
At SXSW, Apple schools the marketing experts - evo_9
http://www.cnet.com/8301-14013_1-20042569-284.html
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blhack
Can somebody explain to me what SXSW is? I was always under the impression
that it was a music festival in Austin, but it sounds like over the last 3
years it's morphed into some sort of "social media" expo/convention.

Has the entire world gone completely insane? A huge, publicly traded, multi-
national consumer electronics company opens a place for people to spend money,
and this is the most memorable part of SXSW?

"Well, sonny-boy, let me tell you about the best SXSW ever! Apple opened one
of their stores right in the festival and let me give them my money! It was
great!"

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waterlesscloud
It started as a music festival in the late 80s, though "music festival"
doesn't really cover what it was even then.

It was from the start more of a showcase for indie bands to make their mark
than a festival in the same sense as most other fests. Bands with little
exposure (but hopefully much talent) would be invited by the curators, and
reps from all the record labels would show up. It was a chance to make a name
for yourself. There's also a music biz conference that goes along with it.

They eventually added a film festival, and it's become a launching pad for
indie filmmakers in the same way the music side did. It's not Sundance, but in
some circles it's even more influential as it doesn't back off from genre
material. It also has a biz conference for film.

In the last 10 years or so, they started playing up the "interactive" side as
well. Basically a conference for new media, internet startups, etc. That's
been gaining ground and is now an influential event in that arena as well.

It seems like it's on the verge of being a little _too_ big these days, with
not entirely favorable comparisons to ComicCon becoming more popular. It might
outgrow its usefulness in the next couple of years, but right now it seems to
be on top of the world in several arenas.

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GeoffreyHull
This article is akin to being impressed if the LA Lakers got accepted to the
NCAA tourney and ended up winning the whole thing. They're the Lakers, they're
supposed to dominate a bunch of college teams.

I fail to see how its considered all that surprising when a company like Apple
has a dominating performance at SXSW when they have access to more money and
resources than any other companies present, arguably by far. Someone please
help me understand. Thanks...

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woan
Ummm... IBM, MS, and Google are there as well, so they aren't the only ones
present with deep pockets. They haven't done anything at SXSWi before that I
am aware of.

It's amazing how SXSWi has grown into a legitimate conference as opposed to
the poorly attended appendage to the Music and Film festival.

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gs8
Not much here, Apple schools the marketing experts because they opened a store
at an event and many people showed up.

This is called event marketing. You have a large number of people with similar
interests and if they are your potential customers, you put yourself there.

The one thing Apple is great at is getting free press by keeping secrets, this
article is a good example of that.

It's a shame what has happened to cnet, they used to have good tech content.
Now they publish poorly written articles with catchy headlines to get clicks.
From the looks of this article it seems like they also employ the same
standards as the new AOL.

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trustfundbaby
I really don't see what was so special about what Apple did ... there were
lines outside of pretty much every Apple store in America to get the ipad 2
...

They opened a temporary store right next to a conference that geeks (who
happen to adore them and the ipad) are going to be in attendance and its
supposed to be this jedi-esque marketing move?

Please.

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pitdesi
This is a terrible article. Not only is it not "brilliant" and the thing that
people will take away from SxSw, but it's also untrue. I'm at SxSw and went to
the Apple store to check the hullabaloo yesterday and there was no line
(afternoon).

So far, I think the thing that people will remember most is Marissa Mayer's
talk on Google Location dominance.

Apple makes great products, but I don't see why the 2nd gen iPad is so sought
after that anyone would spend an entire day of a festival they've spend
thousands of dollars on waiting in line for it (other than to say they were
waiting in line)

