ROI of SXSW Brand Presence Measured

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If you attended SXSW this year (or even if you didn't) you were likely aware the event has turned into a full blown brand parade. In every corner of Austin during SXSW there was a brand sponsoring something. Some hate this. Others love it. But the real question is did it work for the brand.

While this research from Spredfast doesn't necessarily conclude definitively that increased presence at SXSW pays off for a brand, the study does shed some light some interesting "what if" scenarios that tie tweets to sales.

Analyzing the social media activity of the event's 13 major sponsors, the study determined the number of brand mentions on Twitter and mapped that back to potential ROI.

Using a 1 percent of tweets equals a sale assumption for three of the top mentioned brands, the study noted that if 1 percent of the 465,334 mentions Samsung received purchased a Galaxy Smart phone, the brand would make $1,391,247. For the Austin Chronicle, it's 1,235 tweets would translate to $113,100 in ad sales. And for Chevrolet, its 64,560 tweets would translate into $15,200,380 in sales for the brand's Equiniox.

Yes, these are entirely hypothetical figures but it's always fun to entertain a "what if" scenario every once in a while. The real work lies ahead. Brands that want to determine a specific ROI on their SXSW presence are going to have to do a lot more work than create pretty infographics but, hey, we have to start somewhere, right?

This SXSW coverage has been brought to you by Red Square, a small national agency that just happens to be located in the SXSE.