I outlined my favorite three marketing initiatives from South by Southwest® Interactive in my last blog posts, and I wanted to end this series by outlining the larger list of marketing efforts that I saw, or really, those that I noticed.

• The main event sponsors: SXSW® Interactive had, by my count, 12 main sponsors. The typical canvas banner was placed in every room where events were held, on the outside of the Austin Convention Center, and various other spots around town.  The logos were spaced out and easy to see. These sponsors were (in no particular order): Miller Lite, Chevrolet, Pepsi, Pepsi MAX, freecreditscore.com, AT&T, Microsoft, Monster Energy drink, Samsung, AOL, IFC, and The Austin Chronicle. [Static]
  

  SXSW Sponsors Banner

• Branded spaces inside of convention center: AOL had the AOL Lounge. Microsoft had an area set up where you could play with the Kinect system to try it out. I’m sure there were other areas by all the main sponsors, but either I didn’t cross their path or I just didn’t notice them. [Experiential]
• Catch a Chevy: Chevrolet had at least two lines of cars, Cruise and Volt, with drivers all over the SXSW area. The cars had friendly drivers, and a sign on the side that instructed you to flag them down if they’re empty and they’ll take you wherever you need to go.  [Experiential]
• Free FedEx sponsored lunch: Every day of the conference, FedEx set up a big FedEx truck outside the convention center, and offered lunch that was free to anyone if they followed @FedExDelivers on Twitter or “liked” FedEx on Facebook.  They didn’t ask for proof – just trusted that you did it. And they gave out lunches every day (a different catered meal each day). [Experiential]
• Paper flyers: Yep, these were pretty big around the convention center. I’ve actually not seen this many paper flyers since circa 1997 in my college town. [Static]
  

  Flyers, flyers everywhere

• Standard trade show booths: Need I explain this? There’s a whole area of the convention center dedicated to trade show booths where various companies are set up to explain why they are so awesome and why you should try their product/service/experience/etc. [Experiential]
• Intuit free pedicab rides: There are a lot of pedicabs in Austin during SXSW®  – these are brave people who ride bikes with mini “couches” attached and they bike you from point A to point B.  They’re typically a minimum of $10 per person per ride. Intuit, however, was offering free rides if you followed @GoPayment on Twitter. You simply told the driver/biker that you had followed them, and at the end of the ride, he/she pulls out an iPhone with a payment app on it. He creates the transaction that your $10 per person has been paid, and you sign the iPhone screen with your signature, although no money has been exchanged.  [Experiential]
• Test drive a Chevy: Right outside the convention center, you could sign up to test drive one of many Chevrolets: Corvette, Volt, Cruise, and more. For free.  The cars were new, shiny, and noticeable. [Experiential]
• Pepsi MAX / foursquare lot and concert: The two brands teamed up to have a large outdoor area with a bar, games, a real four-square game court, music, etc.  They put on an exclusive concert with hip-hop artist Big Boi – tickets were only available to those who “found the golden ticket.” I’m not entirely sure what the algorithm was that enabled one to get the golden ticket, but it had something to do with checking in a lot on foursquare while in Austin. [Experiential]
• Sponsored parties: Many brands/companies sponsored parties in the evenings. Google and the ACLU invites you to party like it’s 1986 but protect your privacy like it’s 2011 with an 80’s cover band.  Dachis Group kicks off SXSW® on Thursday night with a party at Arthouse. Frog Design sponsors the official South by Southwest® Interactive kickoff party. Usually free drinks are involved. [Experiential]

I labeled the above examples with either “experiential” or “static.” Nothing static is going to be a winner in my book.  This is the interactive conference. Although I don’t know the details about what those main sponsors got in addition to having their logos on the canvas banners, I don’t think that seeing the logos themselves was at all impactful. And although some of the flyers had QR codes on them, I couldn’t see through the noise of the other 50,000 flyers next to them to at all be interested in what they said. So I think the static marketing efforts don’t work in this environment.

It is interesting to note that of the 10 types of marketing efforts I really noticed, 8 of them are experiential in nature. I think today that solid marketing efforts must have some sort of interactivity and experience attached in order for people to care in the first place.

But the real winners in my book are those that were both experiential and social in nature.  I think to cut through the noise and craziness that is this huge event, I need to physically experience something, as well as be excited enough about it to share with my friends.  I’ve written short recaps of the three efforts I found to be most effective: Pepsi MAX / foursquare lot and Big Boi concert, Catch a Chevy, and Intuit’s free pedicab rides.

Which marketing efforts worked on you if you were in Austin? Do you agree that the winners were the experiential and inherently social ones?  Which other incredible efforts did I miss?