Executives of Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations will aim to keep their minds open as they gauge the brand’s first year as the official automotive sponsor of the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, also known as SXSW.
“We are going to try an awful lot of things, learn a few things, and keep this thing going for many years,” said Russell Wager, the automaker’s vice president of marketing.
Mazda is concentrating on experiential marketing—whether it’s a version of its Mazda3 model that plays a tune when a passerby touches it; a Mazda CX5 that concertgoers can explore as it shuttles them to the next show; or a Mazda-sponsored hospitality lounge to recharge empty batteries, human and lithium alike.
The automaker “dipped its toe” in the water last year with sponsorship of the Fader Fort music venue and plans to play off “passion points” among the crowd, which typically numbers 375,000 visitors over a nine-day run and draws leading lights from the worlds of technology, music and movies.
“South by Southwest’s got the right [audience] that matches up almost identically with what we are looking for—people who are innovative, people who are optimistic, people who are trying to do good in the world—somehow, some way—and maybe being a little bit” on the leading edge, Wager said.
Sponsors
SXSW debuted in 1987 and has grown rapidy in recent years. This year’s edition is scheduled for March 13 to 22. Mazda, which replaced Chevrolet as the main auto sponsor of the event, is one of 10 Super Sponsors, a deal estimated at $500,000 per year.
Others include Miller Lite, Esurance, AT&T Inc. and Monster Beverage Corp. Each contract is negotiated separately with the “final cost determined by the assets included in the package,” according to Scott McNearney, sponsorship manager for SXSW Inc.
The automaker will set up a Mazda Sound Lounge at Sixth Street and San Jacinto in downtown Austin, featuring a Mazda3 connected to “mogees”—small electronic sensors that convert vibrations into sounds.
“We are going to team up with [Mogee Limited] and turn a Mazda3 into a music symphony,” Wager said. “People will simply tap or slide their hand against the car, and it will create their own music tracks, giving them an opportunity to become musicians during South by Southwest.”
Mazda also is continuing its support for Fader Fort, run by The Fader magazine and presenting sponsor Converse Inc. The Fort has been part of the festival for 14 years, featuring acts such as Usher, P. Diddy, Florence and the Machine, M.I.A., Cold War Kids and The Black Keys.
Mazda shuttled fans to the venue in Mazda3s last year, but with a twist—musicians, including Bipolar Sunshine, JoJo, Temples and The Bots, joined for the ride. The automaker filmed the experiences and put them on its social media channels and MazdaConnects.com.
Mazda plans to broadcast its interactions once again this year.
“An awful lot of people … want to go there but just can’t, so they are looking for any of the content or trends or anything coming out of festival,” Wager said. “We’ll create a lot of content, and we’ll put it out on our hub website.”
‘Express Service’
Mazda’s shuttle from The Fort will expand into “Express Service” with 18 cars—a mix of Mazda CX5, Mazda6 and Mazda3 vehicles—“driving people around on routes from their hotels to various events at no charge,” he said.
This too is part of experiential marketing, as many consumers may have seen the car online or on the road but haven’t actually sat in and played with all the buttons, screens, and gadgets inside, Wager said.
The interactive side of Mazda’s sponsorship continues at the Gaming Expo, where the automaker will choose a winning livery design for a Mazda Miata in Xbox’s Forza Horizon 2 game.
“We were expecting 100 entries, and we got more than 500,” he said, adding that it “takes an average person about 18 hours to design one of those on Xbox. So we had 500 people spend (a) minimum of 18 hours with our brand designing what the car looks like.”
Mazda also plans to set up two simulators so that people can drive the Forza Horizon 2 MX5 that is in the game, he said.
Wager, aside from overseeing the marketing effort, will share the stage with James Ward, chief strategy and integration officer at ad agency Doner Partners LLC; 7-Eleven’s Vice President of Brand Innovation Laura Gordon; and Vinoo Vijay, chief marketing officer at TD Bank. The group will hold a panel discussion on the topic “What Is A Brand Now Anyway?” during the interactive portion of the festival.
The automaker has nothing specifically set up to entertain the film aficionados, but its hospitality lounge, Mazda Connects, will be at the Austin Convention Center. It will feature phone charging stations, comfy seating, and interactive festival schedules. Decor du jour? Mazda branding, of course.
“We got a whole bunch of other things that we really wanted to try, but we realized that we couldn’t do everything in the first year, so by doing a lot of these, it will give us a direction—‘Hey this worked really well; let’s do it again and make it bigger. Or maybe our other idea would have been better,’ ” Wager said.
Sales
The South by Southwest sponsorship aims to bring Mazda closer to its sales goal of 400,000 vehicles in the next several years.
The automaker sold 305,801 vehicles in 2014, up 7.7 % from 2013.
It spent about $300 million on media buys last year, according to New York-based Kantar Media. Wager acknowledged but did not elaborate on an uptick in 2015 marketing spending.
“We have the desire to continue to grow. … In order to do that, you usually have to invest,” he said.
