#DamnSXSW, back
at it again with the
Obamas!
Your guide to SXSW Interactive 2016
from the festival that launched the hit 2015 app Meerkat!
by David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY
@mry / @dberkowitz
David.Berkowitz@mry.com

A note to you, dear reader
Presented here are observations from SXSW 2016. This is a work in
progress, so bookmark this deck to continue to get updates in the
coming days.
Thanks to the whole MRY team for contributions: Karen Flanagan, Nick
Gauchat, Sofia Hernandez, Bob Kasunic, Will Mansfield, Jason Morton,
and Steve Tesoriero.
Also note that links and sources are included on every slide, except
where photos are from our own stash.

Overview
A taste of SXSW 2016, with a side of sauce

SXSW attendees are so tech-obsessed that even Storm Troopers
can’t get someone to put down their phones

Words from a sitting president at SXSW
“In an age where people are getting information from digital platforms through the
Internet, where people’s attention spans have shrunk, it’s critical for people who are
shaping the environment [to think] about how to get citizens engaged. Doesn’t mean
that you have to do it full time or run for office yourself. Whatever your field is, there’s a
way for you to engage and participate to take this democracy back and change it in
new ways.”
- President Barack Obama
Source: VentureBeat

Top things discussed at SXSW (a non-scientific take)
19%
12%
5%
5%
13%
16%
18%
12%
Complaints about traffic due to the Obamas
Complaints about security due to the Obamas
Complaints about the lack of hotel rooms due to the
Obamas
Complaints about people tweeting so many pics of the
Obamas that their phones died
Complaints about how SXSW is totally over once a
sitting president comes to the conference
Complaints about Obama’s stance on privacy
Emerging tech stuff, the future of media, and everything
else
Whether this SXSW was quieter than last SXSW

Because this is Austin, here’s gratuitous food porn (hey, it’s what
people really do all of SXSW)

SXSW addressed how women in tech face harassment,
exclusion all too often
• 60% of women responded that they had experienced unwanted sexual advances
• An informal pool at SXSW found that 60% of female attendees at the conference (a
slightly younger group) also experienced unwanted sexual advances
• 66% of respondents have felt excluded from key networking opportunities
• 84% of women experienced male colleagues and clients who couldn't make eye
contact (45% experienced this monthly basis)
• 88% have colleagues and clients who address questions to male peers that should
have been addressed to them
Source: Elephant in the Valley research; Fast Company coverage

Women rising in their careers were most vocal in tweeting
about the #OnlineHarassment Summit
Source: Spredfast data covered by DigitasLBI

For a small taste of the music side of SXSW, YouTube shares
which artists benefited most from SXSW performances
Source: YouTube

Brands
Keep Austin Weird – but not too weird or brands will
have to shut off their Periscope feeds of their SXSW
activations

Brands were everywhere – and transported people
everywhere

Eureka
"Our belief is data is the new oil. I think the
companies that will win are using math."
- Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank
Source: Adweek

Forrester on brands’ missed opportunity
The worlds of marketing, product design, and customer experience are increasingly
interconnected, but you wouldn’t know it looking at SXSW’s programming, according to
Leah Buley, principal analyst at Forrester.
“It’s clear that marketers at the festival are thinking across touch points…” Buley said. “But
very few brands are digging into the more fundamental challenges that businesses
wrangle everyday: helping their organizations turn the ship toward customer obsession,
determining how to prioritize investments where it matters, and figuring out what it means
to deliver great customer experiences in an increasingly digital world.”
-Forrester Research

“Innovation around distribution” a major challenge for
brands – NYT
"Distribution, and innovation around distribution, and the
effective use of social media, is a really high priority for
clients. It's one of the things we get asked about a lot, and
asked for our help a lot.“
-The New York Times CEO Mark Thompson at SXSW on NYT’s
acquisition of HelloSociety
Source: Ad Age

