SXSW Guest Blog: Shelby.Tv Brand Director Lauren Appelwick On Making A Splash At SXSW

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Lauren Appelwick is Brand Director at Shelby.tv. 

When we began thinking about SXSW a few months ago, we realized that many people seemed to think that the proper (if not only) way to “do” SX is to plaster a huge space with banners and logos, give out a lot of swag and food, and keep the open bar going as long as possible. For a smaller company like ours, the problem with this approach is that when everyone else is shouting, there’s a huge chance your brand’s efforts will be drowned out by the noise. (It also happens to be crazy expensive.)

That’s why we rented goats on Saturday. We came to SXSW to put on Project G.O.A.T.S., and while involving real goats was in no way necessary, we decided to get them because:

a) Focused creativity trumps monolithic marketing spend. If you’ll allow an analogy, (although most of my analogies crumble under scrutiny) SX is like being at the base of a bunch of different mountains. The mountains are grand and beautiful, but when surrounded by monoliths, it’s hard to focus on just one, and you’re likely to notice a pretty flower closer to where you stand. Our goats got noticed. And since they were decked out in Shelby.tv gear, our brand got noticed, and a conversation grew up around our little stunt.

b) Animals make people happy. There were a million “small touches” we could have gone with that didn’t involve live animals, but goats were perfect for us because they are delightful, strange creatures. There was nary a soul who passed by without smiling, and many people (like Tom Colicchio and Ben Huh) stopped to pet our little friends and have their pictures taken. 

c) Why not? As our co-founder Dan always says, “Ideas are worthless, execution is everything.” We could have told our friends that we had the idea to rent goats, but had we not actually done it, then…who cares? People have lots of ideas everyday, but not everyone makes them a reality.

Vincent van Goat and Goatsy were incredibly well-behaved and we miss them already, but there’s still more SXSW to go, and we’ve got a few more surprises on the way. Be sure to check out projectgoats.com for video exclusives over the next few days.

Dan: “Vincent van Goat was eating Goatsy’s shirt.  She had to be corrected.  This hurt me more than it hurt her.”