SXSW 2014 IPG Lab Recap

SXSW 2014
Recap
March 13, 2014
Source:
IPG
Media
Lab

© 2013 IPG Media Lab. Proprietary & Confidential 2
The Lab @ SXSW
Each year the Lab sends a small team to SXSW with
three primary objectives:
•  Gather strategic insights on trends that affect the media and
consumer behavior landscape
•  Find new technologies that are relevant to marketers
•  Create content that is useful to the IPG network, our clients
and beyond

Themes We Noticed This Year
•  Anticipatory Computing: Media companies are striving to make
content more accessible and relevant, with varying success.
•  Notification Nation: New devices are helping people stay in touch
and explore their world.
•  Data Doing Good: Examples of this theme ranged from virtual
conversations with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden to multiple
panels on privacy, security, and the value that people derive from
sharing data.
•  Generation Y and Z:New messaging apps are flourishing, with more
competitors trying to appeal to fickle, younger audiences.

Twenty Interesting Technologies
SXSW famously stars companies both big and small. Some
have been around for generations and are trying to launch a
new product, some companies are only a few days old.
In curating technologies to watch, we apply two key filters to
determine whether something is interesting enough to be on
our radar:
•  Is this technology relevant to marketers?
•  Is this technology innovative in some way?
The following slides contain our picks for the best of what we
saw this year.

End-to-end BLE (aka “iBeacon”)
retail solution. Can be used like
other BLE products for ambient
awareness of location within a store
triggering push notifications.
Primary use though is for close-
range NFC-like interactions.
For instance, a user can hold their
phone near the beacon and a coupon
can be loaded onto their loyalty card
via the store app.
http://www.shelfbucks.com/
Shelfbucks
Source: retailsolutionsonline.com

A ring that can light up in up to 300
different colors and/or vibrate. A
user can pair it with a mobile app to
assign different colors to different
contacts and applications.
Brands can utilize this form of
notification with their own apps to
engage consumers in a fun and
more subtle way than traditional
mobile alerts.
http://ringblingz.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1cTC4Cw
Ringblingz
Source: IPG Media Lab

Developing modular wearable
technology, starting with NEX Band
aimed at tweens. Wristbands are
composed of inexpensive modules
that are collectible and tradable.
The "mods" can blink and vibrate,
and can connect with a mobile app,
a beacon or each other. Marketers
can launch branded mods with
campaign-specific functionality.
http://www.mightycast.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/O3ZoY4
MightyCast

Glass frames that include an HD
video camera. They pair to your
mobile device and sport twice the
battery life of Google Glass. The
heads-up display is a simple
colored LED light that flashes
notifications. The price point is a
fraction of Google Glass.
Brands could potentially encourage
owners of these glasses to submit
user-generated videos that tie into
their product experiences.
http://www.epiphanyeyewear.com/
Epiphany Eyewear

Although this intriguing wearable
technology is not yet released, it
has already made a big splash with
its hugely successful Kickstarter
project.
Ring has an accelerometer in it, and
it pairs with a mobile app on your
device. It can then translate the
movement of your finger to actions
on the device. It can launch an app,
or even type something out as you
spell it in the air.
http://logbar.jp/ring/
Ring

A small piece of hardware that
plugs into the headphone jack of
your mobile device and emits a
specific odor based on actions
within an app. They can build
single-scent devices, or make
devices that accept a variety of
cartridges.
They partnered with Oscar Meyer to
make a branded custom edition of
their unit that reproduced the smell
of bacon.
http://www.scentee.com/
Scentee

FDA-approved thermometer plugs
into headphone jack of iOS or
Android device. Transmits health
info and location to cloud without
PII. Platform can then get a sense
of the overall health situation of a
given geographic area.
Willing to co-brand devices with the
right marketing partner. Ad
inventory is also available within
the app.
https://www.kinsahealth.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/N7FPgK
Kinsa Smart
Thermometer

Networked devices that sense the
air quality, temperature, humidity,
and other environmental factors in
a given room and relay them to a
mobile app.
Brands focused on better-living
could explore co-branding
opportunities or incorporate user
data into their campaigns in
creative ways.
http://cubesensors.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1gd8VGZ
CubeSensors

Their core competency is the
printing of playing cards, but in
recent years they have expanded
into special cards that can trigger
interaction when placed on an iPad
by simulating multi-touch.
Brands could make their apps come
to life using this printing
technology. Animal Planet recently
launched a game where physical
collectable cards spawned virtual
animals when placed on an iPad.
http://www.cartamundi.com/en
Cartamundi

An iPad app that lets you craft
handwritten messages inside
greeting cards. These then get
printed, stuffed, stamped and
mailed for you.
Looking for brands to partner with
on special life event verticals.
Brand could offer this service either
as an incentive for larger basket
size or reward for loyalty.
http://feltapp.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/N7GdMp
Felt

Technology that “touch-enables”
video. Their cloud service takes
uploaded video and auto-identifies
possible hot spots. Publishers can
then identify what each hot spot
links to (e.g. product).
As users touch things they like in
the video, they build a shareable
“boutique” along the lines of a
Pinterest board – but shoppable.
http://cinematique.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1gd6Pad
Cinematique

