While there is always a debate about whether or not “this year’s SXSW festival was as great as the last,” one thing about the event remains uniquely true—the official and unofficial brand activations, launches and the festival content are always incredibly strong. SXSW has hungry journalists to thank for that, as well as its embrace and integration of technology, culture, news, film and music. This requires those speaking and showcasing at the event to be provocative enough to break through. And that’s no easy task for brands, influencers or publicists. As with any conference, while the main stage is great for reaching crowds, SXSW junkies and investors often seek out the hidden gems. That makes knowing how and where to activate particularly important.
This SXSW 2025 wrap-up features some of the things that stood out to me as an attendee and communicator.
The Big Winner this Year was Rivian—E-Zooming Ahead as the Premiere Sponsor
Even before this year’s festival kicked off, insiders were excited about Rivian's premier sponsorship, which began when electric vehicle company teased a super fun activation with Ben and Jerry’s, reinventing the ice cream truck by e-zooming around and serving up treats throughout the city.
In addition to the e-trucks, Rivian sponsored the Electric Roadhouse hub featuring live music, guest speakers and displays of Rivian's newest vehicles, and it also operated an outdoor obstacle course to reveal the rugged nature of the brand’s vehicles. Rivian's CEO, RJ Scaringe, also keynoted the festival with a talk titled "The Moment We’re In: Transitioning How We Move, Think, and Change the Planet."
Also, The fact that DOGE/Tesla boss Elon Musk lives in Austin, made Rivian’s sponsorship and branding particularly bold and noticeable.
All-in, Rivian’s approach to driving awareness and interest included a strong mix of experience and thought leadership that earned headlines and crowds.
What can PR professionals learn from Rivian’s dazzling activation? In short, you have to be everywhere at SXSW, and you can’t just do one talk and hang banners to get noticed. The city, attendees and other sponsors are too creative, and you brand will get lost. If you want to rise above the fray, creativity rules.
Where to Launch and How to Get Covered—Consider the Pocket Spaces
SXSW is also a great time for launches. While some come to life on the main stages of SXSW or in popular offshoots like the Capital Factory, this year attendees found them in more discrete pocket spaces near the Proper Hotel, which popular podcaster, author and entrepreneur Scott Galloway often name-drops.
One of the better-led and popular activations this year included the Red ThreadX space on the rooftop of the Meta building. Rather than hyper-focusing on one subject or genre, Red ThreadX introduced a phenomenal mix of speakers from various industries. In fact, we chose Red ThreadX for the launch of one of our clients, Synseer, who introduced their HealthBuds device at the event. Other participants included Aliph, PWC, Bethere.Live, Austin AI Film Festival and SciFutures.
One thing that can be hard to predict during SXSW is which journalists are likely to cover your clients' launches because there is so much for them to sift through. This year like most, it took hussle. Once the press list became available, it was really about elbow grease—making sure reporters knew where clients would be and making that access super easy.
One other inside tip is to get reporters announcements and media kits well in advance so they have time to think about who they want to check out before they arrive in Austin. The scale of the festival is often overwhelming, especially for first-timers.
Embrace the Unexpected as You’ll Be Surprised Who Shows Up
One of my favorite aspects of SXSW is that the producers always make last-minute speaker updates. And, unlike many events, big-name visitors will often check in with local publicists to add just one more stop and/or speaking engagement to their list. This year SXSW announced former First Lady Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson just before their showtime, and it generated a lot of excitement.
In our case, a few strategic phone calls among industry friends allowed our clients and the CMOs we serve to get surprise visits from SXSW favorites like Baratunde Thurston and Civics Unplugged founder Josh Thompson. While you may need to keep plans under wraps until the last minute, don’t forget to tip off journalists at SXSW about the pop-ups. It always pays off. Everyone remembers being at those moments! A Flaming Lips pop-up way back when is burned into my own memory.
Remember that No Two South bys Are The Same
As prescriptive as my advice is, the truth is most of my “South by” was spent with those activating their brands, agencies and or tech companies during the “tech part” of the conference. Entirely different audiences occupy SXSW’s film and music segments. To keep myself honest, I ran a Meltwater report on all coverage of SXSW over the seven days of the festival and according to the informal query, most of this year’s chatter was about Patty Ahn, Blake Lively, Death Stranding 2 and Jenna Ortega. Until next year!
Lana McGilvray is Founder and CEO at Purpose Worldwide and a SXSW veteran attendee.