SXSW first began in 1987 focused on music and in 1994, added film and interactive conferences. Now in its 24th year the conference has grown into the must-attend, must follow networking event for the 21st century advertising and marketing professional. The conference produces considerable amount of twitter and blog posts and is an incubator of cutting-edge technologies that brings together the world’s most creative digital folk, web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators, content producers, programmers, widget inventors and new media entrepreneurs.

Five days of keynote presentations and provocative panel sessions provide hands-on training as well as big-picture analysis of the future of advertising and marketing using technology. I have enough data and insight from this to drive ideas at our agency for the next six months!

Because of this conference we have seen some amazing innovations and trends develop and scale very quickly into main stream advertising channels. For example it was only three years ago that Twitter launched at SXSW Interactive. At this year’s conference Twitter CEO Evan Williams gave his highly anticipated keynote address with much of the preceding buzz surrounded the possible announcement of a revenue-generating advertising platform for the popular micro-blogging site, but that never materialized. Instead, Williams announced a new service called @anywhere, allowing users to use Twitter through other websites, similar to Facebook’s Facebook Connect. Initial partners in @anywhere include the New York Times, Bing, Advertising Age and The Huffington Post. More details will be needed to see what impact this has on social media advertising strategies over the coming months.

So within three years of this conference Twitter has now become main stream in the advertising world and become a constant conversation on how businesses should use the channel in the communication mix. This is amazing when you really stop and think about it.

Last year it was Foursquare launching a location service-based social network-come-game where in twelve short months it has swelled to more than 500,000 users worldwide. It now has 1.6 million check-ins a week and growing. Check into restaurants and any kind of nightspot or watering hole, perhaps with a little message about where you are and what you’re doing – all very brief – and the system will then register what you’re up too.

Gowalla is another location platform with over 100,000 people using its application that is also very active at South by Southwest this week. Gowalla revolves around finding virtual objects in real-world locations, something like a scavenger hunt. Conference members can find a virtual drink coaster and redeem it at a participating bar for a free beverage.

In 2010 based on the SXSW conference conversations had over the coming days it’s a fair bet that GPS location features are going to become mainstream over the next twelve to twenty four months.

This could give a lift to mobile advertising, which is now just a tiny percentage of overall spending on online ads. It could drive new customer engagement programs and marketing programs to spark and engage tied customer databases.

So who in New Zealand is going to put some investment and learning into this trend to enhance their current brand customer experience?  Or is the strategy to wait until GPS location tools, platforms and features are considered mainstream and begin to roll solutions, ideas, products in a crowded channel like we currently do on the platforms Face book and Twitter each and every day. Learning how to engage in a crowded market certainly has its risks for brands in my mind and I have always strongly advised our clients to be learning new platforms i.e. mobile apps, facebook apps, IPad applications as examples of this. Get in early.

The lesson here is as it’s always been data drives insight drives idea, drives testing, drives learning, drives innovation drives programs, drives optimization and ultimately drives business success.

Checking out!

Author: Adam Good,  AIM Proximity / Clemenger Group

Skimmer

Skimmer aggregates feeds from various social networks (Blogger, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube ) and displays all the results on one screen, essentially giving you a dashboard view of all the activity of your social contacts.

The interface is extremely clean and highly usable and lets the user toggle between different modes of viewing the information.

What is really interesting is that this application was developed by an ad agency, Fallon in the US, in the process demonstrating the value a creative agency offers in this digital age – understanding the issues facing consumers and creatively finding new ways of using technology to address those needs.

Skimmer is free to download and well worth playing with.

http://wearefallon.com/skimmer

Author: Andre Louis Publicis Digital

Put simply, this is one area no business can ignore if it wants to succeed.

The CAANZ Digital Forum brings together many industry leaders to share best practice and trends from around the world. The Forum plays host to a stellar line-up of both international and local speakers, including:

• Rob Norman, Chief Executive, GroupM Worldwide (New York)
• Jason Paris, Head of Marketing; Head of Digital Media, TVNZ
• Brendan Moorcroft, Global Director of Digital Strategy, Universal McCann (San Francisco)
• Ralph Brayham, Director of Home, Telecom Group
• Paul Thompson, Group Executive Editor, Fairfax Media
• Michael Scott, Director Marketing & Football Category, Nike Asia Pacific (Sydney)

Places are limited so register today.

Date: Thursday 21 May 2009

Time: 1:30pm to 5:30pm

Venue: SkyCity Convention Centre, Federal Street, Auckland

In my view, many clients have not developed or adapted their communications in recent years to compensate for the tremendous paradigm shift in media consumption from traditional channels into digital platforms – with a clear focus on the internet. The traditional media approach longer resonates with many of our advertisers’ target audience segments. For clients’ marketing investment to drive ongoing success a step change needs to occur.

The internet has a clear advantage over other media, in that it’s the enabler of interaction and will always be, at its core, a central tool for interpersonal communication. The way our consumers are communicating and engaging with each other can often be polarising when compared to how the messaging strategy is delivered through media.

Tagging photos on social networks, posting and sharing of videos on YouTube, twitters, blogs, forums, chat rooms and wikis are now not only common, they are the central pillar to communication with many New Zealanders. We all now live in a 24-hour 7 day continual media world where our typical customers are satisfying their demands to be included. We need to become part of this conversation – not just wrap messages around it. Our everyday consumers now wield incredible control over their media consumption habits. Moreover, with the explosion of online participation, consumers exert greater influence over the products and brands that make their consideration set for purchase.

There is no “silver bullet” for how to deliver an optimum brand experience in a social or community environment. What we do know is that the placement of advertising in this environment for no other reason other then “scattergun” targeting can be considered ineffective. Trusted brands can create loyalty through communities, ongoing conversations and importantly, foster peer-to-peer advocacy. Success will be measured by how we “engage” our community and deliver a deeper brand experience; one they will tell their friends about.

Most advertisers in New Zealand still adopt a “safe” traditional linear approach to reaching a shared target audience. The work we’ve done with social networks and communities has delivered compelling results.  It’s proved to us the doorway of opportunity is wide open for those with a sound strategy for targeting and ongoing “live” engagement in a community environment.

Author: Chris Riley OMD Digital

Lynx

Lynx had created a bunch of “weapons of mass seduction” which include a “Fit Girl Finder” soundboard that can be used, for example, to play the sound of a car being unlocked while standing next to an expensive vehicle. Another converts a phone into an on-the-go Spin the Bottle device. A third is a soundboard that guys can transform into a harmonica or “body-piercing scanner.”

The campaign was born out of a need to translate Lynx, which promises to attract girls with its scent, into a digital world where scent doesn’t exist. Mobile is certainly versatile to create anything and I must say that Lynx and its agency had definitely created something unique thats worth the acknowledgement. Who says that scent cant be virtually spread?

http://www.lynxeffect.com/

Author: Adam Good, Clemenger Group