There have been lots of pre-views, re-views, pics, tweets, posts and pontifications about SXSW as it finished after the music stream closed the annual 10 day festival … but I think this @armano inspired #DaftPunk verse for #SXSW14 about covers it - hack it, disrupt it, track it, wear it, throne it, print it, eat it, drone it, bot it, draw it, walk it.
But if I were to find a macro theme that goes beyond some of the more obvious, it would be the need for speed.
Speed - Brands like GAP, Vogue, Burberry and many in the rapidly changing fashion stakes are short-cutting many supplier engagements by going rapidly upstream and engaging directly with VC’s and start-ups early in the development process. It makes them first to market with new tech, new conversion engines, new experiential and new wearables.
Speed – rapid-fire and regular internal hackathons (new age brainstorming, not just tech-speak) which are key components in the process of creativity at Spotify, Zappos and IDEO, placing a focus on innovation from all corners of the organisation. With cross-functional colabs delivering rapid prototyping and building intrapreneurs.
Importantly, some of the leading thinkers and entrepreneurs that have spun out of Google and Top Shop council that ‘innovation doesn’t actually need invention’ as referenced by ex TopShop CMO Justin Cooke, who is about to launch a brand-led new social network tying together many leading brands and celebs including will.i.am. With many also citing Apple as being less of an inventor and more of a deliverer of superior experience in a current category – music, phones et al.
Speed – in advancing the careers of millennials, but only when they are ready …. not when THEY think they are ready. Having met many mid/late 20-somethings who are leading strategists and directors for major global brands, you immediately appreciate the skills and intellect of the leaders of the new generation of marketers who never lived in a world where technology was not omnipresent.
Speed – in the age of real-time. From activating the couch in dual-screening sport at SXSport, to leveraging the greatest live database of human intentions that exists within Google and YouTube search. Interestingly, for all the hi-techness, it was intriguing and encouraging to be involved in panels that still reference Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Speed – as in the rapid-fire tweeting of wisdom, or contention, that flowed from speakers. And there were some pearls, from soundbites about Augmented Reality like ‘it has potential, but just don’t give me any of that spinning shoe shit’ to Biz Stone talking about the ‘unintended consequences’ that led to Twitter being such a success.
And as Peter Guber, a long-term Hollywood exec and owner of the LA Dodgers said ‘it’s not the end of the beginning, it’s the beginning of the beginning’. So get beginning. With speed.
Chris Jeffares
Managing Director
CumminsRoss