Starting March 11th, the annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW®) will begin, and this year is slated to be bigger and better than ever. The festival, now 30 years after its inaugural launch, has grown to a yearly destination for not only music but film and interactive innovation.

Everything’s bigger in Texas

This year over 400,000 people are expected to flock to the streets of Texas’ capital city in hopes to see past the bustling crowds and find contemporary concepts for future branding initiatives. Whether it’s staying one step ahead of the competition or merely highlighting individual brand talents, there will surely be something for everyone, from Sixth Street to South Congress.

Last year we had the tremendous opportunity to attend the six-day event and discovered how marketing and music can work together to drive customer interaction.

While some artists are reluctant to share the stage with branded content, the opportunity for brand activation at live music events like SXSW is too great to overlook. We dove right into cross-channeling, breaking negative online branding connotations and the friendly relationship between social media and music. The complete story is available below.

Brands will seek to reach consumers in a new way this year at SXSW, and there’s no doubt marketers all over the country will be in attendance this year. Amidst guest speakers with diverse backgrounds like J.J. Abrams, Odell Beckham Jr. and Kerry Washington, the future of interactive marketing is sure to soar to new heights by melding a broad set of outlooks.

Marketing pros hosting sessions you should catch

• Frank Cooper – Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Creative Officer at BuzzFeed on their global cross-platform network
• Alex Chung – CEO of Giphy spearheading a vast visual search engine and new tool for self-expression
• Steve Chen – Co-founder of YouTube talks about the future of interactive video and unveils his new product, nom.com
• Susannah Sulsar – Director of Customer Experience Marketing at Barkley on merging UX design practices with CX practices to improve interactions and experiences that deliver value

Enjoy the show!

[easyrotator]erc_42_1434138314[/easyrotator]

About the Author

Alex Navarro is a California-native who currently lives in Dallas, Texas with his fantastic wife. In the past, he’s been responsible for creating, developing and executing national brand awareness campaigns and has enjoyed developing personalized marketing and promotional plans. Alex studied advertising and marketing at Pepperdine University and has enjoyed working in the field ever since. He also loves meeting new people – connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.