iDEA JOURNAL

SