A collection of takeaways and discussion starters based on things we learned, heard or saw at SXSW Interactive 2012.

1. Postcards
From
SXSW
c-k.com
facebook.com/cramerkrasselt

2. Storytelling
In a world of shorter-than-ever attention spans, truly good storytelling
makes the difference. And we don’t just mean two minute Super Bowl
spots with flawless narrative. We mean brands creating truly compelling
content that does more than merely advertise a product. Companies
having their own stories. And creating platforms for their customers to
share their own stories. Consider how Tiffany & Co.’s True Love Stories
allows people to contribute to a storytelling platform that supports the
brand even without the purchase of a product.
Challenge: How can you build a system that invites fans, friends,
customers and the keepers of the brand to tell compelling stories that
inspire action?
*Inspired by: Does Your Product Have a Plot?

3. Sharing
Shared content accounts for 10% of internet traffic. It adds a new
dimension, endorsed, to the paid-earned-owned media mix. Most
panelists agreed on three fundamental pillars of share-ability: emotion,
utility and entertainment. But how can we tell if content passes the
compelling test? One panelist suggested: W.I.S.T. As in, Would I Share
This? A simple question to ask ourselves about our creative ideas and
content plans.
Challenge: What content have you created that compels people to
share? How can you make more of it? Which of your work should have
been put through the W.I.S.T. test?
*Inspired by: The Power of Visual Storytelling
*W.I.S.T. coined by Charlie Wollborg, Curve Detroit

4. Passive Location-Based Apps
Unlike years past, there was no single digital darling stealing the show
with this year’s SXSW crowd. But a category seemed to emerge: passive
location-based apps. Mobile “serendipity makers” like Highlight and
banjo use data from social profiles of both existing and potentially new
connections; pinging users re: opportunities for interaction based
on location or shared interests. The jury is still out on whether these
apps will be too creepy for the general marketplace, but being alerted
whenever we were near a friend amidst a crowd of 10,000 people
wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Challenge: How do your clients’ customers use this technology
and where might your brands, products and storefronts fit in?

5. The P2P Marketplace
Peer-to-peer commerce is a rising trend. Sites like Zaarly, TaskRabbit and
Airbnb enable people to connect directly to exchange money, goods and
services. This environment lets customers focus on finding a great deal,
capturing second-hand retail value and in most cases, bypassing a brand’s
own point-of-sale completely.
Challenge: How should brand builders embrace or insert themselves into
this type of commerce platform? How might traditional approaches need
to change to be/stay relevant in this marketplace?
*Inspired by: The Airbnb of Anything: The Growth of P2P Markets

6. Fostering Creative Serendipity
In order for a chance moment to result in something great,
organizations need to be structured in a way to allow accidents to
turn into discoveries. It’s how a pharmaceutical company researcher
can accidentally discover artificial sweetener and create a multi-billion
dollar industry. Or an unexpected answer in a focus group can uncover
the key to a groundbreaking marketing campaign. When creativity
accompanies a chance encounter, could it be the foundation of your
next product/campaign?
Challenge: How can marketers position themselves to make these
discoveries? What environmental/cultural factors contribute to
engineering serendipity?
*Inspired by: Engineering Serendipity to Instigate and Delight and
Get Lucky: Putting Planned Serendipity to Work

7. Which is more important:
how it works or how it looks?
There is a great need now for agencies to successfully pull off more
complex digital projects and campaigns. But with these types of
projects, who takes the leadership role? Like anything else, it probably
won’t succeed with too many cooks in the kitchen, so perhaps the
brief should be boiled down to one fundamental question: which
is more important – how it works or how it looks? If looks win, do
writers and art directors take the lead? If functionality wins, do UX or
interactive directors take the lead?
Challenge: How might a recent or current digital project have
benefitted from stepping back from the brief to ask “Which is more
important? How it works or how it looks?” How might the team need
to shift priorities or leadership?
*Inspired by: Rise of the Interactive Director as Creative Lead

8. Big Data Visualization
The industry is mesmerized by big data. Quite simply, there is so
much information available that we need to find ways to make it
understandable by creating better visualizations. Visualizations that
have intent and impact, that can change behavior, that can lead us to
discover things in our data we didn’t even know we were looking for
and ultimately communicate and incredible amount of information.
Through utility, beauty and creativity, we can put information in
the right place at the right time. And as marketers, we need to find
ways to make this practice useful for brands and their customers like
Progressive’s Snapshot usage-based insurance tool or the Nike+ Fuel
band’s instant, behavior-altering feedback to its users.
Challenge: How are you presenting data to your clients (or
customers), and how might you benefit from exploring alternatives
to do so in a more visual way?
*Inspired by: Intent & Impact: How Visualization Makes a Change
and Data Visualization and the Future of Research

9. Photo Fascination
Are pictures really worth 1,000 words? The way photo sharing has
woven itself into the typical social sharing experience suggests
at least that many. People are becoming better visual storytellers
through the use of apps like Instagram. There are 14 million photos in
the Library of Congress and more than 500 million just on Instagram.
Visual life streams create opportunities for brands to be
intimately woven into a consumer’s story, a coveted piece of media
we can’t outright buy.
Challenge: How do we help our brands become worthy of visual life
streams? Are you currently monitoring how your brands
are already being woven into visual life streams?
*Inspired by: Is Our Photo-Madness Creating Mediocrity or Magic?

10. Curate vs. Aggregate
The power and popularity of Pinterest suggests that content
curation is here to stay. But it’s more than just hunting and
gathering. Curation consists of purposeful personal choices,
collections made through one’s own unique aesthetic and even
moral lens. Aggregation, however, can be done by machines as
an automated process to fill certain category requirements. As
marketers trying to discover how to make their stuff fit naturally
and beautifully into curated environments, it’s important to
understand this distinction.
Challenge: How can brands create meaningful collections for
customers, fans and skeptics?
*Inspired by: The Curators and the Curated

11. Be Likeable
As an agency with a mission to “Make friends, not ads.” we always aspire
to help our clients truly embody friend making. Obviously, an important
part of that is how to interact online. These seven simple rules can
be the foundation for friend-worthy behavior online – in every sense
of the word.
1. Listen first and never stop listening
2. Responsiveness is not a choice
3. Provide value (yes, for free)
4. Share stories (social currency)
5. Inspire customers to share stories
6. Target smarter
7. Consistently deliver excitement, surprise and delight
Challenge: How does your brand rate against these criteria? What more
could you do to make your brand more likeable, online and off?
*Inspired by: Likeable Social Media