Google hosted an event at SXSW that explored their product design platform and upcoming involvements with products.
Inspiration. Disruption. Restraint. These were three key themes at SXSW 2013, but there were two others on the air as well…
Theme #4: The Value of Sharing
Shareable content is the currency of the social web. This has been true since the early development of social media. Once “going viral” meant instant celebrity (even if only for a moment) the race was on to create and share the next great meme. But now that tons of social media data has been analyzed, researchers know some of the key factors that make shareable content viral content. Having lessened the marketing risk with data, corporate brands will engage the social web en masse in the coming year. Today, PRDaily published this article on content marketing that supports this sense that I picked up during SXSW Interactive. Corporate brands are ready to spend a lot of money to emotionally engage people with very well produced and readily sharable content. Sounds like the end of serendipity, doesn’t it? Will there be any room left for Grumpy Cat, LOLcats or other cute, furry memes? While the formula for virality is discernible within the data, there is certainly room for the 99% to create something that sets the cyber world ablaze. The key is to contribute visually engaging content (not simply text and links) that connects emotionally, demands easy immediately achievable action, and doesn’t merely advertise a product/service. During a brief author session featuring Andy Smith, co-author of The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change, suggested that if you can achieve this delicate balance, you will have something valuable that will make an impact on the social web.
Theme #5: Adaptive/Responsive Design
The death of the desktop PC will mean that even more content will be viewed on mobile devices going forward. But what sort of mobile devices? Tablets? eReaders? Smartphones? Something else that has yet to appear? An iWatch? A mug that allows me to drink my coffee and engage with others about world news and financial markets? For online content to be accessible, it must scale to suit an infinite variety of screens. The current approach of creating mobile versions of standard websites is not robust enough to scale effectively to suit these new media. In response to this coming challenge, Adaptive/Responsive Design was a major theme among developers/designers at SXSW. In fact, there was an entire track that required a prior reservation to explore this new approach to design. Instead of identifying particular devices, adaptive/responsive sites are programmed to sense screen dimensions. The site configures itself according to parameters in the code to suit whatever dimensions are possible on a particular device. This new approach provides better control of the user experience regardless of mobile device. The push at SXSW toward this approach to online design is a sign that the anticipated mobile shift has occurred. Those in the business sector and information industries who plan to remain relevant must make these changes quickly in order to adapt to the evolving coming wave of screened devices.
In Sum…
After a couple of weeks of reflection, I came away from SXSW Interactive 2013 with a sense that the next technological horizons will be further development in mobile consumer devices, further development in voice command technologies and further development in gesture sensitive controls for devices that likely become more and more wearable. On the business/marketing horizon, the business culture will continue to adapt to a marketplace that is increasingly mobile, increasingly information savvy, and increasingly aware of its power to command and control the marketplace. Brands who can connect with their customers emotionally by effectively leveraging the social web and create simple, direct online access to products and services that add genuine value to people’s lives will be successful. Others will be left scratching their heads as they try to do “traditional” marketing, advertising and PR to limited effect. Long gone are the days where a company establishes its brand by telling its story through traditional media channels with the assumption that a receptive television/radio/print/web-based public is ready to drink it in. Brands are now defined almost completely by the corporate consumer experience with the brand. Companies have very little control over this environment in a mobile, connected world. The company who can be available at the moment and in the space where the consumer experiences a need will be successful. And that is a completely different game than marketers are used to playing.
Once again, SXSW Interactive provided me with insights into what is happening right now that help me keep my fingers on the pulse of the culture. This is exactly why I came back for my second year, and precisely why I anticipate returning in 2014 when that strange “something” that happens in Austin during five intense but enjoyable and freeing days will happen once again. I am already ready.