March 11-20 2022
Austin, TX

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Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing, deliver excellence for the world’s most ambitious brands by connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology. That’s why Stagwell loves SXSW, which is all about the intersection of technology, innovation and culture – a great fit for a global company committed to transforming marketing, content, and experiences.

Here’s a roundup of Stagwell showed up at SXSW, what we learned, and what it means for marketers:

The 5 Things You Missed at SXSW 

From NFTs and the evolving Web3 landscape to the transformative power of digital audio, Stagwell’s experts share the top five trends and brand takeaways from SXSW 2022.

Get Smart with Matt Maher

Stagwell contributor Matt Maher provided “Get Smart” videos throughout the week, making sure those watching from home didn’t miss a single thing, and that those on the ground could keep up with the hours of programming SXSW put forward this year.

Matt brought his experience as a marketing and technology expert to bear, sifting through the flash to determine which of the new trends and technology have staying power – and how marketers should be parcing them to make the most of every platform.

MATT’S KEY SXSW 2022 TAKEAWAYS:

1. THIS WAS NFT’S YEAR AT SXSW but most brands haven’t fully connected the dots to turn NFTs into a sustainable, relevant, brand-building moment. Look to the Doodle x Shopify activation for the most successful implementation.
2. CONTENT CREATION ISNT A NUMBERS GAME ANYMORE – from gaming to Instagram, it’s more important to have a dedicating following of 10k than an apathetic community of a million.
3. THE METAVERSE CONVERSATION IS MORPHING from enthusiasm to skepticism as it runs against ongoing tech debates – data, privacy and the psychological impact on users over time. We havent’ written it off yet, but brands have some big decisions to make before jumping in.

Matt walks us thorugh all this in more in his Get Smart series from the festival, check them our below and on the Stagwell @ SXSW YouTube playlist. 

Stagwell’s on the Ground Recap with Nick Fuller

Why brave the Austin heat (or cold, as it was this year) when you have digital transformation expert Nick Fuller, Managing Partner of Digital Transformation at Stagwell, on the ground to make sense of it all for you? He’s our sherpa for all things technology x marketing, and his takeaways from a weekend on the ground show a bias towards first-mover advantage when it comes to all things Web3. There is also a new interpretation of the age old question of authenticity – whether its in creator partnerships or buy-in on new tech platforms, there’s a huge upside for brands who are operating with a clear vision of their message and where they fit in the market.

Read Nick’s full article here.

Driving the Future of Marketing with Stagwell

Marketing moves fast – and we’re ahead of the curve. On Monday March 14, Stagwell held an invite-only event at Circuit of the Americas, the US’ first and only purpose-built F1 track, to give this industry’s saviest competitors a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The day started with a panel featuring Bennett Richardson, President of Protocol, Gayle Troberman, CMO of iHeart Media and Sally Shin, Chief Strategy Officer at UnitedMasters, discussing the future of audio marketing. They touched on core themes unearthed by Stagwell’s March Marketing Frontier on the Future of Audio, including the power fo audio and a connective device and the untapped potential of audio as an avenue for first-party data collection. 

The group then broke up to make some noise themselves, rotating through a half-day racing school taught by the legendary Skip Barber Racing School. In no time, our marketing pros became driving pros, learning the fundementals for open-wheel race car driving from Skip Barber instructors who among them boasted half a dozen top-place finishes in racing classes across the board. It was an unforgettable day, and a reminder of why pushing the limits and moving quick can transformt he way you see a problem – and see the world.

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Amid the global consumer craving for new experiences driven by the pandemic, social audio bloomed in popularity through 2020 and 2021. A year later, some of the buzz around the platform driving the trend – Clubhouse – has fizzled, but experiments in the space from key social platforms like Twitter and Reddit, and audio superstar Spotify, show there’s still terrain to be mapped. But are consumers into social audio? What opportunities does the content create? And what are the barriers to widespread adoption and growth that brands should be on the lookout for? Stagwell’s experts from KWT Global, HUNTER, and Meat & Produce address where social audio is headed in 2022.

Niche Will Drive the Social Audio Experience 

Jessica Spar, SVP, Digital, KWT Global

Social audio isn’t going anywhere any time soon, but the bigger questions are: Who is tuned in? And where? Clubhouse was meant to be the next big thing, but its fifteen minutes of fame have passed. Was this because the format didn’t ultimately have long term potential? Or because it was a good idea with poor execution? Twitter Spaces seems to be banking on the latter, yet with significant shifts in the cultural and social landscape over the last few years, Twitter may not be primed for the success it expects.

