Jon Buckley is head of social at Cheil
As you can see from the size of their cars and food portions, our American friends like to go large – something that’s also true of SXSW. Everything about the show seems to be bigger this year, including the brands.
Sitting listening to a session about what’s trending in 2014, all of the panellists mentioned the fact that the big brands had arrived in force this year and were doing the show in style, even to the extent that they’re somewhat pricing out many of the start-ups.
This got me thinking, what are the brands really doing here? Are they making the event better or are they just jumping on the bandwagon, taking advantage of the fact that the show has more geeks gathered together in one place than the average Comic Con. So, in the name of research, I decided to spend the afternoon on a bit of a show crawl to see what the big names are up to.
Shameless plug for a new battery?
My first example may seem like a shameless client plug, but I genuinely do believe it’s a clever idea. Battery dying on your Samsung phone? Just tweet #PowerOn and the team @SamsungMobileUS will deliver a new battery to your location. Not only is it a nice demonstration of a product truth (you can change batteries on Samsung handsets, unlike the iPhone), but it really is a useful service for show-goers.
4G cars, five-star transport
Next up is Chevy. It’s here with its new 4G equipped cars. To demonstrate these new models the company is running the ‘Catch A Chevy’ promotion, where cars sporting the logo can be flagged down for complimentary rides to any SXSW event. In a city that seems to only have a single taxi it’s a promo that’s got people talking and moved show-goers in more than the emotional sense.
Needing a nap?
If you haven’t managed to flag down one of Chevy’s 4G cars and instead have had to rush to another SXSW event on foot, you’d be forgiven for needing a bit of lie down. Handily, TV network FX has set up a brand experience to promote its new vampire show, ‘The Strain’. The experience includes ‘rejuvenation pods’ that allow you to lie back and enjoy a quick 20 minute snooze. Emerging from the crypt I definitely felt different. Not so much transformed into a blood sucking creature of the dark, more a little shaky and surprisingly peckish.
Crowd-sourced cuisine
Thankfully, IBM is catering for the latter with its Foodtruck. It’s offering ‘cognitive cooking’ courtesy of both a supercomputer named Watson and the super-chef @jamesbriscione. Today’s recipe, which has been sourced from Twitter and created by Watson, is the Austrian Chocolate Burrito. I’m looking forward to seeing how Watson’s never before created recipe actually tastes…
In between the parties, the bar takeovers and the giving away of general tat, some brands are genuinely putting in a big effort to improve my SXSW stay, by creating experiences that are welcome, useful and fun. So, sometimes bigger really is better.