SXSW - South By Southwest

The first of the South By Southwest music conference and festival was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that this city was not on the list of major markets, the background and characteristics of the city made it a perfect place to host this event. Today this conference/festival attracts people with interests in music and film from all over the world. This major event is broken up into a film, music and interactive festival. The film festival brings together industry leaders and talent in a uniquely creative environment. This allows for invaluable networking opportunities and dives into the art and business of independent film making. The music festival showcases informative panel discussions, featuring some of the key players in the industry today. This allows for people to gain an insight of the music industry by sitting in on a keynote. The SXSW Interactive show offers people the chance to attend presentations that discuss the future of technology from the brightest minds in emerging media. Some of these include best new websites, digital projects, wireless applications, video games and much more. 


SXSW uses a variety of marketing tools to get their message across, such as program guides, which provide people with an in-depth look into what they expect to see at this festival such as, session descriptions, film and band listings, schedules, maps, official events and much more. They also publish five issues of their magazine called SXSWORLD, annually, offering people a unique opportunity to reach out to the SXSW community before, during and after the event. This magazine provides cultural and industry features, as well as interviews and news and also influences readers from the interactive, film and music industries. Today's generation spends alto of time on the Internet, and SXSW has taken the initiative to start their own Youtube channel, providing people with footage of their past events as well as music videos and film trailers from upcoming SXSW participants. This is a great marketing tool to use when one is trying to reach a large audience. SXSW demographic attracts a large audience between the ages of 31-40, who generate income between $85,000 - $150,000 and total of 20,457 subscribers on Youtube. 


After spending some time on this site, I've come to realize that SXSW has marketed themselves in a great. They have managed to bring in more than 40,000 attendants to their event. The fact that they also bring diversity to the table, by inclining themselves in different parts of the industry, makes me think as an entrepreneur on what I can take from this conference/festival and apply to my own business.


Sources:
http://sxsw.com/