How marketers at FX, Paramount and Criterion feel about experiential at SXSW

Brynn Brewer got in line around 9:30 a.m. last Saturday morning behind dozens of others — some of whom got there as early as 6 a.m. to be near the front of the line — for the chance to experience the Criterion closet like the filmmakers and artists featured on the entertainment company’s YouTube channel. The South by Southwest experience to Brewer, a content producer at Chubbies Shorts, felt like an “organic activation” and “more like an interactive art installment.” 

Brewer isn’t alone in her assessment. The three women around her in line shared similar sentiments, noting their love of classic film, while shielding themselves with an umbrella from the heat of the Austin, Texas sun. To them, the three minutes allotted to each group to enter the mobile Criterion closet truck, peruse the classic films featured in the collection, pick out a few of those films to take home on Blu-ray and talk about why they matter (as well as get a Polaroid of themselves in the closet) was worth the wait. 

As marketers, agency execs, filmmakers and musicians returned to Austin this past week for SXSW — which runs until March 15th — so too have the brands like Criterion, FX, Paramount, Amazon and Alaska Airlines with various experiential activations on the ground. In the past, marketers believed that having an experience was a must and brands faced irrelevancy without one. Now, after having experienced the shutdown of experiential efforts during the pandemic, marketers, agency execs and attendees believe experiential at SXSW (and elsewhere) shouldn’t solely be about relevance, but to give attendees a real way to interact with the brand.

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