SXSW, Advertising And A Shit Show

We’ve heard some cavils from advertising folk about how disappointed they were at this year’s SXSW events. The common complaint was that not enough agencies were involved at large – sponsoring panels, holding parties, talking the talk. Basically, the thought leadership passed on whole shebang. For those of you living under a rock, SXSW is more than a showcase for rockers and film heads. The event also holds an interactive schedule chocked full of useful panels such as “What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones” and other talks that might not be so handy to ad folk like “Quit Your Day Job and Vlog.”

Speakers at various panels (oddly mostly on the film side) included: Hank Blumenthal – Schematic; Peter Cole – AKQA, Joesph Crump – Avenue A/Razorfish; and Ian Schafer – Deep Focus.

Sounds like a bummer, right? Our guess is that traditional agencies don’t consider SXSW a serious venue to get to the down and dirty. The staffers that do go are probably thinking -”Hell, yeah, I’m going to South By… I’m gonna get crunk. Catch Band of Horses and maybe parlay my way into a new gig at Schematic.” Oh! Avenue A had a party, which looks, you know… like an advertising party. Rah.

More interesting is the video above of the interview between Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Lacy that turned into a shit show when “audience members, apparently tired of constant interruptions by Lacy and references to her own projects in the interview, essentially said they weren’t going to sit for such lame questions and demanded to ask their own.” Scroll to about six minutes and fifteen seconds when it really gets interesting.