It’s that time again. SXSW is here as marketers, filmmakers, musicians and others descend on Austin to meet, greet and attend panels, minglings with a Lone Star Beer in one hand and a breakfast taco in the other. We’ve curated a reasonably extensive list of panels and happenings that marketers should check out if they head to Austin, but it is by no means exhaustive. For the full list of SXSW panels, click here.
All panel times are CST.
March 8th
Why Storytelling Sells: Platform Purchasing Power
Join James DeJulio of Tongal, Marc Mastronardi of Macy’s, and Lauren Wilner from Macy’s Style Crew in discussion about how established brands can employ new platforms to connect with customers.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Four Seasons Ballroom CD
Moving Beyond The Buzz Of Purpose And Impact
Attend a chat with The Honest Company’s Christopher Gavigan about the triumphs and challenges of building purpose-led organizations.
When: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Austin Convention Center Room 10AB
March 9th
Brand: The New Political Reality
In this panel, leading experts will explore the new reality for brands marketing to a highly politicized society and educate audiences about the ways brand leaders are navigating this new territory today.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
How AI Is Changing Advertising In China
This panel will cover how China-based startups use AI to analyze, categorize, and rank influencers—creating a blockchain-based micropayments marketplace that can include everyone on social media.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional A
Humanizing Your Brand In The Robot-Era
This panel will concentrate on exploring brand humanization and connecting with consumers on an emotional level.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: SAP House at Trinity and 2nd
The Invisible Brand In An Audio-First World
Join a lively debate and discover what the future has in store for content creation and branding in the music industry.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Modern Marketing: Authenticity In The Age Of GDPR
This workshop will focus on GDPR and examine the current privacy landscape as well as give marketers a roadmap to leverage this changing world to better connect with their customers.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Where: Westin Austin Downtown The Gallery Room
March 10th
MediaLink & TRIPTK: The Marketing Green Rush Brunch & Panel
The panel focus on the discussion about the effects the mainstreaming of cannabis will have on business and culture.
When: 11:00 a.m – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Swift’s Attic
Women Are Building The Brands We’ve Always Wanted
This panel will take a close look at the increasing purchasing power of women and how women impact brand marketing.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Reimagine Storytelling Through Tech And Experiences
Hear from WFA’s Global Marketer of the Year, Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s CMO, about how the digital transformation is propelling the 53-year-old brand into the future.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional A
March 11th
THE EXPERIENCE By Dell Technologies
THE EXPERIENCE by Dell Technologies immerses you into the innovative world of tech and gaming and introduces revolutionary ways people are transforming the ways we create, work and play in today’s world.
When: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Where: The Sunset Room
Drowning In Data, Starving For Insights
This session will take a look at the data metrics available to brands, and the solutions brands can use when the data isn’t all-inclusive and meeting their needs.
When: 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Where: Fairmont Manchester CD
Latinx Digital Lives: Culture, Content, and Community
Being at the center of American trendsetter culture influencing content creation, consumption and distribution trends, such as their influence in Music as seen in the rise in popularity of Latin Music, Latinx examines their behavioral bias toward digital tech and discusses Latin Music’s gains as an example of Latinxs influence.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional A
Optimizing Marketing Workflow With AI And Automation
Join the panel for an insight on the current state of the marketing workflow and the role AI is playing in optimizing and automating the process for content creation.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Immersive Marketing: Beyond the Instagram Palace
Come for a lively chat about moving beyond the Instagram palace and immersive engagement incorporation to create unique, memorable and life-changing experiences for the consumer.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: JW Marriott Salon 3-4
The Snap House – Viral Growth And The Future Of Visual Communication
The panel will cover how viral, organic growth has changed in a world of “visual communication,” where people are “speaking” with the camera.
Participants:
● Matt Cano, Snap Inc. Product and Platform Partnerships
● Alston Cheek, Snap Inc. Product and Platform Partnerships
When: 4:00 p.m.
Where: Parlor Room
Girl Culture
Margaret Johnson (AdAge’s Executive of the Year and CCO of Goodby Silverstein & Partners), Ukonwa Ojo (former CMO COVERGIRL), Nonny de la Peña (Filmmaker and “Godmother of Virtual Reality”) and Lauren Greenfield (Founder of Girl Culture Films) discuss the evolving female voice in today’s culture.
When: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
March 12th
How Big Brands Are Improving America’s Health
The speaker, Tammy Lewis, is the CMO of CVS Caremark and CVS Specialty, will cover “how some of the nation’s leading brands are pushing the envelope and reaching consumers directly where traditional healthcare systems have failed.”
