Guys in suits on bikes. What brand is investing in this?

As noticed by Amy Cueva as we walked around Austin, looking at this bunch of oddly adorned bicyclists, there seems to be a trend this year by brands to be as silly as possible, ultimately humiliating themselves before this audience in the hopes that (I guess) people take some pity on them and buy something?

This is ultimately my problem with the presence of many of the companies spending a lot to make a quality impression with the many people here at SXSW. What’s the point? It can’t be just about getting your attention, but quickly moving you to the next step. But too often there is no next step, making it seem like they don’t want the business? I don’t get it. And whenever I finally get to go through this year’s triple play of big crud bags, I’m sure more questions will pop-up.

Best panel discussion of the day happened around crepes

Other than that, this year’s SXSW has so far been great for hanging with excellent, smart folks, and terrible for actually attending any of the presentations/panels. They completely oversold the conference and I haven’t been able to squeeze my way into anything. Let’s hope tomorrow is different.

Look! I caught three gigantic bags of promotional crap!

Related posts:

1. SXSW Live: Balancing the Overload
2. SXSW Live: Harsh Lesson #1: Get To Sessions Early
3. SXSW live: Stories, Games, and Your Brand
4. SXSW Live: th-th-that’s all folks (from interactive)