MRY's South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive recap from 2015 featuring trends in wearables, virtual reality, mobile video (Meerkat!), and more - plus what brands like GE, Taco Bell, Mazda, HBO and others did in Austin, TX for SXSWi
2. What we’ll cover today
• Overview
• Brands
• Meerkat
• Tech
• Meerkat
• Observations from MRY’s team
• Further reading / contact info
Source: National Geographic
6. Not everyone’s there for marketing ideas and
tech innovation
Source: Beats by Dre on Twitter
7. Mazda, CBS, Capital One go for the tried and true
value-add: offering free rides
Source: SXSW. CBS, Capital One on Twitter
8. The real value of SXSW: “Collisions”
“This remains the best part of SXSW. The collision of ideas and
people make SXSW the closest thing to a “weekend of
enlightenment” we have in this new digital age. People from all
over the world, at all levels in their organizations, with all
backgrounds, are getting together to share their perspectives, and
are generally all accessible.”
- Ian Schafer, Deep Focus
Source: Ian Schafer on Medium
10. Brands come out of hibernation for SXSW
Source: Business Insider
not meerkats
11. SXSW: Where transmedia meets trans fats
“We are not where we need to
be when it comes to being seen
as a digitally innovative
company. Everyone expects two
guys in a garage to come up
with ideas. We want to be part
of that flow of ideas,”
McDonald’s senior vice
president of digital, Atif Rafiq
said.
Source: TechCrunch
18. Visa bolsters commitment to Austin at its
Everywhere Lounge
“There’s something
that’s in the well
water of Austin that
makes it a very
kinetic environment,
physically and
culturally.”
-Visa Chief Brand and
Innovation Marketing
Officer Chris Curtin in
Forbes
Source: Forbes
19. Tinder bot preying on Austin dating scene actually a
bot promoting movie “Ex Machina”
Source: VentureBeat
20. 3M gives SXSW’ers hands-on experience designing
bags, sterilizing phones, and posting notes
Source: 3M / Engadget / Jenny Stoltenow al on Twitter
21. What is GE smoking? With a 12-foot-tall smoker, it
optimized ‘cue and got brainwave scans of eaters
Source: Business Insider (left) / CraveOnline (right)
22. NASA’s SXSW universe included 11 sessions, a
meetup, an IMAX screening, and an exhibit
Source: NASA / Chris Gunn
23. Global showcase had Brazil doubling presence to 59
companies exhibiting, hosted Casa Brasil venue
Source: Variety / Gretel Perera on Twitter
24. Agencies (ahem) are among brands taking over SXSW
“SXSW… is about marketers marketing their marketing
efforts to other marketers… And of course, agencies have
their own branding to do. Take, for example, the agency
MRY’s house in downtown Austin, where rapper Nas
appeared Saturday night.”
-The Wall Street Journal: “Brands, Web Video Creators
Take over SXSW”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
25. Hootsuite combines two essential needs of SXSW:
beer and transportation
Source: Hootsuite on Twitter
26. Broken Windex theory: brand touts “break the
internet” meme but won’t allow use of word “gluteus”
Source: @dberkowitz
28. Meerkat is everywhere – including MRY Manor
(it didn’t launch at SXSW but did capture all the buzz)
Source: TechCrunch/ Anthony Quintano
29. Long-term success for Meerkat questionable, but it’s a
feat that a tiny, new startup dominated SXSW
“I don’t really care about being a
hit at South by Southwest. What
was important for us coming
here was to acknowledge the
fact that we came from nothing
just two weeks ago.”
-Meerkat founder Ben Rubin in
The New York Times
Source: New York Times / Ben Rubin
31. Mobile shifts to integration focus
“Mobile marketing professionals on a panel discussing
meaningful mobile experiences pleaded to remove
‘mobile’ from their titles, saying it’s about integrated
marketing, of which mobile is a critical piece. Mobile
can’t be thought of separately anymore, and
brands must bring mobile, digital, traditional
branding teams together to solve problems.”
