The opportunity to go to Austin for SxSW seemed liked a dream come true and an opportunity not to pass up.  As I’m sure all of my colleagues would echo, I’m so glad I went.
Getting to Austin proved to be a real headache.  As an individual who considers herself conscientious and responsible, I was somewhat amazed and absolutely furious that I missed my flight (due to circumstances mostly out of my control, mind you).  Hopping the next flight out proved impossible as I sat through three additional departures without setting foot on a plane.  It wasn’t until the next morning I arrived – finally – in Austin.

Austin itself is an artistic college town with a western flair.  I can imagine it’s a great place to call home as an undergrad or even young family.  Although it’s a hip and pleasant place, when SxSW comes into town, the place is transformed into an eclectic ball of transformative energy. 

I’ve been in crowds before (I lived a block from Wrigley Field for years) and so I’m accustomed to the energy that crowds create.  But most of the time, it’s a raucous – and oftentimes drunk or unwieldy – energy that pervades a crowd.  At SxSW, it was an energy generated by a group of individual all there for a similar cause and desire.  There was excitement and enthusiasm rivaled by any Texas highschool football game but it was also a harmonious energy.  People were there to create and connect and you were infected by this desire to meet others and learn their stories.

I went for the music but found the “common folk”, my fellow attendees, to be the best part of the experience.  It’s remarkable how so many “ordinary” people have such extraordinary stories to tell!  There were countless aspiring musicians who were corporate moguls by day but there were just as many genuinely good people that didn’t have high powered jobs or fancy cars but had amazing adventures to share.  Carl, a guy from Ottowa, had been to literally every place on earth I could imagine and had some story to tell of each location.  I could have listened to him for hours.

So spending a few days as a wannabe groupie was all well and good but I went on behalf of PepsiCo so shouldn’t I have wisdom to impart on this wonderful and generous organization from the experience?  Well, fortunately, I am not at a loss for juicy nuggets of insight for PepsiCo to use.  So in standard corporate style, I will share my food for thought in bullet point:

• Millenials are all about connection.  Although they claim that being unique is what it’s all about, they really want to belong to a bigger cause, they want to relate to those that are like-minded “rebels”.  Cause Marketing has and does resonate with this target.
• “Branding” is so 2009.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is slapped with a corporate sponsor logo.  In a sea of brands, how does your logo stand out?  Yeah, it doesn’t.  You have to get your brand out there by standing for something – not just being pasted on it.  Which leads to my third point…
• Authenticity is key.  Be true to your brand.  If you’re Depends Undergarments, don’t waste your time trying to be hip and trendy.  The consumer – especially the Millenial – will see right through you.   If you still want to target a younger demographic, you don’t always have to go the trendy, irreverent route.  Quality, heritage, trust can still speak to this target.
• Blogs are hot but people don’t like reading – they like watching.  I appreciate that my mom is probably the only person who would take the time to read this entry in its entirety.  Our generation is all about instant gratification and taking the time to read something just isn’t worth the effort.  So how do we connect through intimate venues like blogs?  Video!  We’re all voyeurs at heart.  Being able to see into another person’s world is compelling to us – even if it’s someone’s world we don’t relate to.

So there you have it, folks.  All you need to know about marketing to Millenials, you can learn at South by Southwest.

Matt was the younger of the two lawyers and was an aspiring musician himself with two albums under his belt.  At the second show of the night, he was gushing over the ethereal beauty and poignant lyrics of the musician who was up next, Meiko.  She came out before her set to get a drink and was standing long by the bar.  Matt, star struck, was staring at her with longing in his eyes yet wouldn’t make a move towards her. So, trying to be a good wingman, I figured I’d break the ice and tell her what a huge fan I was while nonchalantly introducing Matt.  Well, I didn’t realize at the time that I had committed the cardinal sin of fandom.  Shortly after forcing this introduction, I was admonished for interfering.  So here’s what I found out – and I’d like to impart this wisdom on to fellow fans so that you too can avoid such a fatal mistake.

In the world of music, there are two types of fans – those who revel in their fandom and unabashedly worship the musicians and those who pretend to rise above the superficialities of celebrity to make a deeper, more authentic connection with these musicians.  They’re no longer just fans.  No, they’re friends, they’re confidants, they’re equals.

It’s important to know, though, that it’s difficult to make the leap between the two types of fans.  If you start out as the adoring fan, you’re already firmly entrenched in the audience that the musician cannot see you as “one of them” unless you do something extraordinary to demonstrate your worthiness as a colleague.  Few have attempted such a leap and even fewer have succeeded.  Thus, it is much easier to build this emotional bond with the musician by coming off as a disinterested acquaintance who isn’t impressed with the superficialities of celebrity since it is, of course, something you’ve experienced yourself.  Even if you haven’t stepped foot on stage, you must speak to the hardships of the shows, the road, the groupies.  You must demonstrate that you can empathize with the artist’s struggles.

So next time you try and do your friend a favor by introducing him to his musical love interest, think again.  Don’t debase his existence by making him into a lowly, simpering fan.  After all, he needs to build his “street cred”.  In this circumstance, the best wingman is either a fellow musician or an industry professional but never, ever should you be just another fan.

Although in theory this panel would have been rife with healthy debate and poignant theories, it proved to be a painful and colossal waste of an hour of my life. The moderator (and I use that term VERY loosely) was like a harried kindergarten teacher on his first day of work.  He was unable to keep his panel of esteemed judges or his crowd in check.  Although two of the panelists were cool, two of them were lawyers who thought it worth the audience’s time to hear them wax eloquent about obscure case law and legal definitions.  It literally got to the point where with five minutes remaining, a girl raised her hand and asked “So why hasn’t the music industry sued ‘Girl Talk’?”  Oh yeah, was that why we were here?

Although I walked away learning more about “fair use” and copyright infringement, I believe it was the witty, sardonic entertainment lawyers I sat next to that educated me more than the actual panel.  In fact, the complete lack of cohesion or inability to actually arrive at a point was the most entertaining aspect of this panel.

So I have no wisdom to share from this panel other than to say that you should never put two law professors on a panel unless you’re looking to punish your audience with long-winded, irrelevant commentaries.