What’s happening at the other digital conference…
In his guest posting, Sound Alliance commercial director Ben Shepherd writes from the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas where he learnt that “Twitter is just a bunch of digital people talking to themselves, about themselves”.
So instead of trekking a few ks down the road to Adtech, I decided to fly 17 hours to Austin, Texas, to check out the SXSW Interactive conference for 2010.
Why you ask? Well it was definitely not a case of wanting to spend a day travelling, it was more due to the fact that I wanted to hear a lot of people use words other than ‘brands’, ‘traditional media’, ‘dialogue’ and ‘engagement’ when talking about media.
Unfortunately these terms seem to be mandatory for conferences these days so it’s a case of tolerating them to get the real insightful nuggets.
One thing that really amazes you about by SXSW is the sheer size of it. It’s massive. It takes over the town. There are literally 15-20 sessions going on at any one time and they are all at capacity.
It’s a diverse mix of people too – ad wankers such as myself, fanboys, techies downing energy drinks at 9am, salespeople and general digital zealots. Conference attendees from film and interactive have taken over the town.
On Wednesday the music conference rolls in and apparently its even bigger.
The big news today was around Twitter CEO, Evan Williams’ keynote and the buzz was around the launch of its new ad platform. This didn’t happen.
Instead Williams faced an audience around 5,000 strong and launched a new development called @anywhere.
Basically @anywhere sees Twitter integrate better with the rest of the web. It allows sites to integrate Twitter functionality to better reduce friction. It aims to generate more followers for journalists, writers and subject matter whilst not requiring users to leave the site they are on.
This is not an ad platform said Williams, it’s a relationship platform.
Initial @anywhere partners include Digg, Yahoo, Bing, HuffPo and AdAge amongst others.
The reaction was lukewarm at best.
One thing I didn’t get was how @anywhere was more than a basic product evolution. Personally, the commercial model didn’t appear obvious whatsoever.
I think the crowd expected more than what was delivered, which was basically an interview conducted by an interviewer who placed Williams on a pedastool – Harvard Business Review blogger, Umair Haque.
At times Haque’s level of fanboyism was uncomfortable. He used the word “interesting” or “really interesting” way too many times, and shied away from the questions most people wanted answered i.e. what is your revenue model and how do you plan to make money?
The crowd on exit felt tense, disappointed even. The keynote appeared to be a 60 minute opportunity for Haque to tell Williams how awesome he was and how evolutionary Twitter was as a platform.
Williams was a pleasant enough speaker but I couldn’t help but feel Twitter was more a social experiment than a real business. For mine, it appears to be a ubiquitous platform similar to the text message or email as opposed to something that can be monetised.
A lot of discussion after the keynote in the halls in Austin revolved around Twitter’s lack of a legitimate business model four years after launching. Maybe some will accuse me of being small minded, but the concept of developing a digital business with no regard for revenue appears to be a bit of a cliche given it’s 2010.
Like any conference, there’s no holding back when it comes to the big statements. Some notable ones from some sessions today:
- If you don’t evolve to digital in the next six months, you’ll be out of a job (if you work in advertising)
- The change we have created in the last 10 years is more important than in the previous 200 (big call even from a digital person!)
- No one in TV is making any money
- When I was born in 1954 a stamp cost three cents. Now when I tell that story everyone says to me “what the f*ck is a stamp?”
- It’s all about brand integration, experiences and ideation (said to thundering applause)
- Twitter is just a bunch of digital people talking to themselves, about themselves. Maybe some of you need to get away from your f*cking computers and into the real world (said by digital agency copywriter)
As the evening wears on the parties begin. Foursquare, Gowalla and Microsoft all have shindigs going on right now and the streets of Austin are alive and kicking.
Tomorrow Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, delivers a keynote. Here’s hoping he has some news about the services expansion.
By Sound Alliance commercial director, Ben Shepherd
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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What the fuck is a stamp?
A good read, Ben.
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Thanks for summarising. Was interesting to get an insight into SXSW.
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Great read, Ben.
Good to see that the bold and ridiculous declarations spouted as fact by Australia’s social media elite are also prominent in the states, it would be unfair if only our ears were getting polluted.
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Fun update from Texas. Keep ’em coming.
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And will tomorrow be’ engagement’ free I wonder 😉
I am also a tweeple – but not quite convicted. Feels to me like there are a lot of sellers and not too many buyers.
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pretty good report – thanks
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Thanks for the excellent guest posting, Ben. Makes me wish I was there!
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
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I laughed so hard I cried when I read this – I’m just as guilty of twittering as most of the digital folk who read Mumbrella but the statement is so incredibly apt it’s ironic.
This was a great read Ben.
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and the statement I refer to is:
* Twitter is just a bunch of digital people talking to themselves, about themselves. Maybe some of you need to get away from your f*cking computers and into the real world (said by digital agency copywriter) *
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Well written Ben. As usual you cut out the crap that afflicts so many people when they talk about this space. I look forward to hearing more.
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same as above, ect. ect.
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Loved the stamp call. Nice work Ben.
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Entertaining insight, Shep. Thanks.
WTF is a stamp? Love it!
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Good article and succinct description of the atmosphere at SXSW.
However I question your assertion re texting (“Twitter…a ubiquitous platform similar to the text message or email as opposed to something that can be monetised.)
Our lovely telcos have got texting monetised “up the wazoo”. They make enormous profits on these little suckers; cf. http://bit.ly/5rv65F
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hey tim … carriers make money on texting … but i wonder if the person who invented the format made anything.
Excellent read!
Ironically, I am still at my computer…but about to head into the real world for a drink.
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In addition to being full of digital people, Twitter is rapidly becoming just a traffic acquisition vehicle for websites and brands.
twitter is part of the future of comms. get used to it.
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Shep – as grounded as all your posts always are. I’m off to do some philately.
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