Why I Hate SXSW!

After over a decade of attending SxSW, being the largest sponsor of the festival for 6 of those years, meeting the love of my life at The Lucky Lounge – oh! – and having won the SxSW People's Choice Award, I can finally admit it: I hate SxSW.

Why? Because it's too damn short. SxSW is like the Davos of Digital. It’s one of the most inspirational times of the year. It’s a time to learn, grow, have fun, see old friends and meet new ones. I wish everyday was SxSW.

Unfortunately, it comes just once a year so we all have to squeeze every last drop out of it that we can. This year in particular, there has been a lot of conversation about why SxSW is no longer a good investment for brands, and it’s sad to see that narrative take shape.

But if you think SxSW has become too noisy, then you’re approaching it the wrong way. You’re prostituting the event for your brand’s benefit, and treating it the way you would any other sponsorship. You can’t think this way! Brands should instead be thinking about how they can help make SxSW better. I’ve always had three criteria for this:

1. Do no harm!
2. Add value!
3. Show what the future can look like!

To me, SxSW is a stage for brands to push the limits of what's possible and to challenge the convention of where their category and technology will fit in a future world. This is where the value of participating as a brand at SxSW really comes to life – in the imperfection of future experimentation. If you successfully embed yourself into this aspect of the festival, your ideas about media or publicity will fall into place and you’ll capture the full value of SxSW as a brand.

Throughout my time at SxSW, I’ve always made it a point to experiment with the technology of the future, no matter what brand I was working with.

For my first SxSW activation with PepsiCo, which was well before any other non-endemic brand was sponsoring, we were focused on solving a huge problem for festival goers – helping them identify where the greatest content and parties were. In conjunction with Foursquare and few other API's, we used the real-time data visualization platform we created to support Gatorade Mission – the PepsiCo Zeitgiest – to generate data visualizations on screens across the Austin Convention Center. These visualizations gave attendees a better, more comprehensive picture of what was going on at SxSW. This activation pushed The PepsiCo Zeitgiest to its limits to see how it would perform with all types of API's. We even created an open platform so that other startups could plug their technology in with ours. This was hugely experimental because this was the first SxSW visualized app to ever exist! During this activation, we also created a simple juice bar with power, which was a new concept at the time.

Moving on to Year Two. Aside from an amazing Pepsi Max activation, we also launched PepsiCo 10 – a first-of-its-kind startup accelerator program. We not only gave startups an opportunity to realize their dreams but, more importantly, we challenged traditional notions around how brands and startups can partner in a way that is mutually beneficial. We also brought Fast Company to SxSW, built a stage and put a big media spotlight on emerging technologies. We also felt that SxSW should be experienced by those outside of Austin or who couldn’t attend, so we paid to have all the keynotes streamed live. This, too, had never been done before.

In Year Three, PepsiCo challenged the notion of what a package graph was and we tried to demonstrate what our world will look like when everything is connected – billboards, paper books, products. It was by far one of our most ambitious attempts to play out the future. Sadly I left before that year’s SxSW.

Most recently, last year was our big Oreo Trending Vending activation, where we used 3D printers to create customized cookies based on trending topics on Twitter. We were experimenting with the future of food and food delivery. Need I say more?

The point is not to brag, but instead to show the value of consistently challenging yourself and your brand to do what has never been done before, on a stage that has already seen some of the greatest innovations in the world.

This year, we did not do a big activation. We still might have an activation at VidCon, and maybe even have the future 3D printer home version. Sign on if you think we should do it secretly! (Shh. I'm not supposed to mention this…)

Don’t worry, though -- I did still keep busy with several panels and presentations throughout Interactive, including my featured session “Turning Talent into Rockstars,” which explored the increasingly critical role talent will play in driving our businesses forward in the next several years. I also had great Q&A session at Brand Innovators with my colleague Farrah Bezner, the Marketing Director for Halls and Candy, about authentically connecting with your audience through culture marketing. I also participated in a panel about eCommerce during the TechSet party that Mondelēz and PayPal sponsored, and I did a fireside chat with Gary Vaynerchuk at Carnival Mobile Masters Summit.

If you know how to navigate it, SxSW holds incredible value for brands. It forces you to challenge yourself, experiment with the future and see where your brand fits into the mix. For me, there’s another element to SxSW that adds to the festival’s value. Over the years, I’ve brought droves of brand marketers down for the SxSW journey, and I have watched them change as a result of this four-day pilgrimage. Watching this growth is so special and can't be replicated anywhere.

If I didn’t see you at SXSW this year, come find me at BRAND U Events in April.

For more information on that hit me up on Twitter: @BoughB.