1. 8th-12th March
SXSW2013
South By South West 2013
Ogilvy London Labs Report
By Will Harvey
South by South West in Austin, Texas is divided
into three festivals or conferences; Music, Film
and Interactive. It’s the Interactive part that most
of our industry seems to descend on every year
but that Interactive title doesn’t do it justice.
SXSW Interactive is where technology, creativity,
culture and business come together and the output
is, quite simply, a vision of the future that is here
now. There are plenty of marketing related
conversations, but so much more, something that
reflects the increasingly complex relationships
between products and services, technology,
marketing and people.
I have collected together a bite size overview of
everything from SXSW that Ogilvy should be
thinking about, considering and embracing over
the next year to 18 months. From trends in
innovation, through to the future of air travel and
the expanding start up cultures around the world,
Please enjoy!
Ogilvy London this year was out in force with 10
of us ranging from Creative, Digital, Social , UX
and Planning taking in the inspirational speakers,
workshops and keynotes across the 5 day event.
@WilliamEdHarvey
dialogue and interest from agencies to properly
embrace innovation and try to stay on top of
upcoming trends and technology that consumers
are sure to adopt and which therefore, they need
to be sharing with their Clients.
Some scary stats...
- SXSW Started in 1987
- The interactive aspect of it has been going for 20 years
- There were over 1000 Conference talks over 5 Days
- 30,000 attendees just for Interactive - 3x More than 5
years ago
This was my second time at SXSW and the
content of the conference had just exploded this
year. This could be to do with the increasing
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2. TRENDS OF SXSW
Trends Of SXSW
What should we be
aware of in 2013?
“We generate so much
data in our daily lives but
right now it’s disjointed”
Big Data
Rick Orr - Founder of Tabbedout
The one Big phrase that stood out
across the board this year at SXSW was
un-doubtedly Big Data! From small
talks about devices that capture our
daily movements, to what we upload,
share and view online. Data is
continuing to be generated everywhere,
but the buzz this year was about how we
must start to identify and use it
effectively, with real purpose. The
concept of BD is not new to SXSW, but
the consensus seems to be that it’s only
truly valuable when used to create
positive behavioral change through
insights into human behaviour and
therefore help to streamline methods of
communication process through data
mining. It was timely that BD was such
a hot topic, as Ogilvy London Lab is
already driving just that as part of our
next Lab semester! ( June 6th) Our goal
– to inspire and inform a number of our
brands about the importance of BD
and how to use it correctly.
Liars’ - 30K tweets per min. on its final
season.
Brands are now adding visual #hashtags
to top and tail commercials, thus
making them able to easily measure
social conversations relating to them live
and see the online impact through
simple analytics of their consumer
interaction.
Twitter’s impact on TV
The rise of AirBnB
As social media starts to gain its way
into more and more aspects of our
everyday lives, there is no doubt that
Twitter has altered our TV
consumption and how that’s measured.
In the talk ‘How has Twitter changed
how we watch TV’ Jenn Deering from
Union Metrics, spoke about the
convergence that happens through
social media channels (specifically
Twitter). Viewers now have a space to
engage with one another and even
characters/stars of the shows. 1 in 3 of
every tweet is about a TV programme
world wide, and the programme with
the largest tweets per min recorded was
the U.S teen drama series ‘Pretty Little
“50% of the 40 bn. apps
downloaded through the
app. store were
downloaded only in the
last year! ”
Thomas Fellger-CEO of
Iconmobile
Last year AirBnB made a huge impact
on a very small group of key early
adopters, with huge media coverage
post event. This year it took the more
general audience of SXSW by storm!
AirBnB allows you to find local rooms
and houses to rent for short periods of
time directly from owners and residents
themselves.
I actually stayed at an AirBnB back in
2012, and did so again this year – so
easy to book, great location and great
people. This whole area of a more
collaborative, social economy is an
exciting new space to watch and may
easily challenge the big budget hotel
chains in major cities.
Vine
The new social media platform for 2013
was Vine. Their # was used over 14,000
times in 5 days, and they were identified
as being the most talked about online
trend across all channels for Day 1 of
the event. Vine allows users to create a 6
second burst of video to then be viewed
on Twitter! The fun, quick, quirky
experience of the user capturing an
event just adds to its charm, so watch
this brand.
