Case Study: Urban Airship Videos at SXSW
Austin’s very own SXSW festival has gradually become one of the premier festivals in the United States. Anchored by its tripod of entertainment mediums: music, film and interactive media; South By Southwest has become a “can’t miss” experience over the years for tech pioneers, film fans, and music aficionados alike – so naturally, Revelator likes to get involved in the SXSW fun every chance we get.
SXSW’s 2015 festival saw Revelator’s video production footprint branch across all three mediums. From the film mentorship by our Head of Production, Chris Ohlson, to the premiere of our very own Jazmin Diaz’s short film, as well as playing host to our friends at Complex as they documented all-things-music. We were also able to produce the biggest mobile interactive stop of the festival, Urban Airship’s Mobile Saturday. First off, let’s take a look at the teaser, so you can get an idea of how Urban Airship likes to lay out Mobile Saturday during South-by:
Urban Airship is a company that provides global brands with a market-leading mobile engagement platform. They’re leading the movement of mobile innovators, helping to build high-value relationships through mobile apps and mobile wallets. And as most of you know, mobile consumerism and engagement is at an all time high, and only looks to increase. Basically, Urban Airship connects mobile data to any business system with the industry’s first user-centric data streaming platform that delivers real-time mobile information.
Urban Airship approached Revelator and our good friends at TBD Post to produce their event, which is the only SXSW daylong track dedicated strictly to mobile. The goal? To create engaging and informative long-form videos about each of their sessions, as well as shareable short videos to increase Mobile Saturday’s (#MobileSat) social media presence. Urban Airship was hosting five sessions during one day that treated attendees to deep insights from world-leading brands and industry experts. Bringing together speakers from the likes of ABC News, Redbox, Visa, Walmart, HomeAway, and many more, Urban Airship wanted to create a stellar summit of leading mobile experts and brand innovators to discuss the latest mobile marketing topics and strategies. Revelator’s task was to create real-time event video streams, long-form documentation videos of each session, insightful interviews with experts, and bite-size video nuggets of insightful moments from throughout the day. Let’s take a peak at one of those lil’ nuggets:
We knew the key to pulling off the day-long, multi-panel event was meticulous organization and peerless talent. We pulled together a crackpot crew of some of the best production professionals around…five videographers, audio engineers, producers, production managers and their assistants, to create a live-event that was not only compelling to the attendees, but could be documented with the same passion and energy of actually being there.
Our strategy was to capture the live event with 5 distinct camera positions for Urban Airship’s proprietary video content, as well as run a video feed to an area outside of the panel sessions. This way, SXSW attendees walking in from off the street could watch the live broadcast of each session on large monitors in the lobby area. Passing festival attendees could view content and subject matter of each session while they conducted other business or just dropped in for a brief moment when it complemented their schedule. Let’s watch another one of those brief moments:
Throughout the shoot day, we also scheduled and conducted individual interviews with each of the Mobile Saturday market experts and panel members. These insightful interviews provided the unique perspective of experts, but as real people, who not only presented their experience during panels, but had just benefitted from a dynamic dialogue with an expert from another field. During the rest of the SXSW festival, our friends at TBD worked tirelessly to cut together engaging long-form versions of each panel, as well as the small promotional nuggets, which were used flawlessly throughout the festival by Urban Airship’s (understandably) amazing marketing team. Let’s watch one more!
So, how did it go? Mobile Saturday become a top trending topic at SXSW (#MobileSat), and the event tripled in size from the previous year. We at Revelator were happy to have produced some of the best footage of the festival, all brilliantly finished by one of Austin’s premier post houses, TBD Post. Urban Airship and Revelator came together to produce one of the top events of SXSW 2015, and we’re excited to build on our past success for this coming year….we’ll see ya at SXSW 2016!
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ABOUT REVELATOR: Revelator is a full service film & video production company in Austin, Texas. We like to write, produce, & edit projects for t.v. and the web. We specialize in brand films, corporate identity work, as well digital advertising and t.v. broadcast advertising. If you need help with your script, production, or just an idea, give us a call.
REVELATOR SERVICES: Video Production, TV Commercials, Brand Films, Virtual Reality, VR Experiences, Script Writing, Music Videos, Lifestyle Videos, Technology Videos, B2B Videos, Product Videos, Feature Films, Motion Graphic Videos, Turnkey Solutions, and Live Event Video Production.