Author Archives: Darren Delichte
Amongst the technology, digital natives, sponsors, parties, ideas, startups and even the SxSWi brand itself, there is something bigger and over-arching that embodies and represents the SxSWi event.
It is part culture, part people, part industry, part cyber, part promotion and part buzz… And while I give SxSWi full credit, it does seems bigger than them. I guess like all great brands, SxSWi builds on what is around them and while it may not be clear from time to time who is leading who, it still is the brand’s job to act as the guide and own it.
I think of SxSWi as a brand that is helping to guide us into the digital future, but more importantly I think of them as a brand that makes digital feel real. As you physically, mentally, and digitally take in the event, you can’t help but feel the ‘realness’ of digital all around you and appreciate that the borders are becoming more and more unclear.
A related note regarding these photos: The environment in and around SxSWi is plastered with promotion. In itself it is visually appealing and overwhelming at the same time, but if you sit and look at it closely for a moment, you can see that it is living and digital: QR codes, hashtags, urls, codes, etc.
SxSW = Free sh*t everywhere!!! That is what they do here at SxSW, give out free sh*t (and talk about interactive stuff). If you’re uber-lucky, it’s a new Mac Air or Limited PS3, but if you’re just simply happy-go-lucky it’s free beer, corn on the cob and a slider.
I realized this almost instantly and made a personal, executive decision to abandon my inconvenient and uncomfortable 10 lb bag of free t-shirts, stickers, books and buttons for the much more ergonomic 10 lbs of Tex Mex and beer in my belly. Once I made that decision, everything became so much clearer to me as I moved through town. No longer was I distracted by people trying to hand me paper and product. Weighing the option of a free poster was no longer a decision that I had to make, because behind every person holding a poster, there were the sights and smells of BBQ (and the guy with a giant billboard strapped to him reading ‘Free Food’).
FedEx trucks handed out Fed Ex branded Pizza boxes, MapQuest filled 6 buses on a Roadtrip to Saltlik, Firefox had a free ice cream truck, PlayStation opened a bar with gaming stations and free beer, Hot Mmmpanadas courtesy of GroupOn, Free Breakfast and Bloody Mary’s at EBay Hangover Party, The CNN Grill, Squarespace, FourSquare, Pepsi…. the list went on and on.
If for some reason your nose, eyes or maybe even your two legs failed you in finding one of these stops you could always use your two thumbs… #freefood, #freedrink, #sxsw, foodspotting.com, sxswfreenoms.tumblr.com, etc… there was no shortage of information on the true food network.
The newest Apple Store that just opened in Austin on March 11 will be closing in 2 weeks… as planned.
It’s no surprise that the company that ‘thinks different’ thought differently about how to position themselves (and the new iPad 2) to the 13,000+ temporary SxSW residents of Austin. Once again, they did what now seems obvious… they found a great retail location, installed hardwood floors, painted the walls white and put oversized product hero shots in the windows… and they created this ‘pop-up’ store in 3 days.
What resulted was what we’ve now come to expect from the launch of any new Apple Product (read as slight upgrade): long line-ups, sold out product and lots and lots of conversation. The interesting part however was being there to witness the process of how that conversation radiated. From pre-opening tweets about a possible store (due to unusual amounts of Apple hooded employee sightings) to the posts and critiques about how Etsy had an even better temporary store, the conversation about the Apple Pop-Up moved like a wave into the presentations of keynotes and material of stand-up comedy and podcasts.
If you haven’t seen Star Wars Uncut, check it out. http://www.starwarsuncut.com/
It is an awesome experiment in crowd sourcing and user-generated content.
Drawing on brand passion/obsession, Casey Pough and his team recreated the entire Star Wars movie using user-created content. The movie was broken down into over 400x 15 second clips allowing online users to select, recreate and submit content. Selection was based on the number of ‘Likes’ and the winning clips were dynamically edited together to create the ‘almost final’ version… ie. It’s so dynamic that the ‘final’ version is always changing as new clips are continuously being submitted and depending on user interest, can and do replace current clips…
The result was not only a very entertaining version of Star Wars, but an Emmy Award for Innovation in Broadcasting.
BTW. Also check out ogilvynotes.com to see SxSW sketches.
Flipboard originated as the result of a thought exercise: What if the web browser disappeared? What emerged was a nicely designed, interactive, real time and content rich digital magazine/aggregator.
But… will Flipboard be able stay focused on this or are they destined to become more and more distracted by how to monetize it? They have approx $10 million in VC money (one year worth) and they need to figure out how they are going to monetize it before they run out.
As much as I seemed concerned about this potential monetization problem leading to a major disruption of the experience that they set out to offer, they didn’t (or at least they didn’t talk about it much)…
A lot of wind is blowing in Austin these days, both literal and figurative. The SXSWi event is chock-full of ideas, opinions, and characters of all different origins and trajectories. The diversity of seminars is awesome. It provides all of the attendees with fertilizer (the nature, non toxic kind, of course) for all of the ideas kicking around in our heads. The beauty of this event is the sharing of ideas…as cliche as it sounds. Conversations abound in the halls, tweets flood, and iPhones are documenting everything.
Sitting with the team after a day of seminars, it’s great to see the excitement brewing. Over the next few days you will see different opinions and observations from the 15+ CMers that we’ve brought down to Austin. Of course, everybody has their own take so stay tuned to see what’s rumbling in our brains.
*At left: Inspired by… CM’s home base in Austin, TX
