The Dailies: March 14

Daily Person

Levi Harris, a writer and recent Austin transplant from Los Angeles shares his thoughts on branding efforts at SXSW.

What are you excited about seeing this year?
This year is actually my first year doing this. I’m actually excited about pretty much everything.  I’m going to the Jeffrey Tambor acting workshop right now.

What brand-sponsored parties are you looking forward to?
I went to the IFC party last night but other than that I’m not really out for the parties so much as I would like to be.

Have any promotional items or events stood out to you so far?
Not so much. I don’t usually pay attention to most of that stuff. Mostly I’m here on assignment covering things, so I don’t really have time to do that. Plus I live here so its one of those things I’m used to and I don’t look around very much.

Do you think street marketing works?
I think it does if it’s in an effective way. I’m more apt to look at postings on walls and stuff like this (points to Saran-wrapped pole with posters). The more intimate it is the more apt I am to pay attention to it.

If you go to a branded party, are you more likely to use their product?
Yeah probably. I sound like a cheap-ass, but if its free then yeah.

Daily T-shirt
In addition to sponsoring the free coffee bar at IFC Crossroads studio, freecreditreport.com is giving away these logo shirts all festival long. The card attached encourages people to photograph themselves in the shirt and post it to a Facebook page. Perhaps interactivity will make up for the visual impact lost with the black on black design.

Daily Branding
YouTube’s eye-catching posters hang on many of the columns around the Convention center. Simple, bright red is easy to look at and although the stamp motif is a little worn-out the message comes across well. Posters and stickers recruiting “real” artists, musicians and filmmakers hints at a move towards more artistic content and less kitten and stunt videos.

Daily namedrop
These guys had heads turning when they stopped for coffee on their way to the conference. Channeling seventies newscasters, they’re out reporting the beat of SXSW for pegshot, another location-based phone application with a social networking aspect.