Siggraph 2006: Tuesday August 1

Siggraph Day Three, Part One.....Try some branding, people!

I didn't even bother waiting for J.D. and went to Siggraph without her. She had a great time, not to mention a few vodka and tonics, at the Roxy Monday night, but I didn't want to miss out on the free t-shirts. I did miss the panel "Is a Career in Computer Graphics Possible?", though. I'm kinda bummed, because the topic is uber-fascinating, but hopefully the notes/video/whatever-the-heck-info-capture will be made available on the net/DVD/whatever, etc.

I wandered through the job fair/trade show first thing. I gotta tell you, though....I didn't realize there was a separate job fair section curtained off from the actual booth area, and neither did a lot of people. Not that I came looking for a job this year, mind you. But if I was on the prowl, I would have been ticked about the confusing info. See, when you first walk into the expo-or whatever you want to call this part of Siggraph-you see the various corporate booths. All these booths were covered in information on how to get jobs with them, and I watched as thousands of demo reels changed hands with a shake and a smile right at these booths. Therefore, this must be the job fair, too, right? Wrong. Next year, when I might be looking, I'll know better. :)

The trade show part was fairly cool, although I didn't pick up as much swag as I would have liked. I'm not the type to just randomly grab whatever is lying around a booth--with that method, before you know it, you've walked off with someone lunch or the spare shirt that someone meant to change into that afternoon. I want to be offered stuff, and even if the booth personnel are too busy to personally say, "Here's a free whatsit," then I'd at least like a sign that says "Free" or "Take one, please." Yes, in case you haven't guessed, I don't like ambiguity, and well, a lot of the booths were rather ambiguous in what was available. Still, I landed one t-shirt, a couple of keychains (Pixologic's being the most substantial), some heavy-duty pens, a superball, a flashlight, a sketchpad, and a gazillion DVDs. (Not to mention all the paper info!)

Since I do animations for the marketing deparment of an office furniture manufacturer, I couldn't help but look at the trade show with a marketing eye. Some booths I definitely liked more than others. Anyone who used one of our products (Nelson platform bench, Marshmellow sofa, etc.) got a thumbs up just for that. :) ATI and NVIDIA got points simply because they stuck to ATI red and NVIDIA green. I was utterly baffled by, and had a hard time finding, Autodesk's booth because they inexplicably used red instead of their traditional blues. Branding counts, people, whether you like it or not. Pepsi's logo might have changed over the years, but it's still red, white and blue. That's how you know they are Pepsi. Autodesk would have been better off making their booth white, or neutral, or even all black, instead of choosing a really strong color that has no brand association with the company. (And don't talk to me about red as part of the Maya brand. Autodesk bought Maya, not the other way around, so there's no sense in fracturing the Autodesk brand identity).

IDT's Everyone's Hero and Savannah College of Art and Design booths got points for doing a lot in a little space. They put effort into their booths, had a sense of whimsy, and still kept brand. Everyone's Hero was brand consistent down to the baseball jerseys the staffers wore and the baseball fans painted on the walls of the booth. Savannah CofAandD did a faux college mock-up down to the fake grass. Now that's branding. It's not that I even like fake grass, it's that the use of fake grass told you a lot about the college....risk-taking, fun, design-oriented, and, above all, located somewhere warm. Northern Michigan School of Snow and Sleet isn't going to market themselves with fake grass, if you know what I mean.

The booths that annoyed me the most belonged to SOME of the big names. No, I will not be naming those names. You just read what I have to say, then think it over in your head and come to your own conclusions. I was bothered that some of the big names put very little time and money into their booths. It's one thing if you're a tiny company with limited resources and minimal floor space. But for big companies to have generic booths, minimal or no swag (for crying out loud...smaller companies ponied up t-shirts and you can't even offer a pen?), and less-than-dramatic advertising, whether posters, monitors, whatever....well, it's rather insulting. It's the big company saying, "I am already so well-loved that I do not need to earn your love", saying, "I'm so cool I don't have to try", saying "I'm so much better than you that you are awed just by my presence." WRONG. Humans are a fickle species, and there is only so much love we're willing to give unless we get some back. If, as a company, you don't market yourself all the time, one day you just won't have a market. Reputation is nice, but it isn't shiny, and we, as a people, like to look at shiny things. You can only go so long without something shiny before we stop looking.

Tag: Siggraph 2006