SXSW 2022 — Return of the Marketer Misfits

2009 called. It wants its SXSW back.

Thank goodness.

First, a quiz…

How many of these criteria apply to you?

• Pre-MySpace, you were on Friendster, maybe SixDegrees. Perhaps you were even on a BBS (or at least know what it stands for).
• You started blogging around 2003-2006.
• By 2006-2007, you were tinkering with Facebook and Twitter and trying to figure out how they were relevant for marketers.
• Around then, you attended CES for the first time, before just about any marketer outside of the consumer electronics industry cared about it.
• In 2008 or 2009, you attended SXSW for the first time, and you were connecting with your friends there through Twitter and Foursquare.
• You’ve since gone on to have your own podcast, community, or newsletter (maybe more than one of the above), while launching experiences through new platforms like Medium, Substack, Clubhouse, and Discord.
• You’re often one to originate a role in your organization, or you’ve gone solo to launch your own pursuits.

If you relate to a lot of this (maybe all of it?), the odds were pretty good that you showed up at SXSW this year. You’re a marketer misfit. You may be out on your own, or you may be leading big brands with big budgets, but you like to be a scout and pioneer, not a follower.

Okay, SXSW 2022 did get a few corporate types. A lot of them were the ad tech and publisher sales folks who paid to hang out at Brand Innovators. I’d pay $10K just to eat the Lamberts chips and hummus, regardless of how many brands showed up (and show up they did).

These sales folks have probably never been so happy to be anywhere all their lives. Some of ’em would be happy to sell Lysol syringes at a Trump rally if it meant they could get off Zoom for a day, so this was a welcome change of pace.

The show was smaller, in a lot of ways. I only realized after the fact that there wasn’t the blogger lounge on the top floor of the convention center this year. Not once did I need to wander east of I-35 or south of the river; it was the most walkable festival of the 12 I’ve been to. It reminds me of when I came to my first one, which was also my first time in Austin. I approached the front desk of the Courtyard Marriott and asked the clerk if the event I was going to was walking distance. “No,” he said. “It’s 10 blocks from here. You’ll need a car.” I love Texas. (Well, much of it, especially if you set aside the bills that have crossed the governor’s desk lately).

Everyone saw the theme for the show coming. Five of the entries I included on SXSW 2022 Bingo touched on web3 — NFTs, crypto, the metaverse. I arguably got the top-left to bottom-right diagonal Bingo, but only if you count hearing about NFT-ticketed parties rather than attending them.

Part of me felt like SXSW should just launch a web3 show, take all the easy crypto money, and then try to keep a lot of that separate from the Interactive festival.

But the longer I was there, I realized that web3 is the culmination of so much of where SXSW Interactive has been heading.

Web3 has become crassly transactional. Yet it’s empowering artists to reach new audiences and create new revenue streams.

There is so much energy on the fringes. But one of the world’s largest companies is trying to create the world’s largest walled garden and even renamed itself to become synonymous with the concept of the metaverse.

So much of web3 has implications for marketers. But it’s not about marketers. Marketers should know by now that the more it’s not about you, the more you should pay attention.

As far as what does matter to marketers, it’s usually not front and center at a show like SXSW. I was enjoying one of a few gold rush cocktails at the JW Marriott bar one night when I was going on about the lines for the Doodles NFT experience, which was by far the most popular brand activation at this year’s show.

I said, “You know how many people own a Doodle? About .00001% of the country.” (I don’t remember my exact math. I might have added a few zeros. In fact, I’m learning now that there are 10,000 Doodle NFTs, so my number probably wasn’t far off.)

Then I kept ranting, “How many people in this room own an iPhone? Just about everyone. And no one’s talking about Apple’s ATT [app tracking transparency]. And the rest are using Android, where Google’s about to screw with their whole ad experience. This stuff is what affects nearly everyone in the country.”

