A comprehensive list of the best brand activations at SXSW 2016

KIM HOPWOOD DIGITAL MANAGING DIRECTOR MARCEL SYDNEY

WHAT IS IT?A VISUAL OVERVIEW OF THE BRANDS AND TRADE STANDS AT SXSW16 THAT WERE MEMORABLE ENOUGH TO TAKE A PHOTO OF.

WHY SHOULD YOU READ IT?WE PROMISE, THERE REALLY ISN’T MUCH READING INVOLVED AT ALL. SCROLL THROUGH SOME PHOTOS AND SOUND INFORMED AT THE WATER COOLER.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?LESS THAN 1 MINUTE IF YOU GO REALLY REALLY FAST!

HOW DID YOU ORDER THINGS?IN ORDER OF WHEN I TOOK THE PHOTOS…

WARBY PARKER: MOBILE STOREThis awesome mobile store from Warby Parker which was a refitted school bus. Even the branding was labelled ‘Warby Parker Class Trip’. It wasn’t open at the time but looked like a fully fledged store. Really cool. Maybe they didn’t even pay to be an exhibitor either?

CAPITAL ONE HOUSESince acquiring UX agency Adaptive Path, innovative bank Capital One had a huge presence at SXSW. They had a full time bar takeover with mulitple presentations daily around UX, Internet of Things in finance, digital team structures, mobile banking and more, with their senior design and technology leaders presenting.

CUBICLE NINJAS: VR MEDITATIONThis Chicago based digital agency productised some client VR work into a 10 minute, guided meditation experience. They were looking to sell it to physicians as an alternative to medicinal pain relief. I think it would also make for a great office chillout area.

SAMSUNGSamsung put a lot of energy into being present at South By. This included heavily promoting ‘Samsung Pay’ - their competitor to Apple Pay. Through tap & paying $0.01c on your account you could use the digital vending machines to win.

SAMSUNGThe downstairs showroom featured a ‘water feature’ to highlight the phones are waterproof. There was a constant line up for their guided VR experience.

SAMSUNGIn addition, the Samsung rooftop bar had perks for Galaxy owners including free rides around Austin, and wireless charging.

FRISKIESYes, that sign really does say you can meet the real Grumpy Cat. No, I didn't have time to wait in line to meet him :-(

MR ROBOTThis hit series inspired by hacking crew Anonymous was a big

feature of several content stream talks, including with the stars Christian Slater and Rami Malek. They had their own theme park

activation based on their hacker HQ at Coney Island. One of the key take outs for their success was the authenticity of the content, with

realistic hacking methods and even command line instructions.

HEROThis is a connected home medication dispenser. Great if you have multiple medications and have

trouble remembering when and what you are supposed to take. I really hope these guys have their QA process down pat as I can feel a law suit coming

on… It’s currently not FDA approved.

3MThis was an art installation to raise awareness around a

sustainable future. It was extremely abstract and it was difficult to tie in the link to 3M aside from the fact they are

promoting awareness for a sustainable future. It did however highlight that 3M has a lot of cash to burn!

MCDONALDSMcDonalds had a big presence at SXSW. Their biggest feature was a conceptual VR experience where you could paint your own Happy Meal box. While that may (will) not become a product feature it is a good demonstration that they are trying to position themselves as tech leaders.

MCDONALDSThere were free burgers, fries, phone recharging and open bar, the signature being an Old Fashioned with bacon. Double weird!

UNITED AIRLINESSimple but effective. United Airlines had their social media team setup in a public space doing real time listening & responding. Compared to the likes of Jet Blue and Southwest, United is behind the times but clearly looking to catch up. The two listening tools they were using were a Chicago startup called Earshot, to geofence conversation around airports (to help with events like extreme weather), along with Sparkcentral to provide customer service on their owned channels.

BEEHEXThe original aerospace 3D Food Printer. Print your own Pizza. I’m thinking Hhhmmmm… not Mmmmmmmm….

SAPSAP has been feeling a little sad lately as they were asleep when marketing tech took off. To play catch up they have launched Cloud which combines web analytics, BI and big data to allow executives to get a holistic view of business performance. The best part of their stand was they created a custom demo using Samsung Gear where you could navigate the sales demo in VR. Well played SAP, you got my attention.

HACKERRANKAs well as a ‘coding school’ for developers, HackerRank has an interesting recruitment platform, where you can source developers, screen them through technical tests and code challenges, and then interview them via video call all inside the platform.

IBM COGNITIVE STUDIOIBM had an impressive setup which featured IoT Foosball, Watson Hub including Chef Watson - recipes powered by Watson, and VR Cycling

DELL LOUNGEYet another big lounge with more VR experiences….

GATORADE: FUEL LABThe Gatorade Fuel Lab experience was the talk of SXSW. Unfortunately there were limited slots available, and I wasn’t able to get one. The Fuel Lab gave an overview of Gatorade’s new smart bottles, featuring a microchip along with a disposable band-aid like sweat patch which give users constant updates on how much and when they should drink. The sweat patch tracks sodium loss on the user’s forearm and a light flashes on the cap to alert the user it’s time to drink. This was being demoed to SXSW particpants in the lab.

Photos via instagram #gfuellab. Credits: @mynameisbjorn @arahelabdi @dinewithshayda @hkstrategies

THANKS AUSTIN!Any questions? Please send them through to me! kim.hopwood@marcel.sydney

THANK YOU.

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