Handout version of our 2012 SXSW Interactive event recap.

1. Emerging Platforms & Brand Strategies
with Mark Silva, Brian Brown & Kyle Studstill of ANTHEM Digital
FRIDAY 03.30.12
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2. OUR FOCUS AT SXSW
★What were the themes of interest developing in the SXSW
community?
★What was our impressions of the overall culture?
★What were the emerging apps & platforms?
★What were brands & agencies doing?
Proprietary and Confidential ©2011 ANTHEM! World Wide, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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3. SO WHAT KEY
THEMES HAVE
SURFACED?
©2012 Schawk, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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4. THEME: AROUND
THE “EVENT” IS MORE
THE CONFERENCE THAN INSIDE
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5. COMPELLING KEYNOTES
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6. EXHIBITS
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7. LINES EVERYWHERE
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8. THEME:
HOSPITALITY
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9. PARTIES - DONE RIGHT
AND WRONG
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Seemed like every agency and brand at SXSW threw a
party, and so many of them seemed exactly the same.
RSVP lists you could ignore, rented a bars, free weak
drinks, and bad house music.

10. ALL HAT (NO BULL)
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But a few stood out. In it’s fourth year an intimate
gathering that started as a casual meetup to get away
from the growing SXSW crowds, “All Hat, No Bull” has
become a super-connector shindig. David Armano,
Frank Binhammer, Mark Drosos, Geoff Livingston and
Jeremiah Owyang are chief instigators for this low key,
high social currency event. Along with top executives
from A-B, Citibank, Dell, GM, The Home Depot and
other leading companies are a mixture of thought
leaders, dreamers, social media evangelists, agency
folk and entrepreneurs of all walks and regions. True
to its roots, this event stays low-to-no-bull even with
a high-profile Chevy sponsorship.

11. BARBARIAN GROUP +
TUMBLR
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Key learning, if you are a brand or an agency trying to
get noticed at SXSW, and you are going to throw a
party, do something different. Ex: Barbarian Group
and Tumblr Robotrip party. No RSVP, lines around the
block 2 hours before doors opened, 2 venues, 2000
people + 16 bands came out to equal one pretty large
evening.

12. THEME:
START-UPS EVERYWHERE FROM
EVERYWHERE
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13. STARTUP AMERICA
SETS UP SHOP
http://www.s.co/content/top-five-reasons-startup-america-live-sxsw-2012-rocked
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We have a bias from the Valley that StartUps outside of
SF Bay Area are rare and challenged because they
don’t benefit from similar culture & ecosystem that
exists here. StartUp America is working hard to
support broader startup activity everywhere. At SXSW
they hosted a lounge where many entrepreneurs,
Angels, VCs & media set up shop. They had pitch-offs,
brainstorms, office hours and more. Really inspiring to
see the innovation and energy at work.

14. THEME:
UTILITY FOR SELF PROMOTION
BRANDS & AGENCIES
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15. SHUTTLES
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One way that agencies and brands shined at SXSW was
by providing a service, rising above the expected.

16. RIDES
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With “Catch a Chevy” attendees where able to grab a
free ride around Austin during the conference, charge
their phones on the way and enter for a chance to win
one of the vehicles. They also got a lot of people
checking out the cars, as though it was a mobile
showroom

17. FOOD DELIVERY
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Uber, the on-demand transportation service,
expanded their service from taxi to pedicabs--a
popular way to get around Austin--at last year’s
SXSW. This year, they expanded to deliver BBQ from
Ironworks. Great idea because days can run past you
in the content & event-packed days and before you
know it, late afternoon has crept up on you without
having anything to eat. We found this and ordered BBQ
for the team, which was delivered in the rain in <2
minutes. Great value and worth talking about and
sharing on social media.

18. CHARGING STATIONS
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Special FedEx jackets were equipped with portable
battery packs woven through the arms and back.
These "power couriers" had a constant crowd around
them, both of onlookers and those living by the SXSW
motto “Always Be Charging.”

19. RAINY DAYS, PONCHOS
& UMBRELLAS
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It rained, a lot during the first two days. Brands like
Fandango and GroupMe were able to respond rapidly
by providing branded rain gear. Kraft Mac and Cheese
had umbrellas made that read “don’t get your noodle
wet.”

20. BRANDED FOOD TRUCKS
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21. MORE BRANDED TRUCKS
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22. FOOD + TECH
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An inaugural gathering of food+technology folks
working together to unite multitudes of diverse and
disconnected data for better understanding and
quantification of our selves and our food supply. Props
to @foodtree for bringing this to our attention

23. THEME: WONDER
SERENDIPITY, JOY, AND
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24. SOCIAL DISCOVERY
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Maps show us Points or Places of Interest. Highlight
sought to bring us People of Interest. The knock on
this app--beyond discussion of “creepy factor” with
proximity awareness--was that it drained even the
most miserly of Smartphone batteries in minutes.

