Imaginative Activation at SXSW: Entertaining or Overdone?

South by Southwest (SXSW) is all about the future in music, film, technology, and now -- more this year than ever before -- in interactive marketing. What began in 1987 as a small gathering of independent musicians now hosts more than 2000 performers and 40,000 attendees over three weeks of festivals and conferences.

There has been growing talk of concern among festival veterans over South By’s increasing commercialization in recent years. Marketers, therefore, had to be especially creative in order to engage this hip and savvy crowd.

Let’s just say -- this opened the doors for brands to have a lot of fun. Virgin Mobile rented a local house and invited festival attendees “to come on over to their place” for intimate backyard concerts. Skype sent out a town crier, dressed in colonial garb, to dramatically announce tweets with the “#skype” hashtag. Foursquare hosted a playground court and foursquare competition, while Warby Parker, the trendy eyewear brand, opened a three day 1920s style carnival. Each of these activations added to the fun of the festival, and were generally well-received.

Doritos took activation to a new level, though, by building a 56 foot tall, fully functioning vending machine to promote a new line of chips, Doritos Jacked. The structure rose four stories above a stage where bands performed across the week.

Enthusiastic fans rolled foot-wide quarters into a payment slot and pressed giant buttons to receive prizes or bags of the new over-sized snack. Doritos increased the fun, and the social media engagement, by hiding these quarters around town. Show-goers tweeted or “liked” the page on Facebook to receive clues to the tokens’ whereabouts.

The innovative installation wowed audiences at the festival and generated press coverage across the digital world, while showcasing new talent on the stage. It’ll be talked about for weeks to come and remembered as part of the 2012 SXSW experience.

Is over-sized activation a good thing? It depends on who you ask, but as brands are pushed to higher and higher levels of imaginative activation (pun not intended!), will they be able to keep the focus on the fun, rather than overpower the spirit of the festival?