Angry Cat
Viral Videos and Internet sensations
come and go in the blink of an eye.
The 2013 SXSW viral hit (and slightly
over used) was Angry Cat. Interestingly
it generated more chatter in the social
space than any other speaker or
technology from the event. May have
had something to do with the quick
thinking of the Mashable team, who
tracked down a ‘physical’ Angry Cat
and brought him to SXSW for fans to
have their picture with him!
Leap Motion
Gesture-enabled
computer
With a wave of your hand
The ten-finger-trackable motion controller
demonstration shows millimetre-accurate
capabilities and has highly impressive
smoothness.
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ever-growing list of supported apps. the
soon to be shipped device stole the
hardware centre stage this year.
The hardware that stole the show was
arguably the Leap Motion.
First announced 6 months ago, Leap is a
tiny motion detection device that sits
beneath your monitor and allows the
user gesture interaction with a number
of supported apps.
Developers are already going crazy for
the potential use of this compact box of
sensors. By using Leap you could enable
any OOH display to be controlled by
gesture alone, for a miniscule cost - £59
- vastly undercutting its competitors.
An affordable gesture display device
opens up stacks of possibilities for richer
more engaging experiences for users,
through the use of a more natural mode
of interaction.
The Leap allows pinpoint accuracy not
seen before (imagine Microsoft Kinect
on steroids..). With its simple set up and

3. WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY
Wearable Technology
Technology is the next Fashion statement
Google Glass
Google glass is a computer built into your glasses
and allows a number of features: Photo and video
capture, message dictation, map overlaying, speak
to translate, live video calling and display
notifications from your phone.
Since Google announced the Google Glass project
over a year ago, the internet has been awash with
sightings of Google employees and management
seen out in the wild sporting pairs of the ‘heads up’
display glasses. However, very little actual evidence
or visuals had been seen except for the occasional
tease or Google skydiving Video event ‘Hangout’.
So, one of the most over-subscribed and highly
anticipated talks was from the GG team, delivered
by Timothy Jordan - Senior developer. He gave us
one of the first live views of what to expect from
the “ambitious” release by end 2013. Seeing the
Glass demo live & its expected features really
brought to life the possibility of overlaying digital
info. onto our analog world. What will make or
break the uptake will surely be whether the
distraction of 2 sets of messages will work….
Smart Fabrics
Fashionable technology has been mooted for a few
years now; the idea of making the cloth we wear
day-to-day smarter and reactive is of high interest
to the Fashion industry. This year was no
exception. The huge success of products like
Nike’s fuel band and Jawbone seem to be bringing
all the hype to a reality at last. Tech Designer
Jennifer Darmour from Artefact spoke about their
developments in weaving technology into our
clothing, allowing users to program a series
Eye spy
Google glass was
out in force this
year at sxsw.
spotting them
among the crowds
on most days was
very easy
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“In a group of early adopters the
question isnt ‘do you track?’ but ‘How
many trackers are you wearing right
now’ ”
Syuzi- Blogger, FashioningTech
of commands and linked gestures into their
clothing. So, when they draw a circle on their
sleeve with a finger it texts their partner “I am
going to be late” or a triangle would email a parent
to say “I can’t wait to see you”.
Google Smart Trainers
Without a doubt, the maddest announcement at
SXSW was the partnership between Google and
Adidas for a ‘smart trainers’ project. Focusing on
connected objects the ‘Art Project’ looked at how a
computer is embedded into a pair of trainers, to
then connect to your ‘phone and allow automated
posting to your social media networks updates The
connected trainers also have an AI personality to
them, verbalised through a speaker built into the
tongue of the trainers. So, if you were walking
slowly then started to run or jump, the trainer
would speak out from the trainers themselves and
tweet things such as “that’s more like it” and “I
love the feeling of wind in my laces” It was to be
fair called an ‘Art Piece’ by Google and is unlikely
to become a real product range, it did show the
most extreme use of connected clothing! It does
however illustrate that the big players feel that
Smart clothing is here to stay.

4. SPACE
“I would like to die on Mars.... Just not on
impact”
Elon Musk - Founder of Space X
Space
Next step for consumers?
