Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Marketing and Product Design

View as grid

Friday 9th March 2012

• We Made This, and It's Not an Ad

  by Robbie Whiting

  What if agencies and marketers created products and services, not just ads? And what if they made these things for themselves, not just for clients? They do. But tackling things like product design, creating new businesses or building complex real-world experiences requires a creative, technical, managerial and entrepreneurial spirit more associated with Silicon Valley than Madison Avenue. It demands new roles, agile approaches, external partnerships, technologies, investments and compensation models that can drive even the most hardened finance director crazy. And in some cases, it may even require a complete reboot from the ground up. The ability to make something that isn’t an “ad” is no longer optional in modern advertising. But it's certainly not easy, either. So what can we learn from the makers, technologists and agencies already playing in this space? Turns out, a whole heckuva lot.

  • Advertising
  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Product Design
  • Startups

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Friday 9th March

  In Capital Ballroom B, InterContinental Stephen F. Austin

  Coverage slide deck

Saturday 10th March 2012

• Designing Experiences for Women

  by Jessica Ivins and Brad Nunnally

  Women have become the digital mainstream. In the US market, women make up just under half of the online population, but they spend 58 percent of e-commerce dollars. Women are online gamers, shoppers, bloggers, and social media consumers. And yet, we still don’t know how to design for them.

  The immediate impulse when designing for women is to “shrink it and pink it,” meaning products are splashed with the color pink, and content and messaging are dumbed down. But women want what’s relevant to them. They want products and online experiences that are intuitive, not insulting to their intelligence. They want function, not frills.

  This session reviews the historical and contemporary landscape of designing for women. We’ll review misguided, yet well-intentioned designs based on assumptions and stereotypes that have flopped. Likewise, we’ll review success stories of well-designed products and experiences that truly meet women’s needs. We’ll also look at when gender should factor into your design and when it shouldn’t. Ultimately, when designing for women (or men, or both), you’ll want to get it right.

  • Content
  • Design
  • e-Commerce
  • Marketing
  • Product Design
  • Stereotypes
  • Women

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Saturday 10th March

  In Ballroom BC, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip write-up