SXSW: Tom Bradbeer’s Austin odyssey – Day 4

Tom Bradbeer, a Digital Creative and Copywriter at Longtail, is in Austin for SXSW Interactive and writing for Campaign Brief.

A digital frame of mind.

Up and at ’em for day four of SXSW. I’ve seen so much already, but as I took one last look at the schedule before getting out of bed, it was clear SXSW was far from done with me.

The sun was out but enjoying it would have to wait, I had a date with Ben Malbo and Aman Govil from the Creative Development Department at Google. They seemed like they knew their stuff so I sat back with the other 300 dates and let them do the talking, and just as well, because what they had to say was both inspiring and unbelievably relevant to myself and my agency.

Bridging the gap between code and creativity is something Longtail, and I’m sure every other digital agency, has been actively persuing for some time now. As Ben Malbo said, coders and creatives are cut from the same cloth, and as a team we need to stop doing digital marketing and start marketing for the digital age. 2 minutes in and he’d hit the nail on the head.

Referencing Roy Amara, who said, “We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run” they discussed our tendency to breeze past current technology in search of the next big thing. When what we should be doing is exploring existing technology to its full extent, as a coder and creative collective.

A great start to the day with so much more to come. After a mad dash across downtown to a fancy hotel, I arrived at a session focusing on the maker culture and digital marketing. Mike Senese from Make Magazine and Richard Goldsmith from Mark Anthony Brands talked to us about the passion for making and how it’s changing the world.

They discussed how in the past, as technology advanced, a very specialised knowledge was needed to use it. Well that’s changing, and at a rapid rate. Digital technologies and innovations are now allowing people to become the makers, moving away from mass production, to the production of personalised and unique products, which is creating a long tail of things. They were talking about physical products, but this ‘long tail’ also applies to the personalisation of online content. We used to produce one ad for our whole target market, now we’re producing lots of unique ads in order to target the individual. That’s right folks, the name Longtail does actually mean something.

Mike and Richard went on to talk about the resurgence of the maker culture and the people pioneering the digital tools enabling them. Apps like DIY, Code Academy and websites like Flitetest and even YouTube. These tool are providing information to communities, who share their ideas and inspiration.

This trend has seen companies put the power in the consumers hands. Nokia, for example, released the designs for their 3D printable phone cover, then encouraged people to print them out and make modifications. Sure, they were sacrificing revenue, but they knew by giving up control, they would gain loyalty. At the end of the day the ultimate benefit comes from sharing.

But enough of that, it was time to go viral. Josh Jones-Dilworth from The Daily Dot and William Leake from Apogee Results hosted a core discussion on why, how and when viral happens and how to hack it.

Ultimately, there is not formula or steadfast strategy to creating viral content, however there are some key factors that have to be met for you to even have a chance at success. They talked strongly about quality over quantity, and the idea that quality doesn’t have to mean expensive. If you don’t have the access to money or celebrities, the two best options available to you are smart content and funny content, and in both cases honesty is key, because as I said before, consumers are wising up to contrived content.

After an intense morning it was time for lunch, on today’s menu was burger and fries #healtheating. I took this moment of respite to figure out the rest of my day. A session on user generated content (UGC) looked promising, and the fact it was a fair way across town would give me an opportunity to see a bit more of Austin.

Seeing Austin was great, but I definitely wouldn’t rate the UGC session. Maybe I was biased, considering the high calibre sessions I’d seen that morning. It just seemed like the two speakers, Kendra Bracken-Ferguson from DBA and Justin Garrity, Senior VP at Postano (a user generated content platform) were stating the obvious and very caught up in their own world. But I could be wrong, it could have been a combination of exhaustion and Kendra’s annoying voice, she had that annoying habit of ending every sentence in a high pitch like it was a question? That said, I don’t like to bitch and not back it up. So below, I’ve included their 7 tips for UCG, I would love to know if there’s anything in there you consider more than fundamental.

1. Make it worthy of the users timeline
2. Make the collection interesting
3. Curation is your friend
4. Seed content
5. Reward great posts
6. Consider the barrier to entry
7. Think beyond the web

UGC aside, I didn’t let it dampen what was a truly amazing day. I’m four days down and have one to go. On the schedule for tomorrow, Funny or Die tell me how to win the internet, I get an insight into the future of digital storytelling and I’ll see a game show that pits interactive and film professionals against each other. But right now I need another taco.

Until next time,

Trying to make it worthy of your timeline Tommy, is out.