A surprising focus this year for a number of panels was our reinterest in space and the new possibilities for travel it might
offer. There were 12 different Space-focused talks and multiple
mentions in other sessions. The two major keynotes pulling
most attention were Elon Musk speaking about his Space X
and Astro Teller about Google X Space elevator.
determination, and only a couple of months late in February
2013 he showed the sceptics it could be done!
That has now sparked a multi trip contract from NASA to
deliver supplies to the ISS until 2016!
Elon Musk headed up the keynote on Day 2. He spoke about
his own project Space X and its recent successful trip to deliver
supplies to the international space station. He outlined too the
more ambitious project to colonise Mars! He came across as a
very driven individual, with a very focused goal to not just put
man on Mars but to actually start to colonize it.
His drive and motivational view on life was infectious, so when
he spoke about the serious doubts his investors had about the
project and how he had set a specific goal to have the first
privately owned shuttle by end 2012. Through grit and
In a recent interview, Branson spoke about his project and
what the future could hold for the everyday person. With
Galactic’s shuttles going in to the outer atmosphere, the
potential of London to New York in an hour and a half and
not 8 makes mass market superfast travel a real possibility!
Another example of brands using space and human’s interest
in it was the recent Red Bull Stratos project, in that Skydiver
Felix Baumgartner took a balloon into the edge of earth’s
atmosphere and freefell back to earth. The project was backed
and branded by Red Bull and was a perfect example of
Branded entrainment as well as breaking new ground in brand
sponsorship.
Another space program that has been big in the news recently
has been Richard Branson's perspective on commercialising
Humanity’s interest in space travel has been a roller-coaster
space travel - Virgin Galactic. The project aims to run reride from the first moon landing nearly 50 years ago. There
usable commercial flights into space in a craft that can hold 8
are a number of nations, all trying to go bigger, better, further people. Originally announced back in 2009, (and with a
faster with space exploration. Since NASA announced it would number of successful test flights over the last 2 years) they plan
no longer have a space program, the privatisation of space
to start commercial flights by the end of 2013. Already with an
travel has been a extremely hot topic, with a number of big
names like Richard Branson (Virgin), Jeff Booze (Amazon) and undisclosed number of tickets bought for the proposed flights,
there seems to be real interest in participating in space travel.
Elon Musk (Paypal) developing their own space projects.
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5. PHYICAL DIGITAL
Physical / Digital
Worlds collide!
“New Technologies are
enabling us to blend
our digital and physical
worlds”
3D printing
With 3D printing a 3D digital design
from your computer can be turned
into a 3 Dimensional object.
3DP is said to be a game changer for
the manufacturing industry, with
many people calling it ‘The birth of
Manufacturing 2.0’ with its possibility
to disrupt everything we know about
supply and demand. There have been
various forms of 3D printing around
for some time, but in the last year
there is a massive influx in affordable
3D printers for the home, or small
businesses. Most noticeable player in
this market is the Brooklyn-based
Makerbot whose CEO spoke as part
of the opening keynote this year. A
basic starter 3DP is around £1100
and creative ideas can almost instantly
become physical objects. They even
opened the first 3Dprinting store in
New York last year. You can go in, get
your head scanned and get a printed
miniature made up on the same day.
A 3DP in the back of a British Gas van
at a consumer’s home and could print a
spare part needed there and then! A
prototype for NPD packaging is
achievable now.
Warren Kronberger - Director of
Research and development ,
The Marketing store
other industries like teaching, more
time-efficient lectures beamed between
countries with a more of a physical
presence, not just on a screen!
Jawbone UP
Competitor to Nike Fuelband,
Jawbone UP which goes a few steps
further.
The simple wrist band that pairs with
your smart phone, helps you to get to
know yourself better through
Beam Video conferences
monitoring your sleep patterns, 24/7
The idea of Video conferencing or even activity tracking and even mood and
food inputs. It then uses an insights
virtual Doctors isn’t a new concept but
engine database to help you to eat more
Beam take it to the next stage and
healthily, wakes you up when best in
create physical moving conference
your sleep pattern and to plan a more
units, controlled by the user on the
other end of the call (see above image) . effective fitness scheme.
