I recently contributed to an AdNews piece asking whether the Australian ad industry needed its own Superbowl, or more specifically its own annual campfire celebration of TVCs. My answer was an unequivocal ‘no’, my reasoning being that TV is obviously now a mere fragment of what we do and those clutching onto it as the yardstick of creativity are like old men in slippers, unaware the industry has since moved on several times over.
In short, I’m a fervent believer that the only way our industry can be a respected and unique force on the global stage is through constant evolution and, more critically, by forging our own path. That will help us draw the best talent, inspire the best thinking and drive the next round of reinvention and innovation.
But, as I write this on the long trip back home from SXSW in Austin, I’m going to slightly contradict that thought by stating that I believe we need our own SXSW, or more precisely our own version of it.
Celebrating its 30th year, SXSW is a sweaty, heaving mass of energy, ideas and inspiration. It brings together music, movies and interactive into a single festival that uses the uniquely vibrant city of Austin as its glorious backdrop.
By combining all of that into one massive format, SXSW achieves what so many other industry conferences fail to by being far too laser-focused on a single subject or just talking shop. Instead, SXSW celebrates ‘intersections’ – it brings together the best minds and ideas across multiple verticals to show what’s being done and, even more illuminatingly, what’s truly possible.
As the countless “What I learned at SXSW” lists will attest, the big technology of the year was VR. But rather than simply talking about it as a format (as most other conferences would) there were endless sessions demonstrating and discussing its application across movies, live music, sports, exercise, medicine and even warfare. It then becomes each participant’s task to define their own use cases and within that find the role of the artist, sportsman, consumer, patient, customer or brand. SXSW therefore is a selective journey of discovery, interpretation and inspiration, relative to you and (most importantly) the effort you put into extracting it.
Of course, many of the sessions I attended were industry specific or aligned with client need. However, I was often most interested in the more lateral subjects. I was captivated by a US Army general talking passionately about how new media can help defeat ISIS, and by a session on the evolving role of technology in connected cities of the future. Another unpacked the CIA’s social media strategy, and I was awed by how technology will help us edit genetics to defeat diseases. I even got to indulge my huge bromance with JJ Abrams by watching him riff about how technology can help evolve storytelling.
SXSW is not without its faults; its size can be overwhelming and, like Glastonbury, it can often leave you choosing between competing sessions, with regrettably some better than others. Some critics say SXSW is a party masquerading as a conference and, in part, they are right (there is a lot of partying). However, it is in this very scope, size and ‘partying’ where SXSW’s true brilliance lies. Some of the most interesting people I met and ideas I heard were shared over a Texas BBQ lunch, or over a beer or two listening to a band in the fairy-lit gardens of Rainey St.
If what we do every day is so dependent on the way we interpret culture, how people are increasingly using technology and the media we want to leverage, why is such an approach so absent in the way we come together locally to share ideas and inspiration?
Our industry has a great opportunity to shift away from being insular and start playing the role of facilitator – to bring together great minds and ideas not just in business, but across cultural and creative verticals. The timing is right, with the shift in governmental rhetoric and funding favouring a more innovative and start-up friendly culture – if we don’t evolve further into that space then we will truly miss the boat.
We may not have the scale to deliver the scope of SXSW, but something shorter or smaller in scale could be just as effective. If understanding where consumers are going next is essential to our survival, being there first is essential to our success. What choice do we have?
By Lachlan James, head of strategy at CX agency Lavender.