We’ve reached a point in conference and event culture where we no longer need to declare full digital integration. It’s assumed there will be a hashtag, it’s assumed there will be an app, and it’s assumed there will be a live stream. Rightfully so as these pieces have long since transitioned from novelty, to accent, and finally to necessity. But where does that leave SXSW, an event that purportedly sits on the cutting edge of connected technology? An event aimed at serving the creators and connectors of the 21st century? The answer is right back to the beginning. SXSW can no longer be the home of the best digital experience, it also has to become the best of the analog experience as well.
NCTA attends SXSW both to explore the worlds of Internet and entertainment technology and to support our programming partners as they promote their latest shows. As the conference element has steadily improved and expanded making the trip all the more worthwhile, the programming elements have exploded in complexity and depth, not to mention popularity. A prime example this year was the Mr. Robot experience.
Those who watch the show on USA Network know the secret hideout of the hacker group “F Society” is in an abandoned arcade on Coney Island. In an effort to connect to fans and build buzz, marketers completely re-created this piece of the Mr. Robot universe in a parking lot outside of the Austin Convention Center, complete with skee-ball, popcorn, and an enormous ferris wheel. There, show fans could dive into the fictional universe they had already connected to on TV, taking what was once an entirely ethereal experience and making it tangible. People who may not have heard of the show couldn’t miss the enormous red ferris wheel sitting in the middle of Austin and, rather than hear about the show through digital exchange, got to experience a real-live slice of the world created by show-runner Sam Esmail. Not only does this create the kinds of super fans that drive niche shows into the spotlight, but it serves as a contrastingly non-digital way to engage with television, which has become an ever-increasingly solitary and digital-only experience.
In an article about the creative benefits of telling stories on cable, Esmail said “We want to make interactive entertainment. It’s [about] letting the story make you want to know more and not just know what happens next, but what happened before and around the circumstances.” This philosophy of immersive and interactive narratives within a fictional universe has spilled out into the real world at SXSW. The recreated arcade is giving fans a chance to not just know about what happens next, but feel like they can touch it, smell it, feel it, and carry it back with them when they return to the show.
Of course there’s an irony to this. SXSW Interactive, an emerging technologies conference, now offers as much in the way of classic analog experiences as it does next-gen digital ones. Perhaps more. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. As we spend more of our time fully immersed in online non-physical experiences, those special and exceptional real-life moments hold all that much more weight. In the case of SXSW, marketers are spending time and treasure in a week-long battle for the attention and eyeballs of some of the most influential people in the world. Physical installations not only create lasting memories, but push these influencers to share their experiences online, closing the digital-to-analog-back-to-digital experience loop. Using solid digital-only marketing techniques to win strong online engagement metrics is great, but the goals is to make someone act. Nothing does this better than delivering a special moment and then having that moment authentically shared across digital platforms from top tastemakers.
As we become better and better at targeting influencers online and improving our cost per engagement metrics in digital spaces, it’s easy to believe the future of creative and content marketing is entirely online. But SXSW proves that putting yourself into just one un-digital experience can have the impact of thousands of digital ones. Unsurprisingly, SXSW is at the cutting edge of both strategies.
Check out more pictures from the Mr. Robot exhibit on USA Network’s website.