Deconstructing the SXSW Schwag Bags: Interactive

Now that SXSW Interactive is a wrap, we’ve had a chance to finally go through the promotional schwag bag every attendee gets. There were rumors earlier in the year that all the schwag bags were going to be paperless this year but, even though they’re considerably lighter, were still stuffed with two handfuls of glossy postcards. Too bad. Look for the Film and Music bag reviews in the coming days.

The bag is once again co-branded with platinum sponsor Adobe. Here’s what stood out to us.

Wordpress “Made in Texas Stickers”
We had no idea that Wordpress was “born” in Texas, so it’s nice leverage for SXSW. Everyone is sort of enamored with Austin while they’re here, but we have a feeling that our particular fondness for these stickers is because we live here and have always felt that Texas has the coolest looking shape for a state.

MyEmma’s “Bag Tag of Awesomeness”
This one was a bit perplexing. It’s nicely designed packaging (and writing in the always great MyEmma voice) but it’s essentially a… bag tag. We love MyEmma, and they do great work with their tree planting programs and work with non-profits. There’s a lot of good to talk about and a bag tag seems like a missed opportunity.

AOL Screen Wipe
Sure it’s boring and gray, but a monitor cloth is something we’d actually use and can never seem to find one when needed.

Southwest Airlines Peanuts
This one threw us for a loop because there was no SXSW branding or messaging or anything, it’s just a peanut packet. Southwest’s presence in the bag was also very ironic, because there has been much chatter at the conference about Kevin Smith’s recent Twitter battle with Southwest.