Presented 3.26.15

Experiential Marketing at SXSWi 2015

Who Attended SXSWi

Source: SXSW Marketing Deck 2015 2  

AGE HH INCOME

INTEREST IN SXSW JOB FUNCTION

Under 21 21-34 35-44 45-54 54-64 65+

1% 49% 32% 13%

4% 1%

Under $25K $25-49K $50-74K $75-99K $100-$149K $150K+

6% 11% 15% 13% 22% 33%

Sales/Marketing Creative Development Business Development Management Communications Other

17% 22%

7% 22% 10% 22%

Industry Fan

92% 8%

32,798 Interactive

Conference Participants

2,377 Interactive

Conference Speakers

Photo: Jack Plunkett AP

41% Female

59% Male

Brands That Showed Up

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Pain Points For Attendees

People EVERYWHERE It’s not a joke when we say there are crowds of people around you at all times during SXSW. As we noted last year, the festival’s attendance rates have risen astronomically in recent years – and we’re just counting Interactive. In 2014, there were 32K+ attendees concentrated in downtown Austin for SXSWi. Festival attendance on this scale makes for extra long lines, a lower probability of getting into the sessions you want to go to and ultimately the need for someplace to unwind.

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Photo: Adweek

Limited Battery Life Between email, note-taking, tweeting, taking pictures and checking your schedule, SXSWi can drain your devices like nobody’s business. Sponsors do their best to provide attendees plenty of charging stations and other battery solutions, but it seems like there are always people crowded around an outlet. Battery life is always in demand and is something that will only increase in importance as more technology is created to keep us connected.

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Photo: The Guardian

Fear of Missing Out FOMO is inescapable. There’s always something exciting going on during SXSW to keep you busy, but that doesn’t stop the little tick in the back of your mind from reminding you of all the other cool stuff happening somewhere else. Attendees will often find themselves in a scheduling dilemma and wishing they could be in multiple places at once.

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Photo: Berkley Beacon

Fatigue SXSW is exhausting. When you’re juggling all the sessions, meet-ups and parties, all while being bombarded with marketing messages – it’s hard to walk away feeling 100 percent. From a brand perspective, the best thing you can do is focus on creating positive experiences for attendees. Sometimes, though, the best remedy for attendee fatigue is a brief digital detox or finding the perfect spot for a power nap.

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Photo: Variety

Pain Points For Brands

Reaching Your Audience SXSWi attracts the world’s top innovators, technologists, marketers, entrepreneurs and celebrities. The right people are here, the hard part is getting them in your doors.

It’s critical for brands to deeply understand who their target audience is so they can determine if their activations should be open to the general public, or just Interactive, Music and/or Film badge holders.

To target industry-specific consumers, the best activation formats might be work lounges, meeting rooms, open houses and networking events, while brands looking for maximum publicity should consider hosting a lounge in tandem with guerrilla or street activations.

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Photo: Campaign Live

Photo: UMich

Finding Prime Real Estate Location scouting is essential when it comes to SXSW. It can be tough to find the perfect spot for your brand’s activation. The process is highly competitive and can feel a bit like battle of the brands. Brands with official SXSW sponsorships usually have the option of activating inside the conference center, giving them optimal foot traffic and access to attendees. Outside the conference center, brands compete to find venues in close proximity to downtown. Trinity Street, Sixth Street and Rainey Street are all popular locations for activations.

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Photo: Venturebeat

Staying Relevant In The Chaos

It’s a jungle out there. Every year, brands launch new products, rebrand, or roll out new apps and product features. If a brand is going to activate at SXSW, it’s important to have something relevant to talk about. The tech space is already saturated with marketing messages and brands usually use SXSW as a platform for amplification, contributing to more noise and clutter. In order to stand out from the crowd, brands need to find a way to be different. Successful activations are simple, fun, clever, beneficial and easy to share.

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Photo: SXSW

Photo: GQ

Consumer Retention Post-SX

One of the biggest challenges for brands that activate at SXSW is holding the attention of consumers after they leave Austin. As noted in the previous slide, it’s hard enough for brands to even be noticed during SXSW. There are several things that brands can do to engage consumers long after they’ve left. Brands can turn consumers into brand advocates simply by keeping up the conversation on social media and using data capture during your activation as a direct line to your audience after the festival is over.

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Photo: USA Today

PBJS Work At SXSWi

PayPal The PayPal Social Media Lounge was a warm and inviting space tucked away inside the convention center for SXSWi attendees to relax and recharge.

Attendees could order complimentary coffee and other beverages through the PayPal app from the Coffee Shop, as well as purchase must-have SXSW items like chargers, T-shirts, umbrellas, notebooks, hangover kits and postcards from the PayPal Store through an offer in the app.

The main space also had work stations for attendees to charge their devices.

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PayPal To provide on-stage content, PayPal hosted a variety of guests in the lounge including the cast of Undateable, Robert Kirkman and David Alpert of The Walking Dead, Colin Hanks and Sir Mix-A-Lot.

The lounge hosted Happy Hour every day, providing attendees free food and drinks.

The Duel Contest with Daymond John drew a large crowd on Saturday, March 14, when two companies were flown to SXSW to pitch their products for a chance to win funding provided by PayPal and coaching from Shark Tank’s Daymond John.

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Salesforce

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Salesforce took over the Brass House in downtown Austin to host a lounge for two days during SXSWi, with PBJS responsible for production and some creative.

We hosted fireside chats with American Apparel, Lucchese, Phillips and Cedar Hill, as well as a speakeasy-themed party on Friday night for VIPs. Inside the lounge, guests who completed our interactive texting challenge could get a T-shirt from our custom T-Shirt Press and sales reps were always on-site for meetings during the event.

