Hasta La Creative!

During South By Southwest 2014, I tweeted, “Here’s the list of all the amazing tech that launched at #sxsw this year,” and then posted an image of a 404 ‘page not found’ error. It was a joke, but it felt all too real in Austin.

Years ago, when major corporations with massive marketing budgets started to come to Austin and sponsor SXSW Interactive, they were seen as an invading species. On the surface, it was a typical story of colonization: a peaceful and not particularly clean shaven species lives in harmony; a better dressed species with expense accounts causes hotel room prices to skyrocket; the happy, furry people either die out from logo asphyxiation or put on suits and join the invaders.

While some feared that narrative, what really happened for awhile was one of symbiosis. Marketers wanted to work with the technologists and tinkerers who had made SXSW their favorite escape. They wanted to reach the early adopters. They wanted to increase their share of voice, but also encourage more conversation. The technology enthusiasts, meanwhile, saw opportunities for private corporations to fund their and validate their business models. As a bonus, the marketers often sponsored pedicabs, food trucks, and open bar parties. For the tech products like Twitter and Foursquare that spread so quickly at SXSW that they attracted mainstream media attention, marketers were lining up to run campaigns. The quest for startups to launch the most buzzed about product excited developers, marketers, and journalists alike.

Continue reading at AdAge.com