SXSW: Day #1

In all my years of living in Austin, I've never experienced the wonders of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Until this year.

I certainly have seen the photos and read the news articles, and I've aspired to one day attend, so I was over the moon when our marketing manager broke the news that we would be attending the SXSW Interactive conference as a team!

The excitement mounted over several months, and when the schedule of events was released, we literally spent hours mulling over the speakers and topics, trying to best strategize which panels we'd attend. (more on planning and SX "do's and don'ts" later!)

We picked up our badges on Thursday afternoon and already you could feel the energy start to pour into our city. However, nothing compared to the sight of the crowds on Friday when we arrived at the Convention Center for our first session. Being around so many creative, brilliant, talented people was both thrilling and overwhelming.

I decided to break down the days into separate blog posts, just to offer little bite-size chunks of information. I took SO many notes - my fingers were flying on the keys of my iPad and I felt like a wet sponge, just trying to soak up as much content as I possibly could. That being said, here are some of the main points I took away from Day #1 sessions...

"Brands as Patterns"

Panelists from Method, Inc., Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard

• The power of a brand is in its truth.
• A brand is judged by what it does, not what it says.
• If you don't know your customers, you are talking to yourself.
• As marketers, we need to be thinking about the journey, not just great moments.
• Brands need to be consistent yet different. How do you do both? Think of patterns - they're consistent and different at the same time.
• Successful music is built through the right combination of what is expected and something new. We lose audiences when things are too rigid and repetitive, or too chaotic. The art is finding the balance.

"Fireside Chat with Vic Gundotra on Google+"

Guy Kawasaki is a social media genius (kind of celebrity status in my mind, which intrigued me to go see him in person). It was such a treat to see him interview the founder of Google+, Vic Gundotra.

• Many people say Google+ is a ghost town, or Google+ will never be a successful social network. But Vic says to make sure you're using it correctly. It has had a slow start, but the people at Google are very happy with the growth.
• Google+ is as good for a whisper as it is for a shout.
• The majority of content on Google+ is shared privately.
• Google's goal is to serve users more relevant content. The best time to show you an ad is at the time of "commercial intent" - the exact time that you're searching for that content (i.e., if you're looking for a restaurant in Napa Valley, the best time to show you an ad is when you go to Google and SEARCH for a restaurant in Napa).

"Future of Entertainment: Viewer Becomes User"

Panelists from MTV, Showtime, GroupMe, GetGlue & Bluefin Labs

• People aren't watching TV alone anymore.
• The "water cooler" theory - you used to talk about TV shows the next day at work. That has all changed. Now, you can discuss your favorite shows with your friends in real-time, as the show is happening. TV is becoming social.
• Now we're all having a "second screen" experience - in addition to watching television, we have our phone, tablet or laptop out to watch Twitter feeds or interact with friends online.
• Apps such as GroupMe and GetGlue work with TV networks to say "hey, people are already using this app to discuss shows with their friends. Why don't we have you enter their circles and give them exclusive content?"

When Day #1 sessions were over, the team trekked through the pouring rain to enjoy the "View 512" happy hour hosted by local ad agency, Tocquigny. Their office is on the 17th floor of the Frost Bank Tower, so in addition to food, drinks and a fun photobooth, we had great views of downtown.