Four different perspectives from the 2012 SXSW festival

For a week each year, Austin, Texas becomes the center of the tech universe as it plays host to an industry festival that has become unrivaled in terms of size and scope – South by Southwest.

This year’s SXSW was about ‘why.’ Why would a user engage with my product? Why would this experience I’m building inspire someone to make a purchase? Why would a user come back and continue to engage with my brand?

SBC Advertising sent four team members from our interactive team to this year’s festival: Steve Agganis, VP, Interactive Services; Kaylyn Bredon, Senior Interactive Designer, UX Specialist; Joe Sano, Director, Interactive Services; and David Smith, Senior Interactive Strategist.


Over the next two weeks we will share our perspective on what mattered to marketers at this year’s SXSW. Comment below with questions you'd like to see us answer.

Here’s a sneak preview:

Steve Agganis, VP Interactive
“As a first-timer at SXSW, it lived up to its reputation of being fertile ground for new technologies, energetic start-ups and emerging trends.

What struck me more than any of that, though, was the trend to start introducing more ‘traditional’ marketing philosophies to the overwhelming new possibilities that are available in the digital space.

The concepts of ‘content strategy’, ‘brand ownership’, and ‘contextual relevance’ seemed to be prevailing themes, making me think of how this space is really growing up and how much pressure there is to make it all make sense in the overall marketing planning for companies.

Full-service marketing firms need to continue to evolve and interactive/digital groups need to adapt.”

Hot Topics
Branding, content strategy, contextual relevance, evolution of the agency, mobile

Watch for Steve’s blog post: “The importance of adaptation: Evolving agencies”

Kaylyn Bredon, Sr. Interactive Designer, UX Specialist
“As a ‘newbie’ to SXSW, I had an expectation of what it would be – a ‘meeting of the minds,’ so-to-speak. A place where all the techie-folk that have a true passion for moving the industry forward come together, spreading their knowledge with no reservations.

The reality was a bit different. Some presenters didn’t come for the right reasons, focusing more on pushing their products and brands than sharing knowledge, which disappointed me.

But, there were others who definitely DID come for the right reasons. They shared their secrets, their thoughts on where the industry is headed and I became inspired by their insights and what it could mean for our clients. I can’t wait to share my new-found knowledge with the team.”

Hot Topics
User-testing, mobile usability testing, WebGL, HTML5 & CSS3, Web apps vs. Native apps, simplistic design

Watch for Kaylyn’s blog post: “Creating a Valuable User Experience”

Joe Sano, Director Interactive Services
“SXSW delivered once again this year. Last year SXSW seemed to be about explaining up and coming HTML5/CSS3 capabilities, stressing the importance of mobile and NFC and, frankly, a flood of QR codes everywhere.

Now that all these technologies are here, this year was about applying them strategically and effectively.

According to Ann Mack, Director of Trendspotting for JWT, we can attribute this to FOMO – the ‘Fear of Missing Out’. FOMO is a phenomenon the majority of us suffer from, and Mack showed us some great examples of how brands can use it to their advantage.

There also seems to be an app every year that launches at SXSW, and this year it was Highlight. The app identifies like-minded individuals near your actual location, but it has quite a few flaws that need to be worked out before it goes anywhere.”

Hot Topics
APIs, UX design for the future, designing for the end user – not your customer, social discovery

Watch for Joe’s blog post: “Geo-targeting consumers”

David Smith, Senior Interactive Strategist
“I noticed a significant difference in focus this year vs. last year. Last year was very much focused on ‘what’ – the technologies that were coming, the convergence of media, the imminent explosion of mobile.

This year was much more about ‘why’. Why would a user engage with my product? Why would this experience I’m building inspire someone to make a purchase? Why would a user come back and continue to engage with my brand?

The emphasis on topics like drawing insight from analytics, content strategy, curating serendipity and creating a holistic user experience show that the interactive community is maturing in a way that shows an underlying sophistication we’ve not necessarily seen before.

Clearly, the industry has been trying to understand how to delight, engage and learn from its consumers. We’re trying to make things better.”

Hot Topics
Data, content strategy, social discovery, branding, convergence, near-field communication, mobile, consumer experience, loyalty

Watch for David’s blog post: “Re-thinking the in-store experience.”