25. AUDIENCE SHOWCASE
Audience Showcase
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Skype's "Be Human" event made the audience an active
part of the live-band performances, setting up
photobooth-like backdrops for attendees to dance in
front of. Live video feeds brought the audience
dancers onto the stage in large screens above the
performers.

26. FROM “POST-DIGITAL”
TO “RE-PHYSICAL”
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"Materiality" was a recurring term, pointing to a
refocusing on physical objects - and how they’re a
part of the digital world. The left frame is Sphero--
http://gosphero.com--the imaginative RC robotic orb
you drive w/any of 5 different iphone/ipad apps.
Upper right is an instagram photo printer and below
that the Makerbots.

27. CRITERION 4SQUARE
SCAVENGER HUNT
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Foursquare scavenger hunts aren’t a new thing, but
Criterion really did on right at SX this year by hiding
their DVD’s and Bluerays at Austin points of interest
that could be overlooked, or off the beaten path.

28. THEME:
BEHAVIOR HACKING
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A large number of panels and conversations were
concerned with how to design systems that inspired
better, healthier behavior.

30. REAL-LIFE PLUS DIGITAL
real-life plus digital
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Nike's outdoor setup featured basketball courts,
skateboard ramps, and other accommodations for
physical activity, letting people see Nike's activity-
tracking FuelBand in action.

31. VISUALIZING AUDIENCE
ENTHUSIASM
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A second Nike space hosted live bands; during one set
specially modified FuelBands were worn by attendees,
able to sync the activity levels in real-time. These
levels were then visualized on the face of a nearby
building, which went from red to green as the
performance attendees got more energetic.

32. THEME: THROUGH
BRANDS COMING ALIVE
CONTENT AND STORY
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33. OGILVY NOTES
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Ogilvy continued a second year with the illustrators at
ImageThink to bring talks to life through visually
sketched notes. These were drawn live as the
presenter or panelists were on stage, and displayed on
exit as the audience left the auditorium.

34. #I JUST PLANTED A TREE
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#IJustPlantedATree was a social campaign by Nokia to
restore Austin’s trees after devastating wild fires
swept through the city in September 2011. One of the
most tweeted hashtags as all of SXSWi; top trending
Twitter hashtag in Austin, SF & Nationwide. Proves
newcomers can still breakthrough.

35. DIGITAL-TO-PHYSICAL
STORYTELLING
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Skype got a small bit of attention through their "town
crier," reading tweets sent to Skype's hashtag out loud
to the public. Experiments like this can go over well in
some cases, and can be found lacking in others - in
spite of the intentions this one left passersby feeling
like it was more of a stunt.

36. DIY STUDIOS
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GE's told the story of their charge to bring imagination
to life with the DIY Garages. After signing a safety
waiver attendees could participate in workshops
featuring MakerBots, laser cutters, and even welding
equipment to put together various self-made objects.

37. BBH HOMELESS
HOTSPOTS
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BBH gave portable wifi transmitters to people without
homes in Austin, so that attendees could connect at
the price of a donation. This later became a point of
controversy, raising a discussion around the
dehumanization of the homeless population.

38. INSTANT DISCOUNTS
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American Express revealed a new integration with
twitter during SXSW, allowing cardholders to sync their
twitter with their AmEx accounts. Once synced,
tweeting particular hashtags results in a discount on
the next purchase at the related merchant.

39. HANDS-ON DEMOS
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The Nokia Labs location was the most visually
intriguing, brought up in conversation not only among
attendees but remarked upon by taxi drivers and
others from Austin at large. Inside were very hands-on
demonstrations of the technology in Nokia's phones, a
stage for performances and areas for table-top games
like four-way pingpong and “Sauna Confessionals.”

40. THEME:
MATURATION
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41. FROM T-SHIRTS TO
SUITS
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A lot more sales guys showing up displacing some of
the doers. Bruce Sterling in his Keynote remarked that
interactive attendees are now the better dressed,
instead of the musicians - trying to live up to their
well designed products and services.
The new types of attendees joining SXSW were
reflected in the trade show floors, where a more
international presence was starting to emerge.

42. COLLABORATIVE WORK
MODELS & SPACES
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The future of work was a question that appeared in a
good number of panel topics. We saw the refinement
of collaborative business models and spaces,
exemplified by Grinds' pop-up office building.

43. HOLISTIC APPROACHES
TO MOBILE PAYMENTS
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The mobile wallet concept has been bubbling around
in conversations and attempted in startups for a
couple of years now, but companies like Isis are
emerging with holistic models that account for not
only NFC payment technology but account
management, merchant relations, and phone/network
compatibility.

44. DEVELOPING IDEAS IN
TRANSMEDIA
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Transmedia and social content were frequent themes
in panel topics. The speakers and presentations in
general pointed to how the thinking around content in
a digital, connected world is evolving, with content
models becoming more refined.

45. THANKS!
FOR MORE, FOLLOW US ON TWITTER:
@ANTHEMWW
@DRATSUM
@KYLECAMERON
@MARKSILVA
©2012 Schawk, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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