- Wunderman’s Alyse Craun, “Know for Sure”
Source: Alyse Craun, Wunderman
32. Messaging app YikYak downplays cyberbullying usage;
founder notes “Kids are kind of stupid”
Source: TechCrunch
33. Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer showed off his new
company, Fountain, sourcing experts for a small fee
Source: Fountain
34. Transhumanist Martine Rothblatt envisions future of
human immortality thanks to “mind clones”
“Transhumanism is a movement with the
eventual goal extending human life past natural
death through the use of technology. In
Rothblatt’s case, her belief that we are close to
cyber consciousness is represented
by ’BINA48,’ the robot, cyber conscious version
of her real-life wife, Bina Rothblatt. BINA48, is
the first step in creating an artificial intelligent
’mind clone,’ expressing a real person’s
mannerisms, personality, recollections, feelings,
beliefs, attitudes and values. Rothblatt believes
that BINA48 will likely reach full cyber
consciousness in the future.”
– SXSW.com
Source: SXSW.com / LifeNaut on YouTube
35. Biggest protests at SXSW? Boycotting robots
“What did they have against
robots you might ask? Well,
they are (apparently, seriously)
concerned that robots could
one day surpass human
intelligence and they were
genuinely anxious about this.”
- TechCrunch
Source: TechCrunch
36. VR is bigger than Oculus: Google Cardboard +
Beyond Sports features soccer match simulations
Source: USA Today
37. Did we mention Meerkat yet? Just in case… Meerkat!
Source: Meerkat
38. Does it count as a wearable if you’re terrified to wear it?
Source: USA Today
39. ‘Launching Next Week’ is the new ‘Launching at SXSW’
“Better to wait, according to Chris Heuer,
CEO of Alynd, who believes ‘launching after
SXSW is the new launching at SXSW.’ Why
compete with the social crowds when you
can use the week of SXSW to build buzz
and then follow up after with a full fledged
launch designed to work for your audience?
He believes in the benefits of this cadence
so strongly that he’s created a platform to
support it: launchingnextweek.com. A
simple mailing list that will keep all early
adopters in the loop about what’s, well,
launching next week.”
- Sprinklr
Source: Sprinklr
40. SXSW institutes “drone-free zone”
Fly a drone, risk arrest:
“SXSW has a strict no
drones policy due to the
safety risks drones
present to the public, and
pursuant to City of Austin
Ordinance, Chapter 13-
1. ”
- SXSW
Source: SXSW
41. Startup pitch contests trot out wearables
“There were around 80 Shark Tank-styled startup contests this year, and
they produced a long parade of wearables pitches.”
-Adweek
Source: Adweek
42. Wearables to merge with fashion
“The next hot wearable might be the one
no one knows you’re wearing. Experts
predict a wave of smart fabrics and e-
textiles that do what FitBits and Apple
Watches now...
“…I see technology and fashion
becoming one,’ says Billie Whitehouse,
co-founder of Wearable Experiments, a
company integrating fashion and
technology. ‘We're heading in the
direction where everything becomes
invisible.’”
- Entrepreneur
Source: Entrepreneur
43. “The Internet of Things Is Becoming an Actual Thing”
- Adweek
Source: Adweek
46. Kate Bryan, Marketing
People were really into staying
healthy. There were a lot of brands
on the ground that were sponsoring
workout classes or promoting health
and wellness in some way –
Reebok, Equinox, etc. I heard a lot
of people taking it easier on the
eating/drinking to make it to a class
the next day.
Source: Adrian Grenier on Twitter
47. Michelle Excell, Project Management (MRY West)
Wanelo founder Deena Varshavskaya
[pictured at right] revealed she never
finished college, but then went on to say
she wished she’d left much earlier. When
questioned about this, she explained that
she thought there were two types of
people, those who strove to make others
happy – teachers, bosses – and those
who strove to make themselves happy.
She exclusively hires the latter.”
Source: LinkedIn
48. Karen Flanagan, Client Service
I kept noticing Millennials’ and
technology's impact on literally
everything – the music we listen to,
how we listen to it or find out about it,
human interactions, live events of
every sort, and the reality that it's the
experience and sharing of said
experience that matters most. It’s
living for the share. As [MRY CEO]
Matt Britton says, DIFTI – “Did It For
The Instagram.” Absolutely perfect.
Source: Youthnation on Facebook
49. Carrie Cervati, Talent Acquisition
It was interesting to hear at a panel I
attended that freelancing is going to take
over the creative world. Creatives are
going to rely less on full-time jobs and more
on freelance, based on the fact that they
can make a lot more money , build their
portfolios with different brands and have the
opportunity to work on a multitude of clients
and not get bored on one specific brand for
an extended period of time.
