Embed Size (px)
SXSW Interactive 2015Recap
SXSW 2015:Brands, Meerkat, Tech,
Trends, and Meerkat
David Berkowitz
CMO, MRY
@dberkowitz / @MRY
www.mry.com
What we’ll cover today
• Overview
• Brands
• Meerkat
• Tech
• Meerkat
• Observations from MRY’s team
• Further reading / contact info
Source: National Geographic
Overview
Correlation implies causation
Meerkating Busta Rhymes with Gen Z is IN!
Source: Digiday (much longer list there)
Not everyone’s there for marketing ideas and
tech innovation
Source: Beats by Dre on Twitter
Mazda, CBS, Capital One go for the tried and true
value-add: offering free rides
Source: SXSW. CBS, Capital One on Twitter
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
Brands
Brands come out of hibernation for SXSW
Source: Business Insider
not meerkats
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
Simpsons Kiwk-E-Mart truck serves 2.6 Squishees
per minute (>3,000 total)
Source: Eater
When in doubt, offer free donuts
Source: Esurance on Twitter
Taco Bill launches a pop-up shop made of
shipping containers
Source: Fast Company
Provide value: AT&T doubles cell capacity with ‘giant
eyeball’
Source: Fast Company
Mophie rescues the powerless with Saint Bernards
bearing batteries
Source: Mashable / Chris Taylor
Pedicabs are coming
Source: Business Insider
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
Tinder bot preying on Austin dating scene actually a
bot promoting movie “Ex Machina”
Source: VentureBeat
3M gives SXSW’ers hands-on experience designing
bags, sterilizing phones, and posting notes
Source: 3M / Engadget / Jenny Stoltenow al on Twitter
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)
NASA’s SXSW universe included 11 sessions, a
meetup, an IMAX screening, and an exhibit
Source: NASA / Chris Gunn
Global showcase had Brazil doubling presence to 59
companies exhibiting, hosted Casa Brasil venue
Source: Variety / Gretel Perera on Twitter
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
Hootsuite combines two essential needs of SXSW:
beer and transportation
Source: Hootsuite on Twitter
Broken Windex theory: brand touts “break the
internet” meme but won’t allow use of word “gluteus”
Source: @dberkowitz
Tech
Meerkat is everywhere – including MRY Manor
(it didn’t launch at SXSW but did capture all the buzz)
Source: TechCrunch/ Anthony Quintano
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
Beacons, often invisible, power SXSW meetups
Source: Ad Age
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
Messaging app YikYak downplays cyberbullying usage;
founder notes “Kids are kind of stupid”
Source: TechCrunch
Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer showed off his new
company, Fountain, sourcing experts for a small fee
Source: Fountain
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
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
VR is bigger than Oculus: Google Cardboard +
Beyond Sports features soccer match simulations
Source: USA Today
Does it count as a wearable if you’re terrified to wear it?
Source: USA Today
‘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
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. ”
- SXSWSource: SXSW
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
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
“The Internet of Things Is Becoming an Actual Thing”
- Adweek
Source: Adweek
The happiness scorecard for SXSW Music vs Interactive
Observationscollected from the MRY team attending SXSW
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Wrapping up
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’
So long, and thanks for all the meerkat
David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY
@dberkowitz / @MRY
www.mry.com
www.marketersstudio.com
Meerkat: Meerkatmry / Meerkatdberkowitz