A social aggregation hub that pulls
together user generated content
from different sources into one
master view based on applicable
hashtags.
Brands can integrate this service
into their web properties, mobile
apps, or even digital signage at
events.
http://fliptu.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1cTBUeE
Fliptu

Algorithm analyzes online video
content and creates a collage of the
most interesting stills, replacing
the traditional single-image
thumbnail. They are white-listed for
Twitter cards, and thus can drive
more traffic to tweeted videos.
Part of the collage can be a native
ad quadrant linking off to a specific
product.
http://www.cinemacraft.tv/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1cTCfxI
Cinemacraft

Mobile web app that facilitates the
collection of real-time reactions from
survey participants. Can be deployed
at scale to gather a large set of data
points.
Brands could use this platform to
test ad creative, or it could be used
as part of a second-screen
experience wherein viewer sentiment
is reflected in a live broadcast.
http://www.reactlabs.com
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/N7GCOX
React Labs

Webcam-based emotion-
recognition technology that can be
used to test and optimize ads at
scale.
Cloud-based platform can analyze
uploaded video collected from user
surveys.
http://eyeristechnologies.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/N7GKOe
Eyeris

Native ad platform for mobile apps
with social feeds. They can take
your existing Facebook ad creative
and automatically re-format it to
look like native content in a wide
range of other apps.
They have an SDK making it easy for
publishers to integrate their
technology on the client side.
http://www.namomedia.com/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1gd784P
Namo Media

A social media app with audio as the
centerpiece. Users can record up to
10 minutes of sound. They select a
thumbnail, a caption (optionally with
hashtags) and geotag their post. The
posts of others they follow appear in
a feed, not unlike Instagram.
Brands could use this tool in a
manner similar to other user-
generated content apps. Fan
engagement and contests are two
examples.
http://eevzdrop.com
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1qrrrQk
Eevzdrop

Mobile app that allows friends to
seamlessly combine photos taken
around the same time at the same
place. Albums are auto-created
based on timestamp, GPS and
phone contacts, with strict privacy
controls in place.
Sponsored photos could be
contributed by brands either within
the album feed or possibly within
albums.
http://www.shoto.com/
Shoto

Video messaging mobile app that
records the reaction of the person
to whom the video is sent, and
transmits a video clip of it back to
the sender. They aim to fill the gap
between What’s App and Vine.
They are reporting high user
engagement and have been
approached by a media owner for
the possible enhancement of a
reality show.
http://www.samba.me/
Our Interview:
http://labt.ag/1cTBFQw
Samba

Mobile device charging stations
that offer the user the opportunity
to side-load free or paid content
into their devices while they are
charging.
If the user chooses to load the
content onto their phone, they can
be shown ads while the file transfer
is taking place. They already have
units out in the field as part of a
deal with Live Nation venues.
http://coolnerdkiosk.com/
Cool Nerd Kiosk

Major brands are now appearing at
SXSW, showing that interest in the
startup mindset has reached even
the largest corporations.
Both Apple and Samsung were
promoting their music services:
Apple held the iTunes Music
Festival, while Samsung launched a
new free radio service, Milk.
The latter will be only available to
newer Galaxy device owners and
will be ad-free. Ostensibly this
means they are absorbing royalty
costs as a way to incentivize device
purchase.
Brand Activations

Futuristic food was another major
attraction: IBM’s Watson served up
recommendations for unusual
ingredient pairings, resulting in
surprising dishes like “Austrian
Chocolate Burrito,” while Oreo 3D-
printed flavored cookies based on
trending Twitter topics.
And of course, no festival related to
technology would be complete
without cats: Grumpy Cat had her
own showboat to greet adoring fans
while promoting Friskies.
Brand Activations
Source:
IPG
Media
Lab

Looking Back at Our Outlook
Earlier this year, we published our 2014 Outlook. You can
download it here:
http://labt.ag/1cTD9dK
We’ve seen some of these themes play out as we traversed SXSW
and discovered interesting technologies. In fact, many of the
ones we’ve highlighted in earlier slides can be directly mapped
to our Outlook.

Anticipatory Computing
More intuitive, less intrusive technologies are making it easier for
people to interact with devices and access just what they want
e.g. Shelfbucks, Cinemacraft, Ring, Samsung Milk Music
Notification Nation
Inventive solutions are alerting people to access the information they
need in unexpected ways
e.g. MightyCast, RIngBlingz, Scentee

Data Doing Good
Everyday activities can become opportunities to monitor, learn and
improve performance with “smart” devices.
e.g. Kinsa, CubeSensors, Cinematique, ESPN, NFL
Generation Z
Clever apps and devices appeal to younger audiences’ desire for novelty
and experimentation.
e.g. Samba, Felt, Eevzdrop

Besides gathering insights
and scouting interesting
technologies, the Lab also
produced compelling content
while in Austin.
You can catch up on all our
blog posts here:
http://labt.ag/1iAVCDG
and our video content here:
http://labt.ag/1iAWmst
Learn More

Thanks
For any questions or more CES information, please visit
http://ipglab.com or get in touch:
info@ipglab.com
@ipglab

SXSW 2014 IPG Lab Recap

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