mazda | sxsw 2016 | official automotive sponsor
They say SXSW is a marathon not a sprint, what that means is 10 months of non-stop work for a 10 day festival. For Mazda’s second year as the official automotive sponsor of SXSW, I was co-creative lead with my copywriter, managing a small army of creatives, multiple vendors, musical acts, and numerous partnerships. We were in charge of everything from experiential, digital, social, digital content and print. Another 15 pounds later, a bad liver, and a head full of grey hairs we get to add another great book piece.
brand message: inspiration at every turn
For ten days, Austin becomes a hub of inspiration, everywhere you turn you are inspired by new ideas, film, music, and people. Mazda is a brand that thrives on innovation, inspired by our KODO design philosophy in making DrivingMatters®. We wanted to focus on that message by sharing our inspiration while tapping into what inspires people at SXSW
Official sponsor of Hype Hotel 2016
This year we went all in with Hype Hotel because known for showcasing emerging artists discussed on music blogs. Being the official sponser of Hype Hotel 2016 gives us an opportunity to connect our consumers to exclusive online performances, interviews and behind-the-scene content. For attendees who tweet our hashtag, they are entered to win front-of-the-line passes, Mazda VIP viewing section, and access to the HypeOn/Mazda VIP lounge. Inside the venue, we built a 3D light/art installation of a Mazda CX-3 that acts as an audio spectrum analyzer interacting with the music being played. Outside the venue, we utilized a series of projection maps to project onto Mazda CX-3 with interactive capabilities. Also outside, we created an exclusive Mazda VIP lounge space for Mazda owners and special invitees. A Mazda Sound Studio was built to conduct live intimate performances from guest artist. During SXSW film week, we partnered with Jalopnik and showcased a film screening of "driving" related films, followed by a panel discussion of autonomous driving with directors and Jalopnik editors.
Mazda CX-3D audio spectrum analyzer @ the Hype Hotel 2016
Mazda CX-3 projection mapping @ the Hype Hotel 2016
Mazda Sound Studio & Hype-on/Mazda VIP Lounge
Sponsoring of Local Artists
It’s thriving and unchained art scene fuels Austin’s motto, “Keep Austin Weird”, where local artists are free to inspire and be inspired by the city and its people. Mazda wants to align with and support Austin’s art scene by sponsoring a handful of local artists and commission their work on custom designed Mazda T-shirts, to be given out at the SXSW Outdoor film festival and the SXSW Outdoor Concert to 70,000+ attendees.
AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER: MAZDA LOUNGE
At the epicenter of SXSW is the Austin Convention Center, here we created an indoor lounge space where attendees can relax, recharge their devices, sign up for our shuttle service, create music, and interact with screens to gain access to valuable information. I worked closely with CPC in developing the contents and look-and-feel of the space.
MAZDA Express shuttle
During the festival, transportation sucks. Most people are out-of-towners, its hot/humid/raining, multiple streets are closed, lack of taxis and Ubers. We wanted people to experience our cars personally so we created Mazda Express, a free shuttle service that would drive you anywhere within a 5-mile radius within Downtown Autsin. Handrasiers = free rides.
MAZDA-OWNERS EXPERIENCE
#MazdaSXSW
To help entice attendees to #MazdaSXSW, we added instagram printers at each of our activations. The printers will aggregate every post that contains #MazdaSXSW and at random–photos containing a Mazda watermark will win a free Mazda premium give-away ranging from power banks to VIP tickets. Also, at each activation, instagram selfie hunts using our hashtags are conducted for Mazda. These incentives also help to feed our UGC wall at our online hub as well as a backdrop to our daytime activation at the Hype Hotel.
digital
With a massive OLA media plan with Pandora, Townaquare Media and numerous publications, we created a centralize hub to direct them to. Here consumers can pre-register for Mazda Express, learn more about our activations via a interactive map, gather information about the festival, and stream new music from Hype Machine. We also created a UGC wall that aggregated social postings that use our hashtag during the event, so for those who can’t make it can feel connected to what’s happening at sxsw through the eyes of the attendees.