Thanks to the expertly made gold rush and it being my first time having three drinks at one outing since 2019, I didn’t care if anyone stuck around for the end of my rant. It was probably going to fall on deaf ears anyway, or at least drunk and tired ears.

Then again, I’ve always been the suit at South By. The very first party I went to, back when few corporate types were going, I realized that most people there were asking each other what they’re into, like what kinds of bands or films. And I was asking people who they worked for and what they did for a living. I was the invading species, the gentrifier, the one ruining the local flora as I fertilized their cultural soil with my PPT decks.

But I was also there to meet people, and to learn from the best.

It’s what I had a chance to do while hosting the biggest Serial Marketers event yet this year.

While it’s easy to say this was the year of web3 at SXSW, for me, what mattered far more was that it was a year where we rekindled our appreciation for what community’s all about. And I’m reminded just how many good-hearted, generous, thoughtful people there are in our field.

Speaking of Serial Marketers at SXSW, I have a few folks to thank.

Weston Woodward, one of the first active members of the community, scouted venues for me and smartly recommended 4th & Co. We all have him to thank, yet again.

Mediaocean was kind enough to co-host it, and you should check out the virtual event on social personalization coming up 3/31 with community member Leo Morejon from Applegate and one of my newer acquaintances Nicole Weltman from Taco Bell.

Prohaska Consulting, which has been a kind sponsor of First Wednesdays and connects some of the best people in the industry, has a monthly newsletter y’all should read.

It might take SXSW a while to fully recover to what it once was. I feel for the bar owners and Lyft drivers and musicians in Austin, and I’d love nothing more than for the festival to contribute to the prosperity of that special city.

With what SXSW was this year though, the people who returned first were so many of those who miss the kinds of folks who’ve been coming there over the years. We’re back, and we’ll be back, and we’ll keep returning to learn from the best in the business.

David

• Lisa Pope: How to Build Through Broad Business Change By Adam Conner of Dedicated.ai
• A COVID-19 Timeline: The Impact on Consumer’s Shopping Basket [A MavenMagnet Study] By MavenMagnet
• Media companies open new offices to accommodate for growing headcounts and a new phase of the pandemic By Sara Guaglione of Digiday

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UPCOMING SERIAL MARKETERS EVENTS

• 3/16: Serial Marketers Community Salons, Co-hosted with Michael Bendit of Trusted Referral Network. We’ll feature Orli LeWinter, a long-time advisor to Serial Marketers. The theme will be what happened at SXSW that matters for marketers
• 4/6: First Wednesdays in-person NYC, Mason Jar on E 30th, 5-7pm. Hosted by our friends at Thece, thanks to our community advisor and advocate Zach Rozga. Come meet Zach while he’s in town, and enjoy a beverage or two of your choice.
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JUNE 7–10, Virtual Conference
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JOBS
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Keep checking out the #jobs channel in Serial Marketers for more. Better yet, subscribe to get updates from our job listing board. Here are some great opportunities shared in these places or sent to me directly.

TESORIO
Mid-Market Account Executive
Remote
“Tesorio is looking for a high velocity Account Executive (AE) to help us grow revenue. We are on pace to double in size this year and need motivated and determined sales professionals to reach our goals. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with 2-5 years selling experience to be part of a leading new Financial Technology software-as-a-service (SaaS) business.”
Apply

InSync.AI
Marketing Manager
Remote
“At InSync.Ai, marketing is about understanding our customers and building awareness about how our products/services can satisfy their needs. Were looking for an experienced and versatile marketing manager who is hungry to do this and more. Our ideal candidate has experience developing and executing marketing campaigns while managing and inspiring a team. He/she will be comfortable with day-to-day marketing activities, as well as long-term strategy, thriving with tight deadlines and changing needs. If you are a people-person who loves the rewarding challenge of building a brand, we want to hear from you.”
Apply

CHALONER
Manager, Social Media
Greenwich, CT
Via Devin in the community
“Chaloner has partnered with XPO Logistics on their search for a Manager, Social Media to join their team. Fortune has named XPO one of the World’s Most Admired Companies for four years running. As the Manager, Social Media, you will spearhead content ideation and publication for a rapidly expanding audience. Working collaboratively with the broader Communications team, you’ll develop a growing community whose engagement defies B2B stereotypes; pioneer XPO’s presence on next-generation social platforms; and further a culture that champions diversity, achievement, and community service. Put your skills to work for us, and we will give you the tools, resources, and support to build a career that isn’t just one you’ll be proud of, but one you’ll love.”
Apply

PAM ANN MARKETING
SEO Content Strategist & Performance Analyst
Remote
Via Pam in the community
“General Responsibilities for All Positions. Play a supporting role in the crafting and implementation of search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Learn the decision making, thought process, and preferences of the business owner in order to respond to needs and act for them as needed in the best interest of the company. Participate in and/or lead client conference calls. Take notes, extract action items from the conversation, and translate those action items into tasks in the project management system. Accept other delegated tasks as assigned”
Apply

Also, check out the Serial Marketers job board.

• AMA Job Board: Listings from the American Marketing Association (maybe you can also ask them anything)
• Beeler.Tech: Job listings for ad operations, programmatic account management, sales operations, and more.
• Braintrust: A freelance platform where you are the owner and where freelance talent keeps 100% of the bill rate.
• Built in NYC: Jobs at a range of levels and functions, as long as you’re okay working in this quaint, backwater hamlet.
• Content Writing Jobs: Content marketers, enjoy
• Creative Women of Color: List yourself in the database and find talent, via Women Who Create
• Demand Curve: Growth and marketing jobs
• ExecThread: Senior roles spanning a range of verticals and cities; membership is free but fully vetted (this uses my referral ID to get you in faster)
• Gently Ventures: Helps scale businesses by finding the right talent
• Growth Collective: Apply to join this network of notable freelance marketers
• Grace Blue Transitions: A portal for hirers and seekers with resources from this exec recruiting firm
• The Hired Guns: An array of jobs in marketing and related fields at brands, agencies, and media companies
• Hue: Amplifying voices of people in color working in marketing
• Lunch Club: Match 1:1 around predetermined goals with accomplished professionals (free)
• NYC Ad Jobs & Networking: A popular Facebook group
• One Club for Creativity: COVID-19 jobs Board
• #OpenToWork: There’s a channel in Serial Marketers where you can share what you’re looking for
• Pangea: Hire college freelancers (and college students can get gigs)
• Pocit: A platform connecting people of color with jobs in the tech industry
• Questions to Ask for a Marketing Role: What questions should you ask when starting a new marketing role or job?
• Serial Marketers Job Board: Post regular and featured listings and subscribe for updates.
• Startup.Jobs: There’s a section for marketing jobs
• Teal: One place to organize and manage your job search.
• TechNY Daily: While more technical, there are also some sales and marketing jobs at NY startups.
• VC Job Boards: Aleph, Eniac Ventures, Pear, Sequoia, Union Square Ventures
• VentureLoop: Free startup job listings; their paid option is $15/month and might surface more leads (but it might not).
• Venwise: Submit your job interests here and get in front of their roster of hiring leads; select “Serial Marketers” under “How did you find us”

Do you run or enjoy other job listing sites? Let me know, and I’ll share them.

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GPO: Generate at least 20% more organic traffic. Doing a strong job in SEO but wonder if more traffic can be had? GPO will custom-build an AWS instance that will become a subdomain of your site, and generate at least 20% more traffic the first year. Contact Cory Cox in the community to redeem.

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Markman Speaker Management: Get 15% off the half-day customized virtual training session “Get Speaking Engagements” for individuals or corporate staff through Dec. 31, 2022. Contact Steve Markman to redeem.

Thece: Get 10% off their Getting Started Kit — just let them know Serial Marketers sent you.

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