As states increasingly move to legalize marijuana, new opportunities are opening up for brands and sellers to market cannabis to a wider audience. But as innovation in marijuana–from new products to distribution and growing practices–proliferates in states like Colorado, California and Washington where the drug is legal, that doesn’t mean tech and advertising platforms are…
Virtual reality: great for intense gaming experiences and apparently, immersive and socially important films. At least that’s what Oculus is trying to create with its VR for Good’s Creators Lab program. The company’s program pairs VR filmmakers with nonprofits to create compelling films dedicated to a cause. This year, three of the 10 films were…
Walking through South by Southwest is like going to a giant, over the top, sometimes futuristic carnival. This year we’ve stumbled upon baby goats, robotic dogs and a giant head of lettuce. Adweek captured some of the coolest and most impressive activations at the festival including Vimeo’s “The Decade” cinema, which showcases 10 years of…
From sessions to experiences to films to music, there’s plenty to check out at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas–and the week can go from stimulating to overstimulating before you know it. That’s why this year, the festival reached out to mediation and self care app Headspace to set up a “Room to Breathe” where…
If you’ve got a festival full of creative professionals in industries like entertainment and tech all in one place, you might as well try to get them to give your products a try. At least, that’s the thinking behind HP’s Digital Artistry House, which was at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Tuesday for just…
As droves of people arrive in Austin, Texas, for the music portion of South by Southwest, Lyft is gearing up for its biggest time of the year, when thousands of out-of-towners pile into cars. According to the ride-hailing app, Austin’s demand for rides triples during South by Southwest (which began on March 9 and runs…
The past 18 months have been tough for YouTube. Between discovering Russia-linked propaganda ads and dealing with brand safety issues that are a result of the platform’s sophisticated programmatic advertising, YouTube is trying to clean up its act and assure both consumers and brands that it’s a clean space. In its newest effort to crack…
Music has been an integral part of the South by Southwest experience dating back to 1987 when the festival debuted. Legendary names from Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and The B-52’s have taken the stage at the Austin, Texas, festival over the years, and this year will be no different (SXSW Music officially kicked off Monday)….
Women-only social club The Wing launched just a year and a half ago, but it already has thousands of members, four locations (with others in the works) and the clout to raise over $42 million in funding. So it’s not surprising South by Southwest would want Audrey Gelman, co-founder of The Wing, to speak at…
With the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) looming, a top digital executive at Switzerland-based Nestl? said it’s crucial to focus on how first-party data is collected is crucial. During a South by Southwest panel about concierge marketing–the idea of servicing and personalizing marketing–Pete Blackshaw, global head of digital and social media at packaged…
Hulu’s marketing team is pulling out the stops, and putting on those burdensome red smocks redolent of its hit show The Handmaid’s Tale. Following its activation at the 2017 SXSW Interactive Festival, during which smock-wearing women paraded around Austin, Texas this year’s theme is all about resistance. The marketing activation includes seven art installations across…
Brooklyn-based Gimlet Media–the media company behind some of the most popular podcasts, like Reply All, Homecoming and Startup–wants to learn how to make content work on Amazon’s Alexa. A week ago, Gimlet Media launched its first Amazon skill called Chompers, which is sponsored by P&G-owned Oral-B and Crest Kids and educates kids on how to…
If you’ve been in downtown Austin, Texas, this weekend, and especially if you’ve been near South by Southwest, you might have head a loud, hearty laugh coming from a pedicab. That laugh belongs to Roseanne Barr and became iconic when it was used in the credits of her ABC show, Roseanne, which the network revived…
When Melinda Gates was hired at Microsoft, she was the only woman in her hiring class. During orientation, a new colleague picked a fight with a vp at the company–Gates later learned that colleague had been advised to be more aggressive–and that moment, which Gates shared during her keynote at South by Southwest in Austin…
This year’s South by Southwest has been a world filled with over-the-top brand activations, surprise visits from Elon Musk and plenty of new products. Quartz took advantage of the atmosphere of the festival and released Quartz for Messenger on March 8. With its new chatbot, Quartz hopes to deliver the news and other content to…
Less than a year ago, agency vet Matt Britton rejoined influencer marketing platform Crowdtap as CEO to help brands make sense of creators and user-generated content. Now he wants to get out of influencer marketing and into data. Britton founded Crowdtap in 2009 when it was incubated inside his Publicis-owned agency MRY. After leaving MRY,…
Gatorade made its SXSW activation slightly deceptive. When attendees walk into the space they enter into the G-Store–a somewhat small pop-up shop filled to the brim with any and every possible Gatorade product you could imagine, from protein powder to classic Gatorade drinks. Attendees are given iPads as soon as they enter the store and…
Is SXSW Interactive still a tech conference? Has “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” sparked a new appreciation for outdoor advertising? Can you actually make your NYC apartment bigger through interpretive dance? We tackle all these questions and more in the newest episode of Adweek’s podcast, “Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad.” You can stream the new…
Dropbox aims to inspire the world to unleash its creative energy–and it’s staying on brand at SXSW this year with three co-created murals (no, not quite Three Billboards-style) from up-and-coming artists. With the activation, Dropbox wants to “tell our story about helping people to collaborate, find flow and work together in a meaningful way,” said…
Ahead of its season two debut, the Bravo series Imposters is getting the SXSW treatment. Fans of the show, which follows the story of Maddie, a persona-shifting con artist and the trio of her recent, heart-broken victims. In Austin, Bravo partnered with Priv to give fans make-up touch-ups and manicures. Guests can also take photos…
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