Allowing technology to monitor and
This allows a truly mobile virtual
presence that is already being trialled by track our daily behaviour could really
open up potential for more personalised
a few hospitals in the US. This unlocks
services and products and offers. A
the possibility for
3D Laser Scanner
Makerbot Releases
Digitizer to compliment
printer range
3D scanner
Makerbot announced the release of their first
consumer level desktop digitizer .
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Digital Health client could partner with
them to providing more accurate
products to help with a balanced
lifestyle and accurate treatment for
vitamins and supplements.
Tweeting bikes
For the last couple of years agencies
have been trying to create something
fun, playful and theatrical for SXSW
and after last year’s BBH homeless WiFi
campaign someone had to step up their
game. Razorfish certainly did that with
their #UseMeLeaveMe project. They
provided free bicycles for attendees with
a twist. A bike tweeted its location when
it had been left unused for a certain
time. Attendees would find one nearby
using the hashtag, ride it to their
destination then leave it for the next
person, the bike continued then to tweet
out for the next person to come and
ride!
physical object and digitize it into a 3D
object on your computer.
This is really exciting if you pair it up
with the 3D Printer, as users would be
able to put an object in the scanner, scan
Makerbot is the Brooklyn-based
it, send it to 3D printer and print it all in
company that for the last few years have
their own home. This revolution could
brought out a series of innovative 3D
mean a huge disruption to the consumer
Printing products for the consumer
product space with people replicating
market. This year at SXSW Bre Pettis the
products at home, and with that a whole
founder of Makerbot, took stage as the
new form of piracy and copyright
opening keynote speaker and announced
infringement of physical objects presents
its most ambitious new produce to date
itself.... I suspect that this will cause much
the 3D Digitizer!
debate and who knows, legislation?
The Makerbot Digitizer is a desktop 3D
scanner that will allow you to scan a

6. START UP CULTURE
Start up Culture
All eyes are on London
The Start-up culture around the world has exploded after
the .com revolution of Silicon Valley. It has fuelled a number
of cities own take off, New York’s Silicon Alley, Tel Aviv
Silicon boulevard and London’s Silicon roundabout near Old
Street are three of the most significant.
London’s start up space has already had a number of
successes such as Unruly Media, Moshi Monsters and
Moo.com.
This year there is a lot of chatter about what next from
London. The Tech scene counts for 8% of the UK’s GDP.
With the world’s eyes on London (after its move up from 7th
to 5th most influential start-up ecosystem) what’s next is so
exciting for those of us who live here!!
Incubation spaces
Over the past 3 years, a number of incubation spaces have
popped up around London, from Universities like
Ravensbourne housing start-ups, to tangible collaborative
desk spaces forming, such as those at the Brewery, The
Trampery and Google Campus. There are a number of
spaces and groups positively promoting and encouraging
entrepreneurship, making start-up dreams a reality by
helping incubate tiny companies within larger organisations.
It’s something a number of Agencies such as Mother and
AMV have been doing for some time, to enabale them to be
able to offer a more diverse and unique offering to their
clients.
Hackney House
Hackney House is a free, open space in Shoreditch for startups, which offers users free wifi and power to encourage
cross-collaboration of skill sets. This year at SXSW it hosted
a pop-up space open all day for people to drop into any of
the talks, sessions and workshops.
This was facilitated by Hackney Council, who have now
partnered with Austin to encourage international start-up
possibilities.
Digital Shoreditch
Now in its 3rd year Digital Shoreditch is a festival held in the
heart of London’s start up scene and looks to bring together a
wide mix of skill sets, companies and knowledge under one
roof. Each day focuses on a specific subject e.g.’ What is Tech
City’, ‘Tomorrow’s World’, ‘Capital & Growth’ and ‘Future
Brands’. This year it will be held in Shoreditch Town Hall
and Ogilvy are again proud to be a sponsor and run the final
day of the event, based around ‘Behavioral Change’ headed
up by the Ogilvy Change team.
Want to Know More?
We hope you found this report interesting and perhaps came
across some interesting findings you can use. If you would
like to know more, please get in contact.
Will.harvey@ogilvy.com
@WilliamEdHarvey
“Stop trying to be the next Twitter, start
being the first you!”
Chris Taylor Games Designer & Entrepreneur
“Need startup ideas? Attack a problem in
a fundamentally different way, and attack
the influences”
Tim O’Shaughnessy
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