By Frank J. Cortese, Canva’s Global Head of Brand Media
In an increasingly digital world, it can be easy for us marketers to focus on delivering more for our customers virtually and enhancing our products. But my recent trip to SXSW threw into stark relief the importance of bringing those experiences offline, and giving people something to get their hands on.
While sessions and keynotes about AI, creators and brand building were prevalent this year (with ChatGPT the ever-present topic of conversation), for me the real magic lay in the creativity and collaboration on display in the experiential activations.
As our team explored Austin, we found a plethora of examples from brands you’d expect to see there like Slack and HBO to those you may not, like Shell and Avocados From Mexico. There is a lot of competition for attention, but two activations really stood out for me: the Paramount Plus Lodge and the TikTok For You Festival.
The Paramount Plus Lodge was simple yet effective, offering entertainment value to visitors in the shape of experiences they could try, themed around various upcoming shows. Star Trek fans could enjoy a drink in the Ten Forward lounge for the Picard series, Grease aficionados queued to get their photo in a Pink Ladies jacket ahead of the upcoming show, there was also a sofa where you could get a picture with Beavis and Butthead, and a whole lot more.
What really stood out was the attention to detail – every prop, every element was designed to create an immersive experience that transported visitors into the world of Paramount. You could shoot hoops against staff to try and win drinks tickets, create your own record art (highly recommended) and feel and touch these shows in a way you can’t on a screen. I came away genuinely excited to watch some of these shows, and understand as a marketer a lot better who the audiences are likely to be too.
Similarly, the TikTok For You Festival was a huge event which proved to be the must-attend party of the conference with queues around the block. Again, it offered simple but immersive experiences that allowed visitors to play with some of the app’s filters through a live camera that projected your image onto a four-story building. This made guests larger than life and created a real sense of excitement among visitors.
From the music to the lighting, the entertainment and the parting gifts, the whole experience was like a manifestation of TikTok, crafted to bring the brand to life. It really showed the value of paring down any complex aspects to activations, removing things with the potential to complicate the messaging, so that people have the brain space to experience it.
But beyond the entertainment value, the festival gave room to attendees to truly connect with one another. This was abundantly clear to our team to be a crucial element of experiential activations, particularly at an event like SXSW where people are running around from one session to the next. The festival allowed attendees to decompress and connect about all they had experienced and learned.
The success of these activations raises the question: what role do in-person experiences play in a world where so much is virtual? In an increasingly digital world, where more customers are shopping online and only know your brand as a one in a million icon competing for attention on a cluttered home screen, creating thoughtful and immersive experiences is a real differentiator.
For Canva, a digital-first product, the answer lies in the ability of in-person activations to help users visualise what they can do on the platform. Online tutorials and help videos are certainly useful, but there is nothing like being able to truly experience the products and ask questions of brand ambassadors on the spot.
And that is something we’ve been thinking about as we put together our own events like the recent Canva Create in Sydney, our upcoming Developers’ Conference in San Francisco and how we show up at Cannes Lions this year. Yes, we want to communicate new products and services our users can experience, but we also want to create space for fun, discovery and joy through meaningful engagement. That way they can really learn, be inspired and see the potential of our products.
Even for digital brands it’s really important to think about how you show up in the real world for your customers and prospects – there’s a lot to be said for spending valuable time with each other in a physical space.