Twitter is counting on mass appeal for Twitter Spaces based on its 300 million+ monthly users. However, the masses are moving in a different direction – younger audiences are increasingly leaning into Instagram and TikTok as their platforms of choice, with video as the dominating medium. Social audio has a completely different definition on these platforms. Where Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces focus on live conversation, TikTok and Instagram’s definition of social audio includes everything from audio remixes to sharing the latest sound trends, which doesn’t require the same level of focus, attention, and participation as the live conversational formats of Clubhouses and Twitter Spaces.  

To succeed, Twitter Spaces will need to rely on highly engaged niche interest groups, which is a model already owned by Reddit. As a platform founded on niche interest groups, Reddit is now throwing its hat into the social audio ring as well with Reddit Talk. Reddit could succeed where Clubhouse failed (and Twitter Spaces seems to be failing), as they have the framework for success built into their platform already. The platform’s subreddit model and moderation policies lend themselves well to a similar setup for live audio discussion. Clubhouse, on the other hand, was still working through the right setup for rooms when users started to lose interest, and Twitter’s struggles have come in on the moderation side of things. Without clear moderation frameworks, brands may find social audio experiences too risky.  

All to say, no clear winner has emerged in the social audio game when it comes to live conversation, so it will be interesting to see which platform, if any, can get it right! 

Platform Investment Means Social Audio is Here to Stay 
Michael Lamp, Chief Digital Officer, HUNTER 

Despite Clubhouse’s fizzle-out, there’s still a ton of heat around social audio. Twitter Spaces has outpaced all its other recent innovations and is driving a lot of thumb-stopping based on the way live Spaces appear in the mobile app (à la IG Stories…just begging to be clicked). Spotify launched its version of audio rooms – Greenroom – in July of 2021 and Facebook continues to promote its Live Audio Rooms with select Creator partners.  

Perhaps most indicative of Social Audio’s staying power, though, is Reddit’s offering: Reddit Talk. A mobile-only product for a while, it rolled out to the web version just this year, adding several new features, including the ability to listen to recorded sessions.  

Beyond these specific products offered by existing platforms, the broader trend of sensorial social is what we’re watching, buoyed by the staying power of podcasts, ASMR and long-form, audio-as-video content. From sight to sound to virtual realities in the metaverse simulating touch, where will the fight for consumer attention take us next?     

Content Creators Hold the Key for the Future of Social Audio 

Christine McDermott, VP, Meat & Produce   

Amidst the “we’re all in this together” enthusiasm of 2020 (remember after work Zoom drinks? Yea, sorry to remind you…) friends, families and companies jumped into the online world headfirst. The need for connection, exacerbated by the pandemic, was real but screen fatigue quickly set in. This combination created a gateway for an explosion of audio content. While it appeared to have been spurred on by our “unprecedented times,” the audio movement had been building for years with the groundwork laid by the increasing popularity of podcasts.  

This brings us back to Clubhouse: despite downloads having plummeted after the initial hype, every major social platform has continued to invest in the development of audio. Think Twitter Spaces, Facebook Live Rooms and Spotify Greenroom. Notably, the names of these efforts focus on referencing physical locations, highlighting the opportunity audio provides for greater connection and inclusion across hybrid brand ecosystems. Even LinkedIn has recently jumped on the bandwagon, extending their live events to include audio-only events. Audio-only can level a playing field in terms of providing engagement opportunities without judgment on appearance or location (i.e. no need for staged Zoom backgrounds…) 

No social form of social media is an island, or could possibly exist in isolation, and thus the popularity of audio has bloomed beyond audio-only channels. For years, the advice brands and agencies heard from Facebook was to design content for sound-off as well as sound-on. This was based on the insight that most users would consume content while silently scrolling through feeds. Now users discover cultural moments by tapping into trending audio on TikTok; the audio content drives the cultural relevance consumers are seeking in their entertainment consumption.  

The key to the future of audio lies in the hands of creators, both from a platform and consumer perspective. The possibilities here are immense: since it is more cost effective to create high-quality audio than video, audio’s proliferation will enable new and underrepresented voices to enter the mainstream. Additionally, audio content and interactions allow for deeper discussions around key issues we face today while simultaneously enabling a greater level of empathy to be built between listeners. Imagine the nuance that voice provides enhancing conversation and discourse, as opposed to the impersonal, text-based comment battles we see across social media so often. Through strategic creator partnerships, our brands can find authentic ways to enter the conversations that are matter to their consumers.  

With the ongoing evolutions we are seeing in this space – from increasing formats and channels to greater accessibility options – audio will continue to play a more important role in our social mix, from channel planning to creative development.

FEATURING

As we reflect on the marketing implications of CES 2022, Web 3.0 is by far the most impactful development that showed up across industries, technologies and capabilities. While in some ways it may be another victim of CES’ shiny veneer versus reality, there are components that are impossible to ignore – namely, the influx of and investment in the metaverse and NFTs.

