SXSW 2024: A Communal Experience Designed for Individual Exploration
South by Southwest is a very unique and special event. Its superpower is rooted in bringing together smart, talented people from different disciplines and walks of life: artists, technologists, consultants, filmmakers, musicians, influencers, customer experience specialists, CMOs, CCOs, startup founders, senior agency executives, and more. Something magical happens when you bring together this sort of diverse crowd for a shared experience crammed into a week and a half in one of America’s most proudly weird cities.
And yet, is it truly a shared experience?
Yes, there are undeniable universal themes like the power of AI and the disruption the technology is unleashing across every vertical. But as I reflect back on my time in Austin and read through different summaries, I’m struck by how different my experience was from some of what I’m reading. At the end of the day, that’s the other magical aspect of the event: it’s a real “choose your own adventure” kind of thing. If you’re into Web3, you’ll find your people and relevant sessions (despite the fact that several of the wrap reports I read suggested that SXSW 2024 had moved on from Web3). Are you a commerce expert looking to evolve your thinking and catch a glimpse of the future of tech-fueled shopping? Gotcha covered. Are immersive and spatial computing technologies your thing? You’ll find dozens of sessions and activations for you to engage with. And so on and so on. Two people from the same company with similar interests could spend a few days at the show and have wildly different experiences depending on the choices they make. As an attendee representing the 4A's (and given my long history on the agency side), I observed each innovation, technology and experience through the lens of agencies and how it might apply to the marketing and advertising industry.
With that in mind, here are five high-level takeaways from my time at SXSW 2024 …
Commerce continues to be reinvented by technology, including AI:
Enhancing product search with AI
Search and discovery remain a challenge when it comes to online fashion shopping.
J.Crew aspires to have more than 90 attributes attached to every single item in its online catalog. AI is helping to assign many of those attributes, as it would be cost prohibitive to have a massive team of humans overseeing every aspect of this metadata.
Using AI to reduce e-commerce return rates
E-commerce returns remain a huge problem for digital retailers, especially for fashion. According to Google, 60% of e-commerce shoppers have returned an item because they didn’t like the way it looked on them.
Virtual try-on (VTO) is a potential solution to this very real problem, and many tech providers have been working on this for a while, including Google, who first launched the feature in June of last year.
Google teased a new feature still in beta at Google labs. The company is working with GenAI systems to enable VTO from a single lay-flat product image, eliminating the need for more complex 3D product shots
A slide from Google & J.Crew session showing VTO from lay-flat product image
Are 3D virtual stores the future of online shopping?
Many retailers have launched experiments in this space, but according to Danielle Schmelkin from J.Crew Group, we’re not quite there yet. The brand has played in the space but mostly for buzz and learning. She suggested that while most consumers are not yet shopping in the metaverse, there is a significant B2B angle, allowing merchants to visualize individual store layouts.
Agency Implication: Help guide retail clients through technology disruptions by: 1) understanding and addressing the shift in search behavior enabled by AI - both on major search engines like Google and Bing as well as client-owned properties; 2) responsibly leveraging new data sets to deliver more personalized ads and experiences - including VTO; and 3) considering the impact of new technologies on both end consumers and B2B use cases.
Welcome to the dawn of the Tech Supercycle -
Amy Webb’s Emerging Trends session put a label on something I’ve been sensing for a while - a convergence of multiple disruptive technologies all hitting at roughly the same time. Each, on its own, has the potential to be as disruptive as the steam engine or the internet. Navigating one technology disruption at a time is hard enough, but brands and agencies must deal with AI, 5G/6G, smart home, IOT, autonomous vehicles, head-mounted displays, a 3rd-party cookie-less future, and more - all at once.
Agency Implication: Take a step back and use what I call the SICC framework. Rather than obsessing over individual tech disruptions, recognize that what consumers will want is brand experiences that are Seamless, Immersive, Clairvoyant and Collaborative. Flip the tech supercycle on its head and focus on delivering that CX expectation first, with emerging technologies in service of those needs.
Demos of immersive / spatial computing tech convert skeptics and tease the next generation of computing
I spoke with several attendees who had never tried Apple’s Vision Pro - or any headset for that matter. Prior to SXSW, most didn’t really see the use cases that would make these devices an everyday necessity. And to be fair, headsets are still in search of the “killer app,” but experiencing something as (relatively) simple as spatial photos and videos for the first time can be eye opening.
Amy Webb also referred to what many call “head mounted displays (HMDs)” as a “face computer.” In some ways, it’s the ultimate wearable - a computer that you wear on your face. She also pointed out that pupils in the human eye react instantly to thoughts and there is a science to using pupillary changes to determine whether or not a person is lying, for example - or to predict what action a person will take next. Vision Pro’s entire user interface is based on incredibly precise eye tracking. If a scientist can make an educated guess on a person’s next action based on changes to their pupils, imagine what an AI-powered face computer will be able to do.
Agency Implication: Whether you call it an HMD or a face computer, these devices have relatively low scale today, but: a) there are use cases where the tech can fit - including event activations or experiential campaigns and across certain target audiences who are more likely to own and use these devices already; and b) scaled immersive tech is coming, and it represents a profound shift from 2D digital to 3D digital and deeper integration between the real and digital worlds. The space is likely to evolve slowly but developing the skills to execute in this spatial computing environment cannot be done overnight. Experimentation is key now, and smartphone-powered augmented reality is a stepping stone with exceptional scale already.
Technology continues to reinvent marketing - and the roles of key players
The role of the CMO continues to evolve, and a panel featuring representatives from Pfizer, Delta Air Lines and eos seemed to agree that the key to being seen internally as an asset rather than a liability is striking the right balance between data and creativity. Historically seen as opposing forces, now one fuels the other.
Asked about the evolving role of the agency, then - Drew Panayiotou from Pfizer suggested that to partner well with a modern, evolved CMO - an agency must be more than a media or creative partner. They must be a technology partner, because technology has become key to unlocking everything from creativity to loyalty to performance and beyond.
Agency Implication: Explore playing an active role in helping senior executives on the client side to redefine their roles and “manage up and across” the organization. This is part education, part consultation and part change management. Find ways to be a technology partner, whether that is through in-house capabilities or via partnerships. And embrace the art and science of our industry - complement the story with the spreadsheet and vice versa.
Influencers can be central to brand storytelling mechanics
Influencer marketing is nothing new, of course - but brands like L’Oreal’s CeraVe are increasingly using the tactic to reinvent how brand stories are told
In the weeks leading up to CeraVe’s Super Bowl spot, the brand leveraged more than 450 influencers, including Bobbi Althoff of The Really Good Podcast, as part of a multi-phased immersive storytelling platform that raised the question of whether or not Michael Cera created CeraVe. The program earned more than 6 BILLION social media impressions before the spot even aired, and created significant buzz before and after the big game.
Agency Implication: Embrace multi-channel opportunities to tell brand stories and recognize that while a :30 or :60 TV spot may be the anchor in some cases, developing holistic strategies that have natural extensions into interactive and immersive channels can enhance overall effectiveness.
