Among the many dozens of brands angling for eyeballs at this month's South by Southwest's music, movie, and interactive festival, cable channel Syfy was one that stood out for many attendees with its creative activation promoting the upcoming hybrid video game/TV series Defiance. Syfy has been a notable presence at Comic-Con for more than a decade, but this was its maiden outing at SXSW, part of a trend that saw an increased number of networks wooing audiences in Austin.
"We’ve been looking at SXSW for a couple years ago, especially with the addition of interactive," said Dana Ortiz, vice president of brand marketing at Syfy. "Defiance, and the transmedia of it, really made it a no-brainer for us to go this year." (A collaboration with Trion Games, Defiance allows users to watch on TV and play along online. The project premieres April 15.)
However, "Austin is a quite a different proposition" than Comic-Con, said Ortiz. With hundreds of events drawing attendees' attention throughout the 10-day festival, "we knew we needed a hook. We couldn't go there just toe-stepping into the space."
What they settled on was a hybrid hotel/gathering/gaming space inspired by "Container Village," a shantytown-like setting featured in the show. From March 8 to 11, Syfy created a real-life Defiance Container Village in Austin, setting up a series of shipping containers in a downtown parking lot. The centerpiece of the village was three pop-up hotel rooms that offered lucky guests the best-located lodging in Austin, just a few blocks from the convention center. The shipping container rooms, which included HD-TV, Internet access, a 24-hour concierge, and amenities like robes and slippers, were occupied by Defiance cast member Jesse Rath, Forbes technology reporter Jeff Bercovici, and blogger Curt Johnson of BestMoviesEverNews.com, who won his room through a Klout-sponsored competition by generating 14,000 retweets in three days.
For the rest of attendees, the shipping container village was also outfitted with a blogging station where guests could plug in their tech toys and recharge, a food truck from local Korean barbeque purveyors Chi-lantro, and a station providing an advance chance to play the game. At the “Need/Want Social Bar," inspired by another location from the show (a saloon where everything you need is in the front and everything you want is in the back), guests could tweet their needs and wants at Syfy, with chances to earn swag and free tacos.
With so many entertainment options bombarding SXSW registrants, Syfy's strategy centered on location over promotion.
"When we went down to Austin a couple of months ago to check out spaces, we realized proximity to the convention center would be important," said Ortiz. With two entrances on either side of the block, the space chosen allowed for plenty of foot traffic. "We don’t ever want to have to promote the promotion. We didn’t have any street hawkers, sandwich boards, or chasing people down. Most of it was by word-of-mouth, social, or just people passing by."
In total, 3,500 people visited the activation over its three-day run, including 700 who showed up for the Sunday-night closing party.
"People appreciated the experience; you got to touch and feel the property in a way you don’t normally get to," said Ortiz. She added Syfy is likely to return to SXSW in the future and is considering bringing the Defiance Container Village elsewhere. "We got great responses, with a lot of people tweeting, 'Hey, are you bringing this to Comic-Con?' So it definitely could be replicated."
