As this year’s South by Southwest—running March 8-17 in Austin, Tex.—gears up, brands and agencies are pulling out all the stops to catch the attention of thousands of trendsetters that attend the yearly event. Nearly 25,000 people, about 7 percent more than in 2012, are expected to register for the interactive part of the festival alone. 

Some SXSW pioneers question the growing popularity as lessening the value of the event, which started out mainly as a music festival. “What was once an under-the-radar affair has become a trendy, mainstream gala, raising concerns that going may no longer be worthwhile for entrepreneurs looking to meet investors, potential co-founders or others who could potentially have a significant impact on their businesses," the Wall Street Journal reports. 

John Frankel, partner at ff Venture Capital in New York, which backs two to three startups a year disagrees. “If you just stick with companies recommended to you, you can miss out on some amazing [investment opportunities]. I’m a great believer in happenstance.”

For brands looking to make a connection with tech-savvy millennials, (who isn't?) SXSW is a feeding ground for viral campaigns and unique marketing stunts. Here's a sampling of what some sponsors and participants have in store for attendees: Continue reading...

It's been a month (since July 10th, to be exact) when a social youthquake tremor rumbled under the tweets and Facebook posts of the olds when Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters social network opened its doors to the public.

A raucous riot of visual updates from Gaga's legions of fans — with shades of Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr and Facebook thrown in for good measure — the highly anticipated site defines the next iteration of fan-based social networking. Two weeks after launch, on July 25th, the site passed a quarter of a million users.

Powered by the Backplane, it was engineered by Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, who's also a cofounder of Backplane. “The goal of Little Monsters and Backplane is to unite people around affinities, interests and movements,” said Matt Michelsen, co-founder and CEO. And to keep out all those aforementioned old-timers cluttering up Facebook and Twitter and ruining the party for fishnetizens who worship at the altar of Gaga and nonconformity.Continue reading...

Lady Gaga is now officially the mother of all Little Monsters, launching her social network, LittleMonsters.com this summer, as her fame catapults to 25 million followers on Twitter — the first user to hit that milestone.

"#25milliontweetymonsters wow! I'm officially feeling like the luckiest girl in the world today. Last sold out show in Singapore in 2 hrs!" she tweeted right before the show was cancelled and she delivered a "Special Message for Indonesian Little Monsters" on YouTube.

The special greeting that all Little Monsters, as Gaga calls her fans, are waiting for is coming soon, when her social network swings open its doors and gets out of private beta.Continue reading...

Back in June we noted that Lady Gaga had bought a 20% stake in The Backplane, joining Google chairman Eric Schmidt in supporting the nascent developer of social networking tools for groups ranging from "Girl Scout troops to celebrity fanclubs."

Naturally, Gaga's legions of fans (known as Little Monsters) would be the first to get their own social network powered by The Backplane — called, of course, LittleMonsters.com (which is now accepting pre-launch registrations).

It's getting closer to launch, with The Backplane last week tweeting a photo of the performer meeting with Backplane staffers (and posting it on Facebook), showing the site's logo in the background — the universal "paws up" monster claw used by her legions of fans.Continue reading...

The Backplane is still in stealth mode but quietly ready for takeoff, with some serious passengers on board: Lady Gaga and Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Gaga’s involvement makes sense, as the web startup is being piloted by the pop star's business manager and digital strategist, Troy Carter.

VentureWire reports that The Backplane's goal is "to create a communities platform combining calendar, email and social networking functions, including Facebook and Twitter, to allow groups ranging from Girl Scout troops to celebrity fan clubs to communicate seamlessly."Continue reading...