SXSBest
South by Southwest gets bigger every year and, like everywhere else, entertainment content continues to bleed into digital content and vice versa. Which means more days, more attendees, more speakers, more sessions, and more caffeine at the Interactive conference.
And the louder it gets at SXSW, the harder it is for anyone to navigate, let alone have impact. But as a boundary-breaking mentor brand, we wanted to clear some pathways to make everyone’s experience there more fun, inspiring, and thought-provoking. In short, we wanted to make it the #SXSbest year ever.
Our solution, the #SXSBest hashtag, started well before the festival, when we reached out to social influencers who would be attending with our Discover & Recover Kit—providing everything from hangover remedies to a pocket sized guide of Austin must-sees, all to make navigating the festival easier for them and their followers.
Then all 30,000 attendees received an invitation to participate in the platform we created—or simply follow along with what SapientNitro curated—right on the lanyard they’d be wearing all week. This was our way of going beyond a simple logo sponsorship to quite literally integrate into the fabric of the SXSW experience.
On the ground, SapientNitro people from all domains and geographies hunted for the #SXSBbest—from the best content at the intersection of technology and storytelling to the best cup o’ joe—and encouraged others to curate and contribute, as well.
We even had folks strategically placed in Austin and monitoring social conversations to solve for some major festival pain points and enable attendees to focus on the great content. Everything from charging dead batteries to reserving spots in lines to having umbrellas handy on the rush to the next session. For those following along at home, we culled the best moments and insights about story & technology.
Our drive to guide the SXSW experience paid off, with 17.2 million impressions during the week of SXSW Interactive, reaching 3.6 million people and—more importantly—creating a community of people looking to get the most out of their week in Austin.
