved impactful this year. Surprise stars of SXSW New Balance had bunnies, Mashable had puppies and more than one activation had baby goats, so the surprise stars of the week were … ANIMALS! (I bet you thought I was going to say Elon Musk.) If you’re having a hard week, running all over the festival meeting very important people, it’s nice to relax with a cute animal that doesn’t expect anything from you other than to be nice and pet it. It's no surprise that some of the longest lines were for these stars. The more you know Even as the U.S. seems more open to marijuana legalization, with states like Colorado, California and Washington allowing it, advertising for weed brands remains difficult. “Operators like Facebook, Instagram are pulling accounts all the time, or Facebook won’t even let you start advertising,” said Cy Scott, CEO and co-founder of Headset, an analytics company that works with cannabis brands to provide sales data, during a panel on weed branding. “It’s worse than alcohol or tobacco—you see beer commercials all the time [where] everyone looks like they’re having a good time and enjoying alcohol, but you don’t see that with cannabis.” Want to know how up-and-coming pot brands are getting around that? Click here. With love and admiration for the volunteers, festival workers and events staff who make SXSW happen, Kristina Monllos, Senior Editor |
