Three Important SXSW 2022 -Takeaways For the Marketing Industry

SXSW has wrapped up for this year, and the ten-day program, full of seminars, panels, and performances, has come to an end. The conference was an illuminating and inspiring learning opportunity with hundreds of sessions explaining and dissecting marketing and advertising practices, but it was also a chance to spot some of the future trends in the field. 

Here is what we at NoA Connect consider the most important lessons learned:

The New Content Paradigm

Rethinking content strategy was one of the major themes discussed during the conference. So what is the future of content strategy? Forget the old generation’s rigid use of agency-produced campaign material or sloppy banner ads en masse. The future of content strategy holds authentic posts and meaningful partnerships. 

The concept of USG (User-Generated Content), or the broader notion of CGC (Community-Generated Content), is content freely produced and published by a product or service community. It can come in images, videos, testimonials, or audio, since everybody can be a creator today. The authentic engagement of UGC and CGC can be understood as the modern version of word-of-mouth. So, how come this content strategy is so compelling? Because people trust people.

Another way to achieve genuine connection is through meaningful influencer partnerships based on shared values. This is realized by moving from the transactional 10 percent off promo code to co-created advertisements with actual excitement and love for the brand behind it. The outdated method of tactically buying media space can also easily be replaced by long-term partnerships with advertising channels. Here, actual relevant promotional collaborations can be created.

Bye-Bye Traditional Metrics

Do not get lost in the statistics of site views and link clicks, but start discovering other criteria to evaluate marketing results. Many SXSW speakers stressed the importance of looking at alternative indicators when assessing advertisement performance. This array of inputs includes net promoter score, data-measured behavior, online reviews, and social mentions. The most valuable one was raised as being genuine love for a brand.

Time to Accelerate!

Keeping a company up to speed has been a recurring theme during SXSW. Testing new content, campaigns, and messages to stay up to date simply requires strategic thinking, creativity, and analytic capacities. This lesson can, in turn, be epitomized by the quote from Dara Treseder: “intuition drives testing, data drives decision-making”. On a more concrete level, a practical measure to accelerate company progress is to introduce innovation KPIs, specifically in middle management, as an incentive to modernize.

Lastly, no one attending the conference has escaped the absolute hype of this year: metaverse. The concept itself is vague but could be understood as a simulated digital space, through either augmented or virtual reality, where people can connect and interact. A significant number of keynotes and featured sessions discussed its rise and potential successful impact, while others had another take predicting it to be the biggest flop in decades. 

We are thankful for the many SXSW 2022 insights that we can bring back to the full team at NoA Connect and all the exciting things we have ahead. See you in the metaverse!

Find the original LinkedIn Post from us here