American Greetings offers Analog experience to combat
digital SXSW overdose

Why analog is the new digital
“We’ve pushed the digital revolution pretty far,” said Jon
Ruby, svp and creative director at American Greetings’
agency, Mullen Lowe. “People are slaves to their devices.
There’s a bit of a backlash. Three or four years ago,
everyone had laptops here. Now they have laptops, but
you’re seeing them closed, with Moleskine
notebooks perched on top.”
Source: Digiday

Buzzfeed launches new Swarm ad format at SXSW to reach consumers across:
web, mobile, Snapchat, Vine, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr
“Instead of forcing all your traffic and spending all your
resources to drive people to your owned and operated
platforms, why not go to where they are?”
-Buzzfeed CMO Frank Cooper in Adweek
Source: Adweek

Beware of irrelevance
“While there’s a lot energy and excitement around these
emerging channels we [as marketers] have to be mindful that
it’s a balancing act. The threshold on the quality of content
and the importance in the value you add to someone’s life has
never been higher. You are one swipe away from being
irrelevant.”
- Robert Candelino, VP Marketing - Haircare, Unilever
Source: The Drum

Gillette tapped Discovery VR to see if SXSWers can sweat
high pressure situations

Budweiser Beer Garage included 4D brewery tour adding
multisensory stimulation
Source: Adweek

Samsung delivered attendees #VRonDemand
Source: VentureBeat

McDonald’s served up an interactive art experience
through VR

Craving overnight oats? Quaker teased Amazon Echo app
at SXSW
“Quaker has a new robot chef and her name is Alexa.
The 135-year-old maker of oats is harnessing the power of
artificial intelligence to help consumers make an oatmeal
method as old as Quaker itself: overnight oats… Quaker has
built its first ever app for Amazon's virtual assistant, which is
available through products like the Echo speaker. The app…
helps users find and make recipes for overnight oats...”
-Adweek

Capital One also showed off its Amazon Echo app,
already available

At the Miracle-Gro GRO house, a thousand connected
devices bloomed

Brands even upped their promoted post game to
capitalize on SXSW interest

Grumpy Cat: still a thing at SXSW
Source: @GameofThrones / @Friskies

Dell turns Austin into an AR golf game
Source: Dell on YouTube / Ad Age

Want to really stand out? USA’s Mr. Robot built a Ferris
wheel in Austin (or was it all imagined?)

Gatorade showed off tech that can boost nutrition and
hydration at its Fuel Lab
Source: brandchannel

Tech
Hey, everyone at SXSW still uses Twitter, right? That
got big at SXSW… back in 2007

Somehow this wig made up of hair strands that double as
ear-buds was on the SXSW ‘must-see’ list
Source: Ad Age

The startups that battled at Visa’s Everywhere Initiative:
Developer Challenge
1. Eventbase – Eventbase is the leading mobile technology platform for premium events
including SXSW, Cannes Lions, Comic-Con International (San Diego), Disney D23 Expo and
film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca and NYFF.
2. Hiku – Hiku is a small internet connected device that allows a consumer to automatically
repurchase an item.
3. Msg.ai – msg.ai is a conversational commerce and artificial intelligence messaging software
that empowers brands to hold personal conversations with consumers on demand and at scale
across the most popular messaging platforms.
4. Knocki – Knocki is a new IOT smart device that gives you instant control of your favorite
functions from any surface.
5. Ledge (winner) – Ledge is a mobile finance platform that facilitates and automates social
borrowing to finance important personal goals and life experiences.
Source: Kite