Stagwell is one of the first movers when it comes to helping brands activate in this nacent space, having supported the launch of MilkPeP’s activation in the Roblox metaverse. On Thursday, January 6, Stagwell convened a lunch and learn, moderated by Axios’ Sara Fischer, to discuss the tactical and theoretical challenges and opportinities presented by Web 3.0. Here are our top 5 takeaways from the conversation: 

1. COVID WAS A CATALYST, bringing the metaverse into the real world 
2. BRANDS WILL PLAY A KEY ROLE IN BUILDING TRUST with these technologies and platforms
3. NOT EVERY BRAND SHOULD BE IN THE METAVERSE, and not every metaverse is created equal
4. METAVERSE + IRL should be a seamless experience
5. NFTS are here to stay

Web 3.0 is a nuanced topic, and one that is the opposite of a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on brand, product, buyer demographic and existing marketing activity, the metaverse and NFTs can fill a very important role (which may be… no role at all. More on that later). Learn more about what it means for brands, creative and the future of the online/offline world.

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1. COVID was a catalyst, bringing the metaverse into the real world

The metaverse would have come eventually (in fact it’s already been here…hello, gaming community!), but the pandemic undoubtedly accelerated the timeline. With the majority of the world going digital, tech companies were pushed to develop products, tools and software that allowed us to do so much more from a virtual setting, exposing a more urgent demand for expanded virtual experiences and capabilities from brands.

2. Brands will play a key role in building trust with these technologies and platforms 

 3. Not every brand should be in the metaverse, and not every metaverse is created equal

4. Metaverse + IRL should be a seamless experience

 5. NFTs are here to stay

Originally released on

FEATURING

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) today announced that Stagwell Technology’s influencer management platform Koalifyed has launched a mobile app, available for download on the Apple App Store. The app is the latest from Koalifyed, an end-to-end campaign management solution that empowers social-first brands and agencies to reach real audiences faster and optimize campaign dollars to improve results. 

“We’re excited for this next evolution in Koalifyed’s technology and the added agility it will bring our brand and agency partners as they collaborate with talent in today’s influence-driven marketplace,” said Koalifyed Partner and Stagwell Technology’s Chief Technology Officer Charles Hu. “From macro influencers to nano influencers, we know that in today’s consumer-centric landscape, the endorsement of key creators can drive preference, positive word of mouth, and ultimately conversion.”

“Koalifyed’s app arrives at a crucial time for social-first brands seeking to tap into the multiplier-effect of modern culture,” added Stagwell Chief Brand Officer Beth Sidhu. “At Stagwell, we’re bullish on the value influencer marketing can add to an omnichannel strategy in today’s marketplace and are proud to see Koalifyed continue to evolve as an essential tool for digital clients.”

The technology — leveraged by clients such as P&G, Gilette, Old Spice, and Pantene — builds speed, efficiency, and trust into the most crucial parts of influencer campaign management, helping connect brands to their most engaged audiences, drive meaningful partnerships with dynamic, high-quality creators, and deliver maximum performance.

Koalifyed’s app enhances the platform’s features including best-in-class proprietary fraud detection which has been shown to identify up to 10 times more bots than other products; and blockchain technology for smart contracts to help keep brands compliant with increased FTC guidelines for influencer marketing.

“Brands need to reach people authentically —  and authentic audiences are precisely what Koalifyed specializes in,” added Christina Scala, SVP of Sales & Marketing, Koalifyed. “Our growing directory of diverse influencers can be a key tool for brands seeking to elevate a more representative cast of creators in their marketing.”

Koalifyed is part of Stagwell’s broader roster of digital SaaS products that solve for key gaps in the modern marketing services ecosystem. Powered by Stagwell’s impressive network of best-in-class engineering talent, numbering 2000+ globally, the Company’s product suite offers clients the best in connected technologies to drive marketing effectiveness. Koalifyed was developed by Stagwell Technologies in collaboration with leading consumer marketing agency MMI Agency.

In addition to Koalifyed, Stagwell’s solutions include products that predict the performance of communications using A.I. (PRophet), connect global talent for content delivery (LOCATE), measure and optimize brand reputation (Harris Brand Platform), and more.

About Stagwell Inc.

Stagwell is the challenger holding company built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 10,000+ specialists in 24+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients.

For more information, visit www.stagwellglobal.com.

About Koalifyed

Koalifyed is now available to all brands and offers solutions for influencer marketing budgets of all sizes. Creators can also sign up to join the Koalifyed creator database to get discovered by brands via Koalifyed’s website. To learn more, sign up to be a part of Koalifyed’s creator database or request a demo, visit https://www.koalifyed.com/.