The data overflowed at South by Southwest Interactive during the last week, and we picked seven great stats that are worth knowing about:
1. Snapchat doesn't even need an actual presence to dominate
The ephemeral app didn't throw a South by Southwest Interactive party, hire a popular band or even give away cool gadgets—it didn't have a branded presence at the Austin, Texas, festival. Instead, it was a topic of conversation on nearly every marketing panel and was constantly used by attendees to document their SXSW experiences. In fact, it garnered more impressions on Twitter than any other brand, coming in with 192 million from March 6 through March 16, per Sysomos. Indeed, all Snapchat had to do to win SXSW 2016 was just be Snapchat.
2. Fun with BBQ sauce
Snapchat's organic success doesn't mean actually trying to create buzz at South By didn't work out for brands. Capital One's small business division called Spark Business held a series of talks by chef/TV host Anthony Bourdain and other entrepreneurs who addressed the "secret sauce" to their success. Additionally, the brand also hid 450 bottles of BBQ sauce around SXSW, encouraging festivalgoers to tweet a picture of the bottles they found (using #secretsauce) for the chance to attend one of Bourdain's keynotes. The initiative garnered nearly 4 million social impressions, the brand told Adweek.
3. Less equals more in social media
Back to Snapchat: Austin-based Gnack told Adweek that it found a way for brands and creators to measure how many eyeballs see their "snaps." The company mentioned an interesting piece of research: People with less than 10,000 social followers have between three and five times the engagement of people with more than 10,000 followers.
4. Can emojis drive TV viewing?
Comedy Central has been using Snaps, a social media vendor offering emoji keyboards to brands, to push Broad City, its hit comedy series starring Gen Y comics Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. The cable channel saw huge success with emojis last year when it pushed the show's second season after Season 1 attracted millennial "superfans" but not a huge audience, said Lesley Robin, director of social media for Comedy Central, at SXSW. In a seven-week period, her team saw 3.5 million emojis sent which helped boost the show's audience.
5. Podcast ads ain't exactly cheap
Ira Glass, the radio host and podcaster, said at SXSW that his hit show, This American Life, now makes more money through advertising than the actual radio show does. Glass said cost-per-thousand (CPM) rates sometimes reach $50 to $60 for ads during the podcast of the popular radio show he started two decades ago. For comparison, video ads often sell for a $3 CPM rate, per reports.
6. Under Armour is all about data nowadays
Under Amour CEO Kevin Plank told a packed house at SXSW on Monday that data would help propel his company from a $4 billion outfit today to $7.5 billion by 2018. His Baltimore-based sports gear brand is betting big on the wearable tech products and apps. He said, "We can tell you the walking trend in Australia."
7. UFC is a social brand
Ultimate Fighting Championship isn't for everybody, but Twitter users clearly care for it. According to public relations agency Edelman, the UFC 196 event on March 5 generated 844,000 tweets in the U.S. alone and 107 million impressions.