The 10 startups that pitched CMO Club
1. Wyzerr – Wyzerr builds customer feedback surveys that look and feel like games.
2. acuteIQ – acuteIQ is a customer acquisition platform that uses artificial intelligence and 1st party data to deliver a 4x improvement in
performance.
3. what3words – what3words is a location reference system based on a global grid of 57 trillion 3mx3m squares; each pre-assigned a unique 3
word address.
4. LISNR – Smart Tones that turn any speaker—from a stadium PA to the TV in your living room—into a beacon that can trigger second-screen
experiences.
5. LoungeBuddy – Discover, book, and access airport lounges around the world in a few simple taps. A better airport experience awaits with
LoungeBuddy.
6. Seerslab – Seerslab is a mobile service & tech company bringing Hollywood into users’ lives with ‘lollicam‘, a fun and easy real-time video
editing app
7. Prynt – Prynt reimagines how we share digital content in the physical world with a photo-printing phone case that brings your photos to life.
8. Reelio – Reelio makes the process of any brand partnering with any digital influencers anywhere, as easy and efficient as possible.
9. SocialRank – SocialRank is the easiest way to identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter and Instagram.
10. Flag – Flag makes the best photo prints in the world and delivers them for free. A targeted ad on the back of each print pays for the free
service.
Source: Kite

SXSW Innovation award winners
HEALTH, MED & BIOTECH
DESKGEN by Destop Genetics | London
INNOVATION IN CONNECTING PEOPLE
Don's Voice by Not Impossible | Los Angeles, CA
INNOVATIVE 3-DIY
Wevolver by Wevolver | London, ENG
MUSIC & AUDIO INNOVATION
Here Active Listening System by Doppler Labs | San Francisco, CA
NEW ECONOMY
ShareTheMeal by UN World Food Programme | Rome, ITA
PRIVACY & SECURITY
Peeple by Building 10 Technology, Inc. | Austin, TX
RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Breakthrough by Neo-Pangea | West Reading, PA
SCIFI NO LONGER
Lily Camera by Lily | San Francisco, CA
SMART CITIES
KASITA by Kasita LLC | Austin, TX
STUDENT INNOVATION
Plant-like Robot by Ji Won Jun | Mountain View, CA
VISUAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE
The Fallen of World War II by Neil Halloran | Philadelphia, PA
VR & AR
Mill Stitch by The Mill | Various Locations
WEARABLE TECH
Quell® Wearable Pain Relief Technology™ by NeuroMetrix, Inc. |
Waltham, MA
Source: SXSW

The battle between convergence and divergence wages at
SXSW
“Knocki can do anything, and its optimal use case may vary across its customer base.
Hiku can only do one thing; it's taking a feature of the Amazon Echo and turning it into
a standalone product. Simplicity and complexity are both proliferating with technology.
Facebook, for example, has the Moments app that is only for privately sharing batches
of photos with friends, while it is simultaneously turning Messenger into a platform that
can be used for virtual assistants, games, shopping and possibilities that have yet to be
imagined.”
-from Ad Age: How Newton’s Third Law Applies to SXSW by David Berkowitz

What’s the opposite of virtual reality?
“The opposite of Google Cardboard isn't Oculus Rift. No,
the opposite of virtual reality is reality. As virtual reality
becomes more popular, so will real reality. It's akin to why
there's now cultural cachet in putting your phone away.
The deeper that we get drawn into technology, the more
we crave in-person interactions.”
-from Ad Age: How Newton’s Third Law Applies to SXSW by David Berkowitz

Wrapping up

Good reads
• Obama looks to SXSW for ideas and tech to
modernize government (VentureBeat)
• Marketers Should Expect the Unxpected at SXSW (Matthew
Scott in The Drum)
• Apps to Watch at SXSW (Product Hunt)
• What’s In and Out at SXSW 2016 (Digiday)
• 5 Marketing Trends Surfacing at SXSW 2016 (VentureBeat)

More SXSW resoures
• SXSW 2016 Pinterest board (Esteban Contreras)
• Brands at SXSW Pinterest board (my own group board)
• The Drum’s SXSW 2016 coverage
• Adweek’s SXSW 2016 coverage
• SXSW 2016 Preview (my attempt at recapping the festival
before it even began)
• Apps to Watch at SXSW 2016 (I didn’t see a single one of these
apps referenced at SXSW, but it’s a fun list from Product Hunt)

See you at SXSW 2017
@MRY / @dberkowitz
www.mry.com
David.Berkowitz@mry.com