Top trends from this year’s SXSW
Launched in 1994, a small festival in Austin, Texas, developed a reputation for discovering the next big Tech start-up. In 2007, SXSW was the launching pad for a micro-blogging site, Twitter. Two years later, Foursquare became the talk of the show.
But the festival, originally known for deal-making, fundraising and app launches, has evolved. In fact, it hasn’t had a breakout app since Meerkat went viral in 2015.
This year, the conference reflected a changing Tech landscape. Panelists tackled major issues like decentralisation, inclusion, cyber-security, sexual harassment and the responsibility social platforms have to place checks on their power. Read on to find out our top take outs from the festival.
Building Brand Purpose
There are three ways that a brand can think about and build purpose into their DNA:
· Cause: Moments that help meet someone’s need.
· Cultural: Moments that make a statement.
· Core: More than a moment, a consistent mode of behaviour.
A recent example is Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Winter Olympic ad and their strong stance on removing guns from all of their stores. Having a ‘purpose strategy’ is good for business, with 80% of Millennials identifying as belief-driven buyers.However, for those who strive to take on a ‘core purpose’ strategy, they need to remember that they need to live and breathe their purpose 365 days a year, it needs to inform all aspects of their product and marketing efforts, and they need to want to “do” more than “sell”.
Breakthrough Storytelling
Ira Glass is best known as a producer and editor of the addictive podcast and radio show “This American Life.” He was also the brains behind the hit podcast ‘Serial’ and knows a few things about being an impactful storyteller.
· Tell a Story: There must be a narrative with a plot. If you’re using images with your audio, they should be additive versus just illustrating the audio.
· Failure is a Success: Teams should brainstorm often and not be precious about killing ideas. Ira’s team at This American Life only move forward with half the ideas that they start, and they celebrate it.
· Amuse Yourself: You must be smart to get people to listen to something that is traditionally boring. Don’t play by the rules of separating humour and seriousness. You follow what you find interesting.
· Try New Things: Some examples that Ira’s done with This American Life that go against traditional podcast cues include; temporary tattoos, commissioning a play with Lin Manual (pre-Hamilton fame), making movies, creating an animated film and touring with a dance company.
· Market without Marketing: By following rules 1–4, Ira has been able to create content that travels without marketing.
Emotional, story-based content that makes you feel something will travel faster, with less money spent marketing. The key takeaway for brands is that we should act like storytellers, not journalists. Journalists focus on the facts and lead with the key takeaway. Storytellers take you on a plot based journey that keeps you engaged until the very end.
Diversity 2.0
Diversity and inclusion was a hot topic at SXSW and the sentiment was boiled down perfectly by Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Black Panther comics: “We need more symbols of positive diversity; Black Panther is just another great symbol in culture.”
And we are seeing brands who are focusing their efforts on diversity and inclusion experiencing positive results from the press and in their sales; Black Panther recently hit $1 billion in global box office sales.
The LIFEWTR brand’s mission is to close the 46% gap of women who are artists, but not represented in permanent art collections. Inspired by these statistics, LIFEWTR created a series of public acts to demonstrate the gender inequality in art today. With over 4 million views on YouTube, they’ve recently extended this mission to focus Art Education in schools.
Hayley Paas is SVP, head of Strategy & Insights and Sarah Stringer is SVP, Head of Innovation, Carat USA.
You can read the full trends report here.
