I just completed attending my 12th consecutive year at SXSW so I have the ability to assess the most recent SXSW in the context of its predecessors, a comprehensive way to evaluate the festival. This year seemed busier and less sparse than last. In contrast, much like the previous years, there was no single standout…
Last March, South by Southwest created a new awards program, the SXSW Creative Experience Arrow Awards, to honor the growing experiential focus at the festival. This year, in a bid to recognize that continued growth of experiential, SXSW added a new award, Best Exhibition Experience, to the Arrow Awards. “As agencies, brands, and other groups…
If having Bren? Brown, the guru of “courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy,” as the kick-off to SXSW 2019 was a harbinger of things to come, perhaps we’re on the way toward vanquishing the divisive demons that have dominated the political discourse in the U.S. today. Finally bringing our culture’s obsession with both mental and physical…
Legendary musician and music producer T Bone Burnett came to SXSW 2019 to slay digital demons. I highly recommend that you make some time to watch his keynote and/or read the text of his speech. It may shake you awake. There is so much to digest in Burnett’s speech that no recap is going to […]
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Hollywood powerhouses Justin Lin and Anthony and Joe Russo are partnering with a team of advertising veterans to start a new agency. Lin, director of The Fast and the Furious franchise, and the Russos, who directed action films like The Avengers, Captain America and TV series Arrested Development, are creating Superconductor, which will be announced…
South by Southwest continues to prove itself to be both cradle and crucible for experiential marketing as brands from Showtime to Land O’Lakes hosted packed activations this year across downtown Austin, Texas. Adweek caught up with three CMOs–Land O’Lakes’ Tim Scott, Visible’s Minjae Ormes and Showtime’s Donald Buckley–to discuss what they were up to at…
If you’ve been to South by Southwest you know that it’s easy to start the day looking put together and end it with limp hair, hurt feet and in need of a space to decompress. That’s why Rent the Runway offered attendees the chance to change their outfit as well as get their hair and…
SXSW felt like a trip around the globe–and not just because of the amazing cuisine. Tourism houses had a massive presence at this year’s festival, and even seasoned Adweekers were stumped as to why. So we decided: Why not ask them ourselves? Adweek video producer/editor Josh Rios and I spoke with marketers from Scandinavia, Australia…
Some brands like to slap the “experiential” label on their events when they’re really just offering an open bar. (Getting drunk isn’t a brand experience, folks.) But considering that Dell’s activation was literally called The Experience, it needed to make it … well, an experience. And it pulled out all the stops in its immersive…
Facebook head of video products Paresh Rajwat detailed several updates related to Facebook Watch at the social network’s South by Southwest event, also touching on new features related to music on users’ profiles. Over 20 new episodes of original show Red Table Talk–hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith and her daughter (Willow Smith) and mother (Adrienne…
Civic, the blockchain-based identity platform, has been letting South by Southwest attendees buy beer from vending machines using cryptocurrency. To promote its new mobile app, Civic Pay, the San Francisco-based company has been serving up beer from three crypto-enabled vending machines in the Austin Convention Center. While manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung have started…
Lush is known for its colorful soaps and bath bombs, but the brand has consistently prioritized going green above all else–and its very first SXSW activation was no exception. The brand set up its bath bomb pop-up to showcase its 54 new bath bomb creations using absolutely no signage. Instead, attendees could download the Lush…
Bumble wants to make deeper connections with South by Southwest attendees this year. That’s why the social app–which is best known as a dating app where women make the first move–took over a smaller space in Austin (Joe’s Coffee on 2nd Street versus warehouse event space Fair Market) but extended the length of its activation…
Twitter has updated its camera feature in its mobile app to make it easier to post more visually-focused content. The updates, available today, give users faster access to posting photos, two-minute videos and live footage–something that feels like a combination of using both Twitter’s own Periscope technology and something familiar to Snapchat users. Twitter is…
Finding the right products for your skin can be impossible if you don’t know what’s wrong with it. Now, L’Or?al believes it can help you solve that problem using technology and creating more personalized products for your skin. At South by Southwest, the beauty brand created a pop-up experience called Know Your Skin, where consumers…
Brands dedicate entire teams to brainstorming new, unexpected activations for SXSW, often specifically designed to inspire shock and awe. Viceland, for example, decided to create an entire roller skating rink out of an Austin parking lot. Michelob Ultra gathered together thousands of attendees for a guided sunset meditation. But ever since November 2016, one thing…
In a world where most mainstream voice assistants are either female or male, should there be a third option? To create a voice that’s more relatable for people who don’t identify as a binary gender, Virtue, the creative agency owned by Vice Media, created a genderless voice they hope will better represent the diversity of…
There is something special about the first time a person does something, whether that’s riding a bike or creating an activation at SXSW for the first time. Culture Trip, a U.K.-based media company we reported on last month, brought a host of events to the famous Austin Hotel for this year’s festival. From movie premieres…
One year after Adweek sat down with Quiz Khalifa Scott Rogowsky to discuss HQ Trivia dictating when and how consumers use apps, Rogowsky is celebrating a new win–and an HQ landmark. On Sunday afternoon at Austin’s SXSW, he hosted the mobile trivia app’s first live gameshow. And while plenty of mobile fads end up being…
AUSTIN—It’s a gray Monday morning in Bat City. My commute to downtown is easy and free parking is available on the east side of I-35. I walk to Rainey Street, where Bose, the country of Australia, and other big brands are temporarily encamped between the permanent food trucks. I am here to visit the Comcast NBCUniversal House […]
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