Focus matters

On an annual basis, the South by Southwest festival gives attendees an opportunity to get schooled on the latest up-and-coming everything.

From music, to movies, to interactive – and everything in between. The festival provides an opportunity to get a lot of information in a only few days. For marketers, however, the festival has a different appeal: a lot of companies are unveiling their latest marketing strategies. And there’s certainly a lot to see.

In this particular year, unlike others, there wasn’t a lone company that really distinguished itself. Twitter, Foursquare and WikiPedia all got their launches at SXSW, so it may have been surprising to not see one company identify itself in such a way.

Social media companies are usually well-represented at the festivals, as past years have shown. Perhaps that could be an indicator as to where the next Twitter or Foursquare will come from. For more on SXSW takeaways, watch the video from OpenView Labs featuring Tyson Goodridge.