Door Number 3 @ South by Southwest: Wednesday, March 18
Posted on Wed Mar 18 2009
Bryan Keplesky and Prentice Howe of Door Number 3 in Austin, Texas, are filing reports for BrandFreak from South by Southwest. They are looking at emerging trends, technologies and strategies that brand marketers are using to reach today's trendsetters and tastemakers.
THE DAILIES
T-SHIRT: Ben Herson and Magee McIlvaine were on their way to the Convention Center when I stopped them. Both of their shirts bore different stylized prints of the shape of Africa in contrasting colors and clean designs. After furnishing me with some literature, they explained that the logo comes from African Underground: Democracy in Dakar, a documentary exploring hip-hop culture and politics in Africa. Ben and Magee will be participating in a panel discussion related to the film later this week.
BRANDING: This poster for the Pop Montreal Festival stood out from the rest of the glossy print at the Convention Center. By now the columns in the lobby are completely covered with stickers, posters and fliers, and there are puddles of literature everywhere. (I even saw a slogan spelled out in duct tape.) Many are wordy and graphics-heavy, but this one is cheerfully simple. It's asking bands to join in the whimsical fun, but I think music fans would be seduced just the same.
NAMEDROP: Holiday Matinee. Contributors cover a wide range of lifestyle topics, from advertising to the Web, with the aim of "promoting creativity." One of them was in town stickering up South Congress this week.
INTERVIEW: Ratchel is from Hollywood, Fla. She and her friend Joseph, who is from London, are in town donning wristbands to see bands at the music portion of SXSW. She had this to say about branding at SXSW:
What are you excited about seeing this year?
Explosions in the Sky, definitely. I heard New Age was good. Vivian Girls. Wavves.
What brand-sponsored parties are you looking forward to?
Paste, Subpop. The Fader/Levi's party.
If you attend a branded party, are you more likely to use their product?
Well, I do subscribe to Paste magazine. But I'm not really a Fader/Levi's kind of person. But I'd give it a try.
Have any promotional items or events stood out to you?
Well, it's the first day. So, we haven't really seen any yet. There'll be Mountain Dew on Sixth Street, I bet. (laughs)
Do you think street marketing works?
Yeah, it kinda gets your attention, I guess. Getting something for free.
ZONEPERFECT
One of the major sponsors of South by Southwest is ZonePerfect, which makes "nutrition bars." Scores of street-team people have been handing out snack-sized chocolate bars every day so far. There's also the live.create lounge right by the Convention Center, which features art, an open bar, electric guitars on display and tons of ZonePerfect brown and yellow branding. It also smells really chocolatey in here, almost like some kind of weird hipster gingerbread house. Authenticity is always an issue with things like this. Does a chocolate bar really care all that much about fostering a creative environment? But the place is packed, so ZonePerfect is definitely doing a good job getting the word out, and I've spoken to a few random people who've claimed their bite-sized snack was a clutch choice as an afternoon pick-me-up. They also have a partnership with VH1's Save the Music Foundation, so at least their love of music isn't just lip service.
'OBJECTIFIED'
One of the big-buzz films at SXSW is the newest documentary from Gary Hustwit called Objectified. Hustwit's original claim to fame was his debut 2007 documentary Helvetica, an hour-and-a-half ode to font nerds the world over. Objectified continues the style and pacing of that film: interviews with some of the leading product designers of the world interspersed with tons of product-design porn. Obviously the world of product design, compared to a single typeface design, presents a whole multitude of challenges. Objectified is pretty successful, as long as you don't think of it as the authoritative film on product design. It merely skims the surface, tackling a variety of themes: beauty, sustainability, design for children and the disabled, among others. And if there's a film about product design being made in the late '00s, there's absolutely no surprise that one of the featured companies is Apple. It would be too hard to ignore Apple's contribution to beautiful product design. Everything from the MacAir and powerbooks to the iPhone gets its moment on film. Intentionally or not, Objectified continues Apple's brand positioning as a company that produces high-end, beautifully designed products.
FLIP VIDEO
While accidentally checking my MySpace account (who uses that anymore?), I discovered that Flip Video is the "Official Camcorder of SXSW Music 2009." The Flip is justifiably well-liked for it's super-easy interface and compact design. They've teamed up with Spin and MySpace Music and have given Flip cameras to 20 bands to document their experiences at SXSW, which I am sure will promise to provide some level of hilarity. To kick off the whole promo, the Flip video channel features this "SXSW exercise video" starring someone (forgive my ignorance) named "Lights."
Tuesday was the last day of SXSW Interactive, and walking the main drag on 6th Street in downtown Austin you can start to see the preparation for the branding hurricane that will be SXSW Music. The banners are being hung, the giant inflatable energy beverages are towering over all like weird demigods, and truck after truck is bringing in the ice and the booze. In many ways, the branding at Interactive can take on an academic, indoor atmosphere. But not the music fest. This is when branding meets the pavement. We'll have our cameras on standby.
CONTXTS.COM
SXSW is all about networking. But after sharing a few interactive tidbits with your new friend/contact, do you really want to finish by pulling out your ... business card? Seems a little 20th century.
That, at least, is the inspiration behind contxts.com, a site I've heard popping up in a few conversations. It's a pretty simple idea: sign up, create a profile with all your contact info (everything from phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and any profiles to LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) and you can send it via SMS to anyone. The one hitch, as with any new online community, is that you get more out of it when more people in your real-world network also have contxt profiles. Then it can serve as a true online Rolodex. But if you're looking for an easy, paper-free way to get your details to someone else, it's worth at least trying out for a couple days. Maybe it'll stick.
SHWAG BY SHWAGWEST
The free-shwag business just isn't what it used to be. The downsized economy hasn't been much help either, and the tote bag was noticeably lighter upon pick up. However, that shouldn't stop brands from coming up with creative, sustainable and valued solutions for the ubiquitous shwag. Oh well. The bag itself is fine—like I said earlier, wordles are hot. (There's also a giant Adobe.com logo on the flip side.) But as for the items within, there's not much to write home about. The yellow Adobe cell phone sock was kind of cool, and the camera pouch from Thirsty Al looked OK, even though I would guess most people already brought a pouch for their camera. There's a monitor cleaning cloth from NewEgg that I'll definitely hold onto. The rest was just random printed ephemera, a few stickers and a button from Firefox. All in all, not a whole lot to lift any spirits. Also, to appreciate the sheer volume of SXSW attendees and the amount of possible waste, check out this Flickr photo by drbrain.
