9 panels you must vote for: SXSW 2012 Panel Picker recommendations | Blogads

9 panels you must vote for: SXSW 2012 Panel Picker recommendations

It’s that time of year again! The SXSW 2012 Panel Picker is open for voting. We’ll be heading back to Austin this year for SXSW Interactive, and here are the panels we’d like see when we get there.

1. 2 Girls, 1 Cup and Your Brand

Rob Blatt

Maybe it’s because of the catchy title, or maybe it’s because we like to curse, damn it, but this panel is the office favorite at Blogads HQ. Rob Blatt and Gavin St. Ours want you and your brand to feel free to curse on the Internet, but they want you to do it right.

From the description: “If you bleep out a word, you might evade the lords at Apple, but do you think your show is still family friendly? Stop holding yourself back, this is the internet!”

Best question to be answered: “How can accepting the darker side of the internet help your brand?”

 

2. How to Profit in the Digital World of Politics

Political advertising budgets get bigger and bigger with every cycle. At Blogads, we’ve already seen ads from local candidates running this year, as well President Obama’s 2012 campaign. Smart Media‘s J.B. Britten, who has managed digital campaigns for Meg Whitman, among other candidates, will teach digital entrepreneurs how to make a profit on political spending.

From the description: “Many top digital marketers, advertisers, and web-development gurus may not even realize the vast opportunities hidden in each election. We aim to reveal the opportunities, unseen pitfalls and strange stories of the digital political campaign.”

3. Banner is Dead: How Brands Can Innovate Online

With our variety of blog-friendly ad units, we’re long-time proponents of thinking “outside the banner.” This panel of ad mavens, including Digiday’s Mike Shields, Flite’s Will Price, L’Oreal’s Marc Speichert and McCann’s Lori Schwartz, will deconstruct the new ads built to grab the eyes of the banner-blind.

From the description: “While the old, static banner ads that you’ve seen since ’94 that beckon you to click through to the advertiser’s website still persist, those ads are little more than an image, a tagline and a call to action, and we’ve been conditioned to ignore them.”

4.  Learning to Place Little Bets

For a recent Blogads book chat, we read and discussed Peter Sims’s guide to innovation, Little Bets. The book stresses the connection between experimentation and innovation, with case studies from innovators as diverse as Pixar and Chris Rock. In this panel, Sims will join Gareth Kay and Iain Tait to explore how experimentation in advertising is more effective in than planning.

Best question to be answered: “How do you unlearn the ponderous creative process that generates ‘big’ ideas and create a culture that releases a continuous stream of little bets?”

5.  I May “Like” You, But I’m Not in Like With You

Has your brand become a slave to the Facebook “like” button? Likes are good, but what you do with them is more important. R/GA‘s VP of Interaction Design Chloe Gottlieb and Managing Director of Planning Andrea Ring will show you strategies for cultivating deeper relationships between your brand and your customers.

From the description: “[Brands] give away valuable stuff in return for a passive thumbs-ups, never realizing that this behavior could actually be cheapening their customer relationships. ‘Likes’ come easy, but real relationships come with real exchange and sacrifice.”

6. Brands that believe in sex after marriage

To the delight of the ADD set, SXSWi is bringing back the Future15 format for 2012. These fast-paced solo talks cover a lot of information fast, and we think this provocatively titled talk will be one of the best. Crispin Porter+Bogusky’s experience director Noel Franus will show you how to keep things exciting after the honeymoon period with your customer is over.

Best question to be answered: “Why is ‘retention’ a dirty word among creatives?”

7. 4 Chief Innovation Officers Defend Their Titles

It’s the rematch the Internet has been waiting for. There’s been a lot of talk about the people who are most responsible when everyone is responsible. Head Google strategist Ben Malbon got the ball rolling in April with a post that questioned the need for the Chief Innovation Officer. In the piece, he called out Mullen CIO Edward Boches and BBH Head of Innovation Saneel Radia. If this panel is picked, these Internet stars will face off in person. Anders Sjostedt, managing director of Hyper Island, will referee the panel of innovators and skeptics.

From the description: “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble.”

8. Purveyors of Cool: Art, Culture and Brands

In our country, the line between brand and cultural icon is sometimes blurry. Just think about Coke, Levi’s, Wal-Mart, and what they mean to us culturally. But how are brands going beyond traditional ad work to shed new light on up-and-coming art and culture? GSD&M SVP John McGrath will lead a panel of promotors and artists to learn how “bigger entities are stepping it up to give them the exposure they deserve.”

Best question to be answered: “As an artist, how do you balance exposure vs. selling out?”

9. x

No, that’s not a typo. At least, we hope not. We’re voting for IgniteNYC director Tikva Morowati’s panel, even though we have no idea what it’s about. Bold? Reckless? Undescribed? We hope to find out in Austin.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t implore you to give some voting and commenting love to the panels my colleagues are pitching. Megan Mitzel has a panel of book publishers, marketers, and journalists chomping at the bit to talk about the corralation between e-readers and the bankrupcy of Borders. Just check out the comments section of “Did e-readers cause Borders’ demise?” Blogads boss Henry Copeland wants to read your mind, and he’ll teach you how to do it in his panel “Learning to Read Minds.” That’s not a metaphor, folks. He’s talking about actual mind-reading.

Several of our bloggers have panels nominated as well. Check ’em out and vote!

See you in Austin!

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