SXSW Nixes Gift Bags For Attendees
Digital promotions are replacing bags of tangible products at South By Southwest festival.
Organizers of South By Southwest (SXSW), a star-studded music, film and interactive technology festival held each March in Austin, Texas, have eliminated the promotional gift bags traditionally handed out to show registrants in exchange for strictly digital giveaways. Beginning last month and lasting through the March conference, SXSW attendees are to access their gift bags, annually anticipated by show goers to be ripe with products, via the conference’s online social network called SXsocial.
So just what does a digital gift bag contain? “Currently, we’re seeing music downloads, software downloads and trial subscriptions for publications and services,” says Val Link, a marketing and sales executive for SXSW. “However, we’ve also received interest from companies who want to distribute physical goods and, of course, we are encouraging this.”
The decision to cast out what it calls “tangible goodies” and replace them with digital goods is an effort to be more ecologically responsible, the SXSW website states. Yet Link says burgeoning attendance was another factor. “As our event grew, it became cost prohibitive for companies to produce large quantities of a desirable, physical good. This resulted in cheaper alternatives that ended up in the recycling bins and, more important, diminished our position as an eco-conscious event,” she says.
Austinites familiar with the show complimented the change in posts online by saying it will lighten the load they must carry during the festival and allow them to take advantage of the promotions they want and ignore the rest.
On the business side, Link points out that show sponsors may be more inclined to offer a digital promotion since it allows them to have more control over how the promotion is distributed. “Clients who opt to produce physical goods can choose the quantity and method of distribution (delivery or on-site pick-up) allowing them the flexibility to distribute something truly desirable,” she adds.
Next month’s SXSW festival, March 11-20, marks the 25th year for the event, widely regarded as one of the premier music conferences in the world and consistently drawing notable figures from the music and film industries. Each of the conference’s three legs—music, film and interactive—draws approximately 10,000 to 15,000 registrants from almost 50 countries annually.
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