By James Manning, Alisha Buaya and Jasper Baumann
Day three of SXSW Sydney saw the weather improve as the panels, sessions and networking events continued spark conversations and new ideas.
Mediaweek was on the ground – here’s what happened on Wednesday, October 16.
The new era of attention-driven OOH with Dr Karen Nelson-Field and QMS
QMS and audience measurement company Amplified Intelligence teamed up to present the results from its global-first research on the role human attention plays in out-of-home (OOH) environments to advertising and marketing audiences at SXSW Sydney.
Christian Zavecz, chief strategy officer at QMS, and Dr Karen Nelson-Field, CEO and founder of Amplified Intelligence, were front and centre, sharing their insights on the data.
The research debunked the myth that OOH is a glance-only medium and showcased how brands can leverage the attention flywheel to maximise their OOH investment. It revealed OOH ads scored an average of 12 seconds of total attention.
Dr Karen Nelson-Field
“Any attention vendor that tells you that attention and outcomes are perfectly linear is lying to you to sell something. The reality is creative drives the outcome. Attention is the stage; creativity drives the outcome,” Nelson-Field said.
Greg Kearney, Suncorp group executive manager of Media and Thad King, OMD national head of communications, later took to the stage to take part in a discussion on the real-world implications of attention as a modern-day metric. – AB
The Power of Stupid Ideas – How to Unlock Creative Brilliance
Nicole Velik, director at The Ideas Bodega, changed up the pace by getting attendees to participate in creative and interactive exercises, from draw the person next to them to coming up with wild and out of the box ideas for ads that could get you sacked.
She offered plenty of industry anecdotes that aimed to inspire creatives and non-creatives alike on how they approach brainstorming sessions that spanned from how to cultivate creativity in ones self, among a team and as a culture in a wider workplace or community experience.
Nicole Velik
“Unfortunately, the corporate world wants the creative process to be perfect. They want the creative process to be linear and logical. But you know what? Creativity is anything but that. Creativity is messy”
“We need to get comfortable sitting in the discomfort of creativity if we ever want to come up with anything new. Creativity is not logical and it’s a leap,” Velik told SXSW attendees. – AB
Vogue Australia enters The Ideas Dome at SXSW: Impact of tech on fashion
The panel discussion was led by Vogue Australia digital director Francesca Wallace, digital audience lead Nikki Chowdhury, and News Corp Australia director of data strategy and management Louise Cooper. The session focused on the transformation of shopping and fashion trends driven by data analytics and artificial intelligence.
It is a big week for the fashion brand. The session was nicely positioned in the SXSW Sydney calendar on the eve of the 2024 arrival of Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night Out across the Sydney CBD shopping precinct tonight.
The Role of Data in Fashion Trends
Nikki Chowdhury discussed how data forecasting impacts fashion trends, helping consumers and brands understand emerging trends, resulting in faster production cycles but also raising questions about personal style and self-expression. JM
Kate Langbroek in the house, ARN House
During the Wednesday ARN House education session, ARN’s National Podcast & Digital Sales Director Denis Donati presented the four biggest myths when it comes to digital audio. He explained that despite misinformation, digital audio works harmoniously alongside radio when engaging audiences, creates real connection and trust and is more measurable than you think.
Later in the day, a number of ARN clients, SXSW badge holders and the general public alike had a turn at creating their own 15-minute podcast. The shows were produced by the team at iHeart and hosted by ARN’s news team.
An afternoon podcast session featured Kate Langbroek and Nath Valvo holding a live recording of their hit comedy podcast The Buck Up. The show had the audience laughing and they delivered their promise of brightening everyone’s day. The rain had stopped which helped too! JM
36 Months: Raising the Threshold for Social Media Citizenship
Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli was joined on the SXSW stage by Maggie Dent and Hamish Blake to discuss his 36-month campaign, co-founded with Rob Galluzzo, that aims to raise the legal age for joining social media from 13 to 16 in Australia.
The 36 Months campaign was inspired by changes to social media age limits in the US and Wippa acknowledged the quick success of the campaign, with over 100,000 signatures within three weeks of launch.
The campaign targets the crucial 36 months from 13 to 16, aiming to protect young minds from the negative influence of social media.
Blake shared with the audience his own experience as a parent to a 10 and 7-year-old, highlighting that through his own career, he has seen how social media has evolved into what it is today.
“Social media isn’t the same thing that existed when Instagram came out,” he said.
“It was just funny sort of photo filters. Now, you have that dawning realization that the smartest people in the world are incentivized to the tune of a quarter of a trillion dollars to addict people, and that’s on one side of the equation.
“All we have on the other side of the equation is everyone saying, ‘I don’t know, try to use it a bit less.’
“There isn’t a concerted effort.
“One of the counter-arguments I’ve heard is people saying they think it’s up for parents to educate their kids, and I totally agree. A huge part of being a dad is walking with your kids through this world.
“To use a cigarette analogy, it is easier to say to your kids, hey, don’t smoke cigarettes because you have to be 18 versus, we’re allowed to have them in class, and a couple of other kids smoke, and there’s always a bucket of cigarettes on the table. So what’s the big deal?”
Wippa expanded on Blake’s analogy: “We don’t believe [36 Months] is a silver bullet. Like cigarettes, it’s going to take time. Whatever the outcome for this generation that we’re dealing with now, we’re going to think of the one that’s coming up under that, and make sure that we’re considering protecting them as well.” – JB
Live sports advertising: The next big win for CTV
Head of programmatic at Foxtel Media, Dani Kenney and Zoe Kostos, head of commercial innovation at Paramount ANZ joined Luke Smith from PubMatic to discuss the rise of streaming TV revolutionising traditional programming for live sports.
They discussed how the surge in streaming has led to live sports accounting for 30% of CTV viewing globally. Advertisers can now engage with highly invested digital audiences through advanced targeting, premium ad inventory, and cost-effective strategies.
Kenney predicts a future where consumers have more choice in where they watch live sport, with streaming platforms offering more unique experiences.
“I think what we will start seeing is people having the choice of where they want to watch their live sport. It might not be about, ‘Which game am I watching this weekend? It’s what platform they are going to watch it on. They’ll ask, ‘Who’s got a different experience on how I can watch that?’”
Kostos said: “At the moment, it’s about the physical and broadcast worlds blurring together, and that cohesion of different ecosystems coming together. There are bars in the US where there are screens all around you and it’s like you’re sitting there at the NFL, and it’s not just watching it from the broadcast view. It’s choosing from when you want to view that moment in the stadium, behind the goals; up in the grandstand, and you’re feeling that atmosphere from the crowd. I think that’s what the future of viewing looks like.” – JB