SXSW 2023: Why ad people shouldn’t go to ad talks
If marketers are only interested in marketing to marketing people, who’s going to actually buy the product? asks Keep Left copywriter Ruby Gill, following her experiences at SXSW in Austin this past week.
It’s a typical Saturday at SXSW – half the world’s elite brand and ad execs are standing in a stifling queue that snakes from level four of the Austin Convention Centre down a fire escape, onto a balcony, and down three corridors. The stragglers won’t make it in to see “Why a great UX is key to advertising”, or whatever session has everyone’s attention this time, and will be left wandering the streets with an hour to kill (tragic).
This is what they call survival of the fittest (quite literally, considering the speed you’d need to have walked three blocks from your previous session to get there). And it’s been the scene at every major brand, tech or advertising session this week – from TikTok to ChatGPT.
But two blocks over, an entirely different dynamic is playing out – to an almost empty room.
Goes to show the benefit of trying something unfamiliar and getting out of your comfort zone. It’s a big exciting world outside our own bubbles.