SXSW’s best way to market yourself


Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) 10 day music, interactive and film festival brought 27,000 more people to Austin’s streets and more competition for brands and bands.

South by Southwest’s biggest brands with the best marketing campaigns this year were Mountain Dew and Doritos.

Little Wayne, one of South by Southwest’s most anticipated headliner, teamed up with his new sponsor Mountain Dew and filled Austin’s street poles and walls with his DEWeezyposters. You couldn’t go a block without seeing one.

The Doritos huge life size vending machine was hard to miss at this year’s festival. The brand caught a lot of attention and people couldn’t stop taking pictures of this stage. Indie bands playing under this machine only helped Doritos more. 

Laiah Peavy, first timer to South by Southwest, believes the poles filled with stickers and posters is a good marketing tool to reeling in an audience and keeping the brand name in your memory.

“In theory the stickers and posters posted everywhere throughout Austin promoting bands works and is effective,” said Peavy. “Like they say if there is a will there is a way.”

Peavy said the brand Vevo was embedded in her head. Once she missed the hip-hop show she had been anticipating she couldn’t forget the brand. Their constant e-mails about upcoming shows during the festival only reminded her more.

“I loved the marketing,” said Nicci Contreras, local Austenite. “ You get to see the brands you hear about and can recognize a certain event by like the Fader venue and the Converse sponsorship, it was everywhere.”

Contreras said how her friends hip-hop group Worlds Fair, from New York, came to perform at the festival and posted their stickers throughout Austin like most brands and bands hoping to get more fans.

Contreras said the hip-hop group did have a good turn out at their shows but the audience consisted mostly of New York natives and not so much new fans from South by Southwest.

“A lot of creative people here is good and bad,” SXSW photographer Gabe Garza said. “The ideas are the same which makes it difficult and you don’t know what companies will win.”

The ongoing argument on whether South by Southwest is being taken over by corporate brands with top artists only or is it still for the independent, undiscovered bands to be discovered, signed and to gain more fans.

Whether ad clutter can be eliminated and if there is a possibility to find these brands and products on the poles and walls of Austin rather than energy drink ads, chip ads, or the CoolSculpting fat burning procedure ads that filled South by Southwest this year.

There are overwhelming amounts of ads throughout Austin during South by Southwest. Brands and Bands hope to leave a significant mark and gain more fans but sometimes there is just too much, some bands and brands fall short.

Nicci Contreras- niccon5@gmail.com

Laiah Peavy-alaiahawesum@gmail.com

Gabe Garza- gg1140@txstate.edu