Source: TechZulu on Twitter
50. Andrew Udin, Legal
This year, more so than others, saw a
melding of all three components of
SXSW (music, film, and interactive) during
the SXSWi portion. There were large
music acts and high(ish) profile films being
featured, all before the music and film
portions of the festival even started.
Source: MRY on Twitter, featuring Busta Rhymes
51. Nick Gauchat, Product
The ability to develop apps and other
technologies quickly has changed the
perception of prototyping and creative
technology labs. Developers and
marketers are interested in building
things and getting them into market
right away rather than creating a
proof of concept. There is less of a
gap between proving something can
be done and actually doing it and that
has now become the standard.
Source: Jive Software on Twitter, featuring Cosmopolitan Style Lab
52. Eli Pakier, Strategy
Given the expanse of the web, there is
literally an answer for everything, but
there is a problem: we don’t always
know the right question to ask.
Search is great when we have an
answer in mind. But what about when
you don’t know what you’re looking
for? How can we better anticipate
what we don’t even know to ask for?
Source: Sarah M. Vasquez on Twitter, featuring El Arroyo
53. Steven Cuartas Cano, Client Service
With new wearable technology and apps
coming out, we’re actually able to add more
details to the stories behind the photos we
capture. For instance, you go on a hike while
wearing a Suntoo Watch to capture how
many steps you took on the way to that
photo you took at the top of the mountain.
Using the Suunto Movie, they create a 3D
Mapped video of your hike using the photos
you took on the trail. Combined with the
Narrative Clip, you can capture moments
leading up the hike without even having to
think to take the photo.
55. SXSW coverage highlights
• Ad Age / Unmetric: Watch Top Brands and Agencies Live-Tweet #SXSW
• Adweek: 10 Intriguing Things That Helped SXSW Rock Again
• AP: Trending at SXSW: Mind Cloning, Off-the-Grid Messaging
• Business Insider: The Best Things Tech Companies Did to Get Attention at the World’s Wildest Tech Conference,
SXSW
• Digiday: What’s in and Whats’ out for SXSW
• Fortune: What You Missed at SXSW This Year
• Sprinklr: The 6 Hottest Trends and Insights from SXSWi 2015
• SXSW: Interactive Innovation Award winners
• TechCrunch: At SXSW, Meerkat Beats McDonald’s at Cutting through the Noise
• USA Today: Coolest Tech at SXSW (gallery)
• International Business Times: SXSW 2015: TV Networks Spend Big in Austin to Attract ‘Influencers’
56. So long, and thanks for all the meerkat
David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY
@dberkowitz / @MRY
David.Berkowitz@mry.com
www.mry.com
www.marketersstudio.com
Meerkat: Meerkatmry / Meerkatdberkowitz
https://twitter.com/beatsbydre/status/577938147855613952
“I’m out in #SXSW for one reason only, that's to light these clubs up.” -@funkflex #BeatsSXSW
https://twitter.com/CBS/status/577576821325062147
https://twitter.com/sxsw/status/577917415922774017
Want a free ride at #SXSW? Here are details on how you can catch the #MazdaExpress! @MazdaUSA http://sxsw.is/1EeYJpO
https://twitter.com/CapitalOne/status/576457720536154113See one of these @ #SXSW? Hop in & you could score a free ride thanks to @CapitalOne! #BankOnUX
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/18/money-cant-buy-everything/#neH4LG:baUl
Use some kind of pun:
McDonald’s Hamburgles SXSW
‘Where transmedia meets trans fat’
‘McSelloutization of SXSW Complete!’
‘4 McNuggets of Info about what brands should learn from McD’s’
Game of Thrones HBO pedicabs
http://www.businessinsider.com/crazy-things-companies-did-to-get-attention-at-sxsw-2015-3#bonus-hbo-promoted-game-of-thrones-by-letting-people-ride-around-in-this-show-themed-pedicab-15
http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/gallery/24853797/coolest-tech-at-sxsw/
A woman tries a Beyond Sports virtual reality simulation from Real Soccer Matches using Google cardboard and cellphone and Beyond Sports technology. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
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http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/gallery/24853797/coolest-tech-at-sxsw/
A woman tries a Beyond Sports virtual reality simulation from Real Soccer Matches using Google cardboard and cellphone and Beyond Sports technology. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
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