Thinking outside the box yields positive results at major music and tech festival.
By Doug Cox Guest Columnist
How do you stand out from the crowd? That’s a difficult enough question under normal circumstances, so imagine what it takes to grab the attention of attendees at one of the largest film, music and interactive conferences on the planet—South By Southwest (SxSW).
Branded pedi-cabs are prime advertising space at SxSW.
Over the past 20 years, the festival has gone from a homegrown collection of regional artists to a monumental event attended by tens of thousands of pop culture junkies from around the world—a 24-7 avalanche of promotion and glad-handing that’s a potential marketing goldmine, assuming you can break through the noise.
It takes strategic planning and creativity to get noticed—thinking outside conventional (pun intended) avenues.
At posterGIANT, we specialize in doing things differently, but when TuneIn called and asked for our expertise in helping them cut through the constant clutter of SxSW promotional efforts, we knew we had our work cut out for us.
Every March, every surface in Austin gets turned into a billboard and every twentysomething becomes a brand ambassador. When the going gets tough, the tough get crafty—and we were able to help TuneIn and other clients turn in high-impact efforts by a combination of skillful strategizing and street-level implementation.
Bar coasters are a way to showcase your brand at conventions.
Want to get in front of a convention crowd? Try reaching people when they’re trying to get where they need to go. When traditional cabs are in short supply, branded pedi-cabs aren’t just prime advertising space—they’re a much- needed (not to mention cool) addition to over-taxed transportation options. Rolling up to that buzz-worthy party in a buzz-worthy ride is a win-win situation—for everyone involved.
Anyone who’s ever conducted business at SxSW knows that an overwhelming proportion of it gets done in bars. What better place to have your name displayed for the duration of the convention? With durable, branded bar coasters, we were able to keep TuneIn in the forefront of movers and shakers’ consciousness by subtly slipping their logo under beverages at every hip bar in town.
Of course, not everyone in Austin participates in the convention or its related activities, so we utilized wheatpasting and wildposting across town to reach the locals where they live, work and play.
And sometimes it’s good to catch people when they’re least expecting it. We utilized chalk stencils and a street team to promote a DJ set for Nick Cannon. When street-level buzz (or lack thereof) can either sink your event or elevate it to legendary status in an environment where white noise is already deafening, it’s important to establish your street cred. On the street. Literally.
In an environment where everything has already been done, everyone is supremely distracted, and the competition for attention is overwhelming, it helps to think a little differently.
We’re unabashedly proud of how being—and thinking—differently can pay off with massive results. Deeply considering how to reach potential audiences is what we do on a daily basis.
Doug Cox is the president and founder of posterGIANT, a national guerrilla marketing company based in Seattle with over a decade’s worth of experience reaching audiences efficiently and effectively.
