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March 23, 2010
The DEVO method to creating a WOM-worthy panel
The panels at SXSW Interactive sucked.
That's what some of the record 13,000 attendees have been saying about the 2010 techfest. I heard it from many people I talked with at the conference, too.
Why?
Low-level content, lame speakers and bad panel moderators.
Of course, there were good panels, including the always entertaining Guy Kawasaki on Twitter tools and the informative Jaime Punishill on banking and social media.
But one panel really stood out: "DEVO, The Internet and You." Despite being late in the afternoon on the last day of the conference, it was the best panel I saw this year.
DEVO, the 80's avante-garde band, is releasing its first album in 20 years. The ironically brilliant marketing campaign for the album is to paint DEVO, which has always espoused the idea of "de-evolution," as a corporation. DEVO, Inc. plans to use "corporate" marketing strategies to promote itself, including focus groups, hiring an ad agency, crowdsourcing, Twitter, YouTube and even Chatroulette.
Here's DEVO member Gerald Casale explaining why DEVO needs to "rebrand" itself:
Then the panel turned into a brilliant piece of performance art. First, DEVO, Inc.'s COO Greg Scholl (hint: he's not real) shared a recorded communique with the audience.
Next, Bill Moulton, from DEVO's ad agency Mother Los Angeles, delivered a funny, deadpan PowerPoint presentation about the marketing campaign, illustrating the "power of the Internet!" and how DEVO will use it. Here's a snippet:
(Here's a pre-recorded version of the entire PowerPoint.)
Then Moulton showed how the band is using online focus groups for a "color study" to get data on what color people like, as well as in-person focus groups, poking fun at the typical corporate process of gathering feedback.
Finally, Jacob, a "research consultant" to Mother LA with an amorphous European accent, conducted a live focus group with the audience to gather even more data for its study, demonstrating the banality of focus groups.
The audience got the joke. One of the first questions from the crowd was: "You've leveraged a lot of synergies. Are there any synergies you haven't been able to leverage?"
The videos illustrate why this session was a lesson in making a panel interesting and fun. Here are the hints:
- A panel is a performance.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare.
- Involve the audience.
- Don't take yourself too seriously.
Think about the next panel you are organizing. Are you going to invite some experts and just wing it? Or will you think hard about sharing the same information as a performance that gets people thinking and talking?
UPDATE: DEVO Inc. COO Greg Scholl (again, not real) just sent the DEVO fan club email list a SXSW follow-up memo. And the performance continues...Other blogs that reference The DEVO method to creating a WOM-worthy panel:
Didn't the audience nominate and vote for a good chunk of the panels that disappointed them? Did crowd sourcing result in boredom of the crowds?
David,
There's lots that can be improved with the SXSW panel picker concept. We'll leave that for another blog post )
I normally read on the email feed but felt I should drop by and comment on how good this post was. Thought-provoking stuff, but also "snort-coffee-out-of-my-nose" funny with that Powerpoint video.
Tip o' the hat to Devo, and thanks to you guys for yet again bringing some good stuff to my attention.
Jackie - Thanks for sharing this. I'm still kicking myself for missing this panel. I learned quickly at SXSW to attend based on the presenter rather than the topic. As I mentioned to you, I was pretty horrified at the lack of skill with some of the moderators. It did seem like many had not prepared as they should have. Thanks for the great points! Well done and long live DEVO!
Sorry to hear that SXSW didn't live up to expectations, but at least you got this hilarious Powerpoint presentation out of the deal! All Powerpoints should be this interesting - lol!
It would seem that Devo made a bigger, more positive impression on their panel audience by not taking themselves too seriously. However, they did take their audience seriously by being prepared to engage them. I imagine customers and potential customers would likely respond more favorably if businesses acted accordingly.
Devo is proving that they are still in the game in a way most bands can't imagine. They are using technology to re-brand themselves with the times instead of cutting another useless CD like most old bands would. They are finding out what it is that today's audience demand first, then they will create that and deliver it using all the available new mediums they were not afforded the first time. Very smart. I have a feeling we will all be very surprised with their success. They will introduce their music to and audience that had never heard of them and their parents will all remember when.
I think it's great that someone finally poked a little fun of cookie cutter, corporate marketing in such public forum. Maybe DEVO will start their own consulting firm.
It's so critical that people start to think for themselves and really look at what their customers want, not just what they heard the Fortune 500 are doing.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Jackie, thanks for the insightful funny post! The Devo PowerPoint presentations and focus group exercises were priceless. Synergy! We must retweet, we must retweet...