When: 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Influencer Marketing in 2025: The Future Of Human Media
Want to know what influencer marketing look like in 2025? It’s all in the title of this panel.
When: 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Where: Austin Convention Center Ballroom D
Rise Of Augmented Intelligence And Query-Able Brand
The conversation will revolve around AI technologies and the power it gives to marketers in adding value to customers and businesses.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Marketing In An Industry Where Change Is The Norm
This panel is all about the role of the CMO and its evolution. The CMO of a $100B health startup will speak on how she is navigating change today.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Women’s Health: How Do You Market Taboo Topics?
In this cross-industry panel discussion, experts will talk about effectively marketing some “taboo” topics, how to create a vocabulary for the complexity of female sexuality and the importance of destigmatizing health and aging concerns for women.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Convergence Keynote: The Second Golden Age Of Audio–Podcasting
Join Ostroff, Lieber and Mignano for their first collective interview since Spotify acquired podcasting companies Gimlet and Anchor. The discussion will touch upon the opportunities in audio and podcasting.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Austin Convention Center Ball Room D
Re-Inventing the Wheel: Own, Rent, Share, Subscribe
This panel is a must-visit for marketers interested in all things auto. The panel will concentrate on the consumer needs, techniques beyond traditional sales models and the approach to engagement to offer a broadened value proposition to customers in the automobile industry.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Hilton Austin Downtown Room 400-402
Insights To Actions: Analytics-Powered Marketing
The leaders in analytics will explain how they use linguistics, anthropology and sociology to influence and mobilize their teams to leverage data and insights in a scalable way.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
The Snap House – Hotdogs And Dog Faces: How Meme Culture Made AR A Worldwide Staple
Meet some viral content creators who are using Snapchat’s Lens Studio to expand the reach of their content by embracing “participatory media.”
When: 4:00 p.m.
Where: Parlor Room
Disrupting Gender Norms: Authenticity in Advertising
Professional photographer and author Kate T. Parker, who will talk about what it means to be masculine and feminine in today’s world.
When: 4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional A
March 13th
Can Brand Advertising Survive In the Era Of 1:1
In this session, ad agency leaders will discuss how they balance the needs of traditional brand advertising with the technical complexity of marketing to targeted audiences.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Chatbots And AI: Business, Legal, And Ethical Concerns
Join marketers, developers and legal experts for a discussion on virtual assistants, Big Data and AI.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Restoring Transparency In Advertising With Blockchain
Drop by and learn howUnilever, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Kellogg and IBM are collaborating on a blockchain-enabled advertising network to improve transparency, fight fraud and get make-goods done more quickly.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Convergence Keynote: Bozoma Saint John
Bozoma Saint John is CMO at Endeavor. In her role, Saint John focuses on driving marketing efforts across Endeavor’s portfolio.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Hilton Austin Downtown Salon H
Can Content Media Catch-Up With Digital?
In this panel, media company leaders discuss their efforts to monetize quality content in an era of expanded distribution channels.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
Privacy: Has Targeted Marketing Gone Too Far?
Does the dream of 1:1 marketing conflict with evolving standards of privacy? As the well-publicized scandals related to election manipulation show the downside for democracy of ad tech’s ever-more-narrow targeting, has targeting gone too far to be practical and beneficial to marketers?
When: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional C
March 14th
Experiential Is The New Viral: Find Yours
In this session, experiential experts discuss how brands should approach IRL strategies, including events and partnerships that help unite communities.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Fairmont Congressional B
Cannabis Brands And Investments
The panel will focus on a variety of brands – MedMen, Aster Farms, Heavy Hitters/Mammoth, and Old Pal across product, distribution, and retail and examine their structure.
When: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Hilton Austin Downtown Salon F
March 15th
Why A Brand Community Is A CMO’s Best Friend
The role of community and impacts of user-generated content will be at the center of this panel.
When: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Austin Convention Center Room 9C
The Secret Sauce: Cannabis Marketing 3.0
Join the conversation about the restrictions on access to cannabis market data, ads and franchising and the challenges cannabis businesses face due to them.
When: 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Hilton Austin Downtown Salon G
March 16th
Arby’s Arts & Crafts: A Story Of Creative Marketing
Meet team members from Moxie, the creative agency responsible for Arby’s captivating social presence, and learn about their approach to creating engaging social content for niche groups like gaming and anime.
When: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
