Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Branding on Saturday 12th March

Gone are the days when brands needed to rely on high profile stories to establish credibility –today, brand marketers become content curators by mingling content from trusted sources with their own material. Long gone is the need to purchase ad space in a relevant trade publication—instead, they just create their own site on the topic. At time when the line is increasingly blurred between the role of marketer and publisher, it is a brave new world out there for brands.

As part of a lively debate on what role brands should play in this brave new world, experts from the publishing, marketing, and internet worlds will come together to address some of the most heated concerns about this changing landscape –including matters of transparency and trust, concern over copyright and fair sharing, and where to draw the line between reporting and selling.

LEVEL: Beginner

Ever wonder how your favorite celebrity became a spokesperson for a national brand? Why your beer of choice is supporting veterans? How your home team chooses the charities that they support? It takes more than a one-night-stand to make these relationships worthwhile. It takes dates, flirting, compromise and commitment. Most importantly, it takes shared goals and vision.

We'll show you how Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), a national non-profit, non-partisan group supporting our nation's newest generation of veterans has established a multi-year partnership with Miller High Life, the San Diego Padres, and celebrities that support their mission. Together, they are literally changing lives through a program that will give up to $1 million in experiences to veterans.

In a world where everyone is online and new technology, websites and companies are cropping up everyday, brand loyalty is difficult to maintain. It is critical for brands to ally with the organizations and people that support their ideals, and give their audiences a reason to believe their messaging.

LEVEL: Intermediate

While brands have become increasingly networked, they fail to maintain the fluidity and agility of the average user, many major brands are at risk at failing in their marketing efforts, or succumbing to more agile competitor. This session lays out the new marketing landscape, and demonstrates how brands will need to reinvent themselves.

LEVEL: Beginner

2010 was a pivotal year for Web TV, with more influential brands and celebrities recognizing the creative opportunities that the platform offers. Celebrities like Kevin Pollak and Will Arnett went online to create original professionally produced content to strengthen relationships with fans. Additionally, major brands including Wrigleys and Mountain Dew joined this medium due to the opportunity to exponentially increase its brand reach to a vast global audience.
With entertainment and advertising luminaries testing the waters of the digital space, this panel examines the most effective ways in which content creators can capture the attention of brands and create content that will not only resonate with its target audience, but be organically integrated so audiences do not feel as though they are watching ads. It will include how digital studios, like Babelgum, provide a unique platform for brands/celebs looking to team up and engage in quality content and matching creators and celebrities with these forward-thinking brands.
Babelgum is an integrated web and mobile video content platform, available on-demand to a global audience. Its international comedy business develops, produces, packages, programs, markets and distributes original series across its IPTV, fixed and mobile platforms. Babelgum Comedy collaborates with celebrity talent and creators to provide professionally-produced, brand-friendly content and is strategically programmed and curated by Amber J. Lawson.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Hard to believe it's been 11 years since The Cluetrain Manifesto, and we're still doing the same f***ing panel. And we're still trying to teach big companies and ad agencies how to communicate like humans, how to listen, and how to use transparency as a messaging tactic.

Brand Journalism is a way to take those decade-old ideas and incorporate them into actual campaigns (we know, we've done it). The first step is to teach agencies and clients to think like publishers instead of marketers--it's not a new idea, but it's one that is rarely executed well.

In this panel, Brand Journalism pioneers will share some of the secrets, successes, and obstacles of their award-winning campaigns.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Why doesn't Toucan Sam Twitter? Where's the Pillsburry Doughboy to poke on my mobile phone? And which one of the Snuggle Bear Facebook pages is real? Join us for a pow-wow on how you take your brand characters out of the 1980's TV commercials and place them in the social and interactive world.

There's no napping when your characters are in the digital age. We'll talk about preparing your characters personality, environment and lingo for the demands of the "always-on" consumer. And what about the character's of tomorrow? We'll look at concept to completion, how a brand creates and introduces a new cast of characters ready for today's digital stage and beyond.

Similar to my grandmother who doesn't understand these "crazy kids and their internets", mascots need to take up residence in the digital world, make some friends, and tweet about their day.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Companies often stress the importance of consistency—a consistent image, voice, strategy, etc. Countless models and presentations have been created to help brands maintain continuity. But, does consistency really equal success? It certainly can for things like product quality or customer service. When it comes to the world of marketing, however, consistency is overrated and overused. This issue is most apparent in the digital space, where print and TV campaigns are routinely repurposed as banner ads and pre-roll videos. Compounding the problem, marketers often duplicate digital ads across sites that have little in common with one another, ignoring the fact that consumers behave differently as they move around online. New disciplines and technologies have emerged, giving the industry unprecedented ways to reach consumers. Digital advertising should reflect these changes and inspire brands to be flexible, schizophrenic even. An argument could be made that no two ads should ever be the same. To achieve this, the industry must embrace a new order of advertising—one that champions inconsistency. One where publishers and agencies work together to create custom marketing content. Where ads for Heineken can’t be replicated as ads for BudLite. Where consumers experience advertising that is inextricable from the place where they are experiencing it. And where the goal is not to keep a brand on track, but to create unique experiences that compel consumers to engage on a deeper level.

LEVEL: Intermediate