Activation Highlights

3M Using materials invented by 3M, the 3M Life Lab showed consumers how the brand’s several product innovations are improving everyday life.

Inside the tent, consumers could play with 3M products like the Post-It Plus app, Dry Erase surfaces, a tote bag personalization station and have their picture taken in the “Dazzle Booth,” a reflective photo booth.

In partnership with MTV, DJ TokiMonsta also performed in the space.

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Mophie Consumers tweeted screenshots of their phones’ low batteries to potentially receive a Mophie battery pack delivered by a St. Bernard.

In addition to the on-demand service, consumers could visit the dogs at the Mophie Rescue Lodge, as well as enjoy an open bar and purchase Mophie products.

The St. Bernards in the lodge were from a local shelter and were available for adoption.

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Buzzfeed The Buzzfeed #BFFClubhouse was a physical manifestation of social media and digital communication IRL.

The clubhouse featured everyone’s favorite form of expression – Emoji – in an Emoji Fortune Telling booth, where guests were revealed their fortunes based on their most recently sent Emojis. Guests could also wear Emoji masks in a GIF booth onsite.

The 7-Eleven Slurpee Truck, complete with a candy topping bar, was onsite and made perfect subjects for the ‘Foodstagram’ platform Buzzfeed had specially made for SXSW.

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A&E Bates Motel To promote the A&E show, a single-wide trailer was planted next to the convention center and transformed into a functional replica of the Bates Motel from the series.

Consumers could tour the different rooms and enter to win a night’s stay at the Bates Motel during SXSW.

The space featured props, décor and audio/visual footage from the show, as well as a Bates-themed GIF booth.

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Mashable The main mission of the Mashable House was to “Break the Internet.” It was filled with an Emoji temporary tattoo parlor, several photo opps and was home to the always-popular MashBash party. Several celebrities made appearances at the house over SXSW.

Guests had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas on the MasterCard Elevator Pitch booth, pose on one of Katy Perry’s Super Bowl “Roar” lions, take a photo in a Windex-sponsored selfie mirror, jump in the Silicon Valley 180 degree radial photobooth and have a few photos snapped at the Tomorrowland movie premiere photo opp.

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Nat Geo Life Below Zero To promote the show Life Below Zero, National Geographic transformed a parking lot into an Alaskan oasis featuring a bar with signature drinks, an immersive gaming experience and a sharable photo opp.

Game participants were given 20 minutes in the simulated “Alaskan wilderness” to solve puzzles and escape the cold. To win, participants needed to work together to find clues and problem solve.

It was the most popular activation at SXSW, boasting a 2+ hour wait time.

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Google Fiber The Google Fiber location in Austin hosted Virtual Reality Demonstrations, Happy Hours and speaker sessions on specific topics throughout the day.

As part of the VR demos, Google created a flight simulation over San Francisco using Birdly and provided guests with Google Cardboard to play with.

The activation area provided guests with Google Fiber Customer Service, a photo booth with instruments and a wall of streaming that showcased the speed of Google Fiber.

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Samsung The Samsung Studio returned for another year and was located across the street from the conference center.

The activation featured a juice bar, a GIF booth, a station where consumers could design their own hats, T-shirts and bags using Samsung products, a VR experience in partnership with the movie Insurgent and exclusive interview content and programming in the lounge.

Samsung products were prominently on display throughout the space.

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McDonald’s McDonald’s made its first appearance as a super sponsor at this year’s SXSW with a large footprint in and around the conference center.

At each activation site, the restaurant chain gave consumers free food and drinks, from “Wi-Fries” to Shamrock Shakes and coffee.

The McDonald’s tent and outdoor stage featured live music performances and consumers could take selfies with Ronald McDonald.

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Game of Thrones

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HBO’s Game of Thrones returned to SXSW with an interactive exhibit dubbed SXSWesteros, as well as several social media sharing opportunities and branded city buses, hotel key cards and pedicabs.

The exhibit featured an interactive sword fight that created a portrait of your face using a collage of swords, feathers and antlers based on how many rocks you hit.

Guests could tweet a custom hashtag to get a free prize in the GOT vending machine, as well as have their picture taken on the coveted Iron Throne.

Esurance The Esurance Access booth inside the convention center distributed badges to SXSW attendees that could be scanned daily for a chance to win iPads, Beats headphones and gaming consoles.

The brand encouraged attendees to post on social media using the hashtag #esuranceaccess for a chance to win tickets to a VIP concert and party. In addition to the booth, Esurance had a juice bar and recharging lounge on 5th & Trinity downtown.

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Thanks!

ABOUT PBJS: PBJS is an experiential agency within the Publicis Groupe network, with headquarters in Seattle and Chicago and satellite offices in New York, St. Louis and San Francisco. PBJS creates “Ideas That Stick” for clients like eBay, PayPal, Microsoft, Samsung and BMW. These ideas come to life as brand strategies, live events, digital experiences and video content — imagined and executed by our integrated creative and production talents.

CONTACT: Lindsay Rowe lindsay.rowe@pbjs.com 375 Hudson St. 14th Floor New York, New York 10014 646-500-7673 www.pbjs.com  

OFFICES: PBJS Seattle 424 2nd Avenue West Seattle, WA 98119 PBJS Chicago 222 Merchandise Mart Pl. Suite 2100 Chicago, IL 60654 PBJS New York 375 Hudson St. 14th Floor New York, NY 10014 PBJS St. Louis 1435 S. 18th St. Suite 142 St. Louis, MO 63104 PBJS San Francisco 100 California St. 9th Floor San Francisco, CA 9411