Foursquare, Twitter and GroupMe all blew up at South by Southwest (SXSW), and every year, hordes of startups flock to the conference in hopes of adding their own names to that list.
The simultaneous Interactive and Film potions of the conference put more than 32,000 tech-focused people in close vicinity. Meanwhile, the crowd has more options for events, panels, parties, food and networking than most have within any given month. Any startup that can help make these decisions easier has a decent shot at taking off, and they swarm to the conference like mosquitoes to a pond at dusk.
During Twitter’s breakout conference in 2007, the startup paid $11,000 to put a visualization of its service on flat-panel screens in the hallways. It also created an event-specific feature that allowed attendees to text a message in order to sign up automatically and follow a handful of “ambassadors” at SXSW. In response to Quora query, “What is the process involved in launching a startup at SXSW?,” co-founder Evan Williams said that’s where Twitter “chose to blow up.”
Perhaps startups take their cue from Twitter when they haul out new marketing gimmicks at the conference each year.
“As a marketer, I’m happy to call out other marketers who think that SXSW launch success can be engineered or bought — it has to instead be earned with so much elbow grease and good will,” explained Josh Jones-Dilworth, who has worked on SXSW’s PR and serves on the SXSW Accelerator advisory board, when we asked him about SXSW marketing gimmicks last year. “If anything, SXSW-goers are marketing-averse, super-savvy and able to triage credibility (or lack thereof) with a sniff.”
Here are seven startups (and their marketing ploys, for better or worse) that we think have a chance of breaking out this year.
1. Highlight
What it does: After users connect their Facebook profiles, iOS app Highlight will automatically push their basic information to other people who use the app. Users can choose to make their information accessible to either everyone or friends of friends. Either way, the app only makes the connection if the two parties have something in common. It facilitates serendipitous networking.
What it’s doing at SXSW: Basking in the glow after being named the favorite. Last year, Robert Scoble pegged Highlight as the next “hottest thing at SXSW,” and several other bloggers have since crowned it such.
2. Pixable
What it does: Pixable isn’t a photo-sharing app, it’s a photo-consuming app. It sorts images from your Facebook and Twitter feeds into piles such as “Top of the Day,” “New on Twitter” and “New Profile Pics,” making them easy to view and interact with.
What it’s doing at SXSW: During the conference, Pixable will add a special SXSW category to its app that pulls Twitter and Instagram photos with the #SXSW hashtag. It will also have photo feeds for each day, the most popular photos at SXSW and photos from “influencers.”
3. Localmind
What it does: Localmind is a location-based Q&A platform. It lets users ask questions related to specific locations to other users who are actually at those locations.
What it’s doing at SXSW: The startup used Eventbrite’s API and public listings to put SXSW parties in its database. Conference attendees can use the service to ping each other with questions such as “how’s the line over there?” or “is that party worth going to?”
4. Sonar
What it does: Sonar uses Foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook data to tell you who is nearby and how you’re connected. Because it uses data from public posts on social media, its scope extends further than its userbase. It can show you, for instance, which friends you have in common with other people in the room — even if those people don’t also use Sonar.
What it’s doing at SXSW: An Android app beta, which it launched Monday.
5. Zaarly and Taskrabbit
What they do: Both services are location-based, mobile marketplaces. You can use them to find people who will run your errands — quite a useful trick when you’re frantically running between panels and parties.
What they’re doing at SXSW: Zaarly is hosting a party with Startup Weekend Friday and Twilio. TaskRabbit is hosting a “park,” which will include a range of activities, like BBQ, cocktails, fried snacks and a pop-a-shot tournament.
6. Banjo
What it does: Banjo connects to your Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and Gowalla accounts and sends you a push notification when any of your friends are nearby. Users can set a specific radius to qualify as “nearby” and pause notifications.
What it’s doing at SXSW: Laying low.
7. Forecast
What it does: The Android and iPhone app asks users make “Forecasts” — what they plan to do at a specific time. Those Forecasts are broadcast to their friends, and can serve as informal invitations to join. Friends can accept them by clicking a “me too” button, and when they arrive, can check in the same way they would on Foursquare.
What it’s doing at SXSW: Competing in the SXSW Accelerator mobile category.
Like last year’s group messaging deluge, the obvious trend in this year’s lineup seems to be apps that help you find out who is nearby and how they fit into your social context. Will attendees prefer the automatic location sharing of Highlight to the social-media based connection finder Sonar? Will they prefer to focus on friends nearby using Banjo, or see where friends are headed using Forecast?
We won’t know for sure until we get to Austin. Let us know your best guess or add to our list in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, fpm
Source: Mashable
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