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adroitbeing

Cook Islands

Member Since 2003

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Friday Mar 12, 2010

Mar 12, 2010
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I arrived at SXSW yesterday. This will be my 8th year and while each year rings in change, the event feels as though it is crouched and ready to Jump the Shark. I know many friends, having attended in the last 3-4 years remain excited about what SXSW promises, I think that promise is at risk of becoming "muddled."

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for change and most of the time I'm prepared to let the next "generation" usher in their version. Call it a personal resignation to change, which I often embrace. But there is something impinging on the experience I find distasteful.

I will not blame the change to "big company" influence because they have always been here - those big companies. In the early days the advertisers were mostly companies promoting products you might use while enjoying the music and carrying on. Unsurprisingly, beer advertisements were ubiquitous.

Sometime in the last 4 years the event evolved to be more about the products competing for your lifestyle use than products you used in conjunction with your lifestyle. So, I am overwhelmed with social network offerings and all of which now include some kind of location-based feature. Since I am in venture capital/investment banking i am going to predict that most of these will fail miserably.

Five years ago, marketers of these products would focus on trade shows where the audience gathered with the specific purpose of reviewing products. Now the marketers follow us wherever we go, integrating their opportunities with our life - nothing different there, except now, they have invaded my process of discovery. They clamor to influence my process of discovery, somehow believing they deserve to be tightly integrated into everything I do.

I blame myself.

I was an early adopter of the web and either funded or started a number of software and web companies in the belief that I was doing something good. I thought instant broad access to information was important to society. I immediately embraced every search engine technology announced.

And then someone hijacked by idealism.

Every search I perform today results in smartly coiffed results hijacked by marketing bozos who think my search somehow grants them authority to bombard me with their cleverly measured results. Yes, advertising has hijacked web search and I'm unhappy, which is not good because a few of our companies are media companies dependent on eyeballs for revenue.

And now I arrive in Austin and these same aggressive marketers think that because I came to this event in search of fun, conversation, music, and exposure to all that is new I granted them permission to bombard me with their marketing efforts.

Enough.

I don't need to see your name scrawled on paperboard coffee cup holders, on the sidewalk, on the baggage carousel, on every auto, etc. For many, myself included, an unpredictable tipping point occurs and eventually each time I see your logo or name scrawled on something else my interest in your product declines exponentially.

It's ironic that the young attendees are completely comfortable with this bombardment, unless of course it came from Proctor and Gamble, Exxon/Mobile, or ATT.

So, I am off to listen to some new bands and pray silently that Seth Godin will wade in and tell his legions in attendance that this is just silly.
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
kay:
hahaha. Yeah, my feathers are ruffled, yet again.

Stay out of trouble you.

~cheers
Jun 2, 2010
kaley:
Weeelllll, okay. Just this once. smile Thank you for commenting my set.

Oooohh I've heard about SXSW, I always heard it was a good time.
Jun 17, 2010

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