Ray-Ban, Rachel Ray and Fader Forting

So I finally made it in, and the Fader/Levi’s Fort was as cool as everyone made it out to be. The Fort itself had a bunch of different rooms to check out, and that was smart because it encouraged lounging around with some of the Fader magazines laying about. Ray-Ban did a confession booth that also took your picture and printed them out with an access code to see your confession online—that was an excellent way to get people to access the Ray-Ban website.

Before the Fader Fort, we went to the Rachael Ray Party at Beauty Bar, officially called the Feedback Party Hosted by Rachael Ray. They posted flyers everywhere for that party, but enforced their RSVP list, which made for a long, attention-getting line. Inside they were extremely well-organized and served amazing food while heavily promoting (and pouring) the new Rose’s Mojito mix.My camera was out of batteries, so I couldn’t take a picture, but one of the funniest things I’ve seen at SXSW was a sign outside of a bar advertising “free food, gift bags, and beer,” written in marker on a white paper plate, taped to a parking meter. What?! At least take the time to make a poster at home!Again, not as much schwag today. But here’s a look at the final tally of all the free stuff I received at SXSW:

Where are the Schwag Bags?

We might have hit a few less parties today, but there also seemed to be less schwag—I saw fewer people on the streets weighed down with bags, and I only came away with two free shirts. One of those free shirts was even designed by me! Alternative Apparel set up a Do-It-Yourself booth where they had plain white t-shirts, fabric markers, and stencils at Orchid.

We sipped on some free drinks and ate some free tacos and spent a solid hour on our shirts—which is brilliant marketing for the t-shirt company. Not only did we spend an hour with their product, but then we took them home and are going to wear them purely because we made them!Other stops included the Batanga Party at Habana, which was a lot of fun, but I still don’t know what Batanga is. They did, however, follow what I call the Drink Theory of Branding, which means they branded everything that had to with the free drinks they were passing out.

Other notable sights included: an Izze bike, which made no sense but was painted lime green. I wonder if it stemmed from the Hill Country Ride for Aids and their red bikes all around town, or if that’s just a coincidence?

At the Dell Lounge, which presents a very unified front with the same logo on everything from badges to t-shirts to bags, they featured Blogging Stations where anyone could step up to use the computer. Coupled with good music, free Southern Comfort drinks, and the rare schwag bag, it’s done a nice job of branding itself as a place to be. Paste Magazine was a cosponsor, and they were attempting the Radiohead pay-what-you-will experiment. Which is fine, except that our particular salesperson made sure to outline how much it costs the magazine to print and mail, which was a total guilt trip. If you’re going to offer the deal, take what you get, Paste!

Solar Saucer

So I thought it was a giant sombrero and some visitor thought it’d be an easy way to get gullible Texans over to see whatever it was they were selling, but it turns out that this:is actually a Solar Saucer. Obviously I needed to know what www.solarsaucer.com is as soon as I got home, so at 2 am I was up exploring the Solar Saucer. Lesson: giant light-up sombrero-saucers are excellent at attracting attention. The real lesson you can take from that? If you can, build a product that sells itself. The whole point of the Solar Saucer is that it’s powered entirely by the sun, so if you have a giant object sitting in a parking lot at night showing how it is displaying light that’s been stored throughout the day, the product really sells itself.We also went to Moby’s CD release party at Vice, which is sponsored by MetroMix LA. Like Amoeba, I can’t help but wonder why a Los Angeles newspaper wants to advertise so heavily in Austin, but it must be indicative of two things: 1) that they have to promote at the big music events not because of the city, but because of the people that will be there who actually do live or visit LA; and 2) that Austin is a really happening place to be if LA has to advertise here!

Partying in a Parking Garage

Myopenbar.com hosted a party at the Texas Garage, the parking garage at the AMLI building. Naturally, it had an open bar—Dewar’s and ginger beer, Keystone beer—and music. Saucony was there playing shuffleboard and giving out “winner”and “loser” headbands, which is really cool because it’s funny, and because people like labels.

Stella McCartney for LeSportsac was also apparently a sponsor, but there was nothing they were giving out that made any sense, or that was branded at all. They just put out signs that said “LeSportsac” on the tables. Weird.

But the secret to the party was heading upstairs to the very top to the “NYLON/Guess Lounge.” I don’t know why they were sponsoring this, but they had huge floating letters in two pools, which was awesome because they were so huge.

There appeared to be an indoor lounge too, but I couldn’t figure out how to get in there. There was also a photo booth where you could take a picture and have it print out immediately. On the photo, Guess, Nylon, and http://politeinpublic.com/’s logos were all printed as well. Pretty smart, because I love the photo and will keep it for a long time!

Also, here’s a shot of the Guess pool logo later in the night.

Swag Attack!

Thursday Afternoon: Swag Stats

Skateboards: 1
T-shirts: 6 – three unwearable large men’s shirts, three small and cute women’s shirts
Bags: 3
CDs: 6
Necklaces: 1
Stuffed animals: 1
Books: 2
Monitor Headphones: 1

The Alternative Press party at Speakeasy’s Terrace 59 turned out to the be the swag bag of the festival so far.

You know it’s going be good when the ads for the event say “open bar, free food, swag bag.” Walking down the street holding a skateboard (no wheels) and carrying a nice zip-top bag stuffed with crazy things garnered us a lot of attention. As far as branding goes, the Skelanimals brand put tons of good stuff in there, including the skateboard, which made me want to visit online and check them out. I’m not into the company’s products, but because they put so much good, unique stuff in an already good swag bag, I like the company.Next stop was the Filter Magazine party at Cedar Street, because my friend said they had cute shirts last year.Co-sponsored by American Rag, they had cute shirts this year too. Then we hit up The Great ’08 Tailgate at Cedar Door, where we got a bag filled with good stuff. I really liked the logo for the event, and they did a good job of using it on everything—even the cups for drinks! Finally someone wised up to branding the actual vessel out of which you drink!

At the tables, there were just piles and piles of cards advertising CD releases, parties, music companies, etc.

My first reaction was, “this is stupid! That’s horrible branding.” But then I realized that I sat down at the table and flipped through every single one of those cards—and then decided that they were stupid and horribly branded.

Fader Fort Report: Still lines around the corner. We’re never getting in.

Boats & Smokin’

We went on the March Mashup boat cruise, a free-food-and-drink affair Wednesday night. Trying my darndest, I could not find a single reason for it to exist, until one of the founders told me, “we just thought it would be awesome to have a party on a boat, during SXSW.” Well okay.

The sponsors of the event, Red Stripe beer, Hey Cupcake!, and the Daily Juice, were very well-promoted and their products were the only things served, so they certainly benefitted from the event. Daily Juice made crazy – and delicious – cocktails in coconuts, something that was so memorable it makes me want to stop into the Daily Juice to try something in the store. Last night we also went and saw a couple bands at the Smokin’ “place”. I say that because I don’t know what the actual name of it is, but “Smokin’ ______” is written on the side of the building, colored smokebillows out from the roof, you can smoke inside since it’s not technically an indoor venue (which means port-o-potties… ugh), and it’s all sponsored by Natural American Spirit.

You can evenstop by the cigarette “bar” for a fix. If an advertiser can carry out a theme to that extent, it’s pretty impressive. And the smoke is visible for blocks!

On The Streets of the Music Fest

We started the day thinking we’d get to Fader/Levi’s Fort first and move from there, but we arrived at the place to a line stretching down the entire block and a little around the corner.

That’s some clout. There was also a huge Levi’s sign on the side of the building, but everyone there seemed to know that they were on the list, so word about this event must have spread quickly. The Dentyne Ice girls passed out full packs of gum with music cards on the inside, which was convenient.We headed over to Emo’s for the Force Field PR & Terrorbird Media party, where I saw some brilliant branding: the Emo’s over-21 stamp was the Terrorbird logo!

Also pretty smart was Amoeba Music’s plastic bags:

They were empty, but people who had been carrying around all the random swag stuffed those other companies’ stuff into their Amoeba Bag and advertised for Amoeba all day.After a walk down 6th Street—with a stop into the Pirate Elvis party with a make-your-own-peanut-butter-sandwich station and free pirate eye patches—we ultimately were lured into Buffalo Billiards Bar by two giant blow-up bottles of Sauza tequila.

Inside, we found Austin radio station 101X and some other sponsors had turned this little area of Buffalo Billiards into a sort of lounge, where we scored free shot glasses on a string (handy!) and played Austin Sound’s setup of Rock Band. We ended up staying there, playing Rock Band for 45 minutes before we had to go home.

The Calm Before the Swag Storm

Last night was pretty low-key as far as free parties go. There was a huge party at Stubb’s, but it was badge-only, and no amount of name-dropping got us in the door. Instead, we walked down 6th Street, where most of the promotional materials touted all the music shows starting today. Interactive is over; music has not yet begun.Over on Red River there was an awesome sight: a truck parked on the corner and a band playing on top of the truck. Passersby and drive-bys alike craned their necks to see what it was all about. People’s Party, a band/register-to-vote-vehicle, was raising awareness, giving out free CDs and koozies, and offered voter registration forms. An interesting combo, but we spent 15 minutes scoping the whole scene out, so the spectacle worked. And we used our koozies later in the night, further promoting this strange coupling.

We also happened into Latitude 30, a bar who has painted “British Music Embassy” on their façade—which is strangely buzz-worthy. People have been commenting on what commitment it takes to actually paint the building. They were offering free drinks, for no apparent reason, as no one was playing and there were maybe fifteen people in the bar. It was good advertising for the bar, I suppose, but nothing else.Without any other option, we hit Union Park for the mediatemple party, which was also badge-only, butpersistence got us inside that one. The spotlight with Mediatemple’s logo shone on the outside of the building, and it was particularly eye-catching either because of the way the building was or the simplicity of the logo (apparently, lowercase letters as branding are hot this year).

Inside, they had tons of mt stickers spread out on tables, mt coasters and postcards. These were good branding as well, not only because of the drinking but because drunk people stuck the stickers on the tables and bars. Might as well have the people work for your brand as well.note: the People’s Party band photo is from eudaemonia’s Flickr stream.

Leis, Ice Cubes and Finger Puppets

Waiting in line for over an hour to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall at the Paramount, girls in hula skirts braved the chilly weather to go around and lei all those waiting in line. When the movie was over, I was completely surprised to see not one lei lay on the ground … and I even saw leis out much later last night. Maybe I’m an oddity and I just don’t like wearing the swag, but it appears everyone else loves leis.

We headed to PhizzPop where there was some serious branding going on! There were interactive kiosks where you could vote on the best design in an interactive design competition they were hosting, and the bar’s flat screens were all hosting demonstrations of the different projects. People were mesmerized when demos came on—they just sat wherever they were and watched. PhizzPop also had an open bar, a signature drink (red bull & pop rocks), light-up ice cubes, and branded cocktail napkins—if unoriginal, at least it’s smart marketing, since many people are at a party just for the free booze. And the light-up ice cubes made it into our drinks at the next party, where PhizzPop got some publicity from people asking us where we got the ice cubes.

Next, we went to the Facebook party, which billed itself as “Facebook Friends.get party @ SXSW 2008.” Participants could only sign up via Facebook, and I met at least one guy who signed up for a Facebookaccount just to snag an invite to the party. An email sent to registrants said: “Priority admittance will be given to people on our attendee list. Folks with a SXSW conference badge will be admitted as well, as space allows.”That is absolutely genius. Because Facebook users are likely to be the younger crowd that can’t afford the badges, they are placed above the arguably more professional badgeholders. This makes the Facebook-only crowd want to come to the party—and makes them feel like they are truly valued as members of Facebook.

The party also had a very subliminal-message type screen that kept repeating mantras like “Facebook is a part of our daily lives,” and “Facebook is our social utility.” Facebook is a part of my daily life and I do use it as a social utility … so there may be a correlation between the sentiments, but not causation.I found one interesting item when I randomly walked into the NXNW party – this little monster finger-puppet on the ground. I started to play with it, and it attracted tons of attention. Everyone wanted to know where I got it so they could get one too … so to whoever out there brought the monster finger-puppets: put your brand name on them! Or is the monster the brand?

Branding the Interactive Afterparties

My first night on the town during SXSW featured three company-sponsored parties: imeem at Beauty Bar, the PureVolume Ranch, and Blogger at Club Deville. At Beauty Bar, these buttons were splattered about:

I quickly learned that button-scattering is the method du jour, as buttons were scattered about at PureVolume later. Looking closely, imeem’s logo design not only references the exclamation point, but also puts itself in the ubiquitous “i” category along with the iPhone, iPod and other i-related brands.

My friend and I both picked up the teal quilted i-patterned pin; she pinned it to her purse, I tossed it in my bag. A man who later revealed himself to be with imeem asked us which button was our favorite. When we answered, “the quilted one” he replied, “I had to fight to get that one.”When we left, I noticed that not a single quilted-i-pattern button was left on the bartop, whereas the “I heart imeem” buttons still abound. Lesson number one: either trust your instincts or recognize that peopleare bored with the “I heart ____” theme in advertising. So the most successful button was about a unique color, interesting pattern and a fresh design.

A few raindrops later, we were at PureVolume Ranch. I tended bar at PureVolume last year, and this year it’s much more organized. They also have a wider selection of drink mixers and the beverage companies areclearly labeled in all the signage as major sponsors. This is an improvement. But unlike last year there’s no Wii, and I didn’t see anything interactive and cool to take the Wii’s place. Other than the Guitar Hero in the band members-only lounge. Too bad. PureVolume may have the better drink selections, but they have a branding problem. Different companies in turn rent out the PureVolume space each night. But whatever brand was the major sponsor of the night was unknown to me. And, for that matter, I’m not even sure what PureVolume is.

Lastly, we crashed the Blogger party. It advertised itself as invite-only, but I figured we wouldn’t be turned away. We weren’t. And to top it off, we were feted with fingerless gloves! Blogger always seems to take in the weather as a factor– their party last year featured branded scarves. But fingerless gloves are even better.

They have the perfect amount of finger-coverage for warmth, the hipster factor (fingerless gloves made a big splash in fashion this winter), and product visibility. Also, even the most dedicated blogger needs his fingertips free to continue typing away on a keypad. I was surprised to see about half of the revelers wearing the gloves. The bartender even asked us to score him a pair! I hope I didn’t get the best piece of swag on my first night, but it’s going to be hard to beat these Blogger gloves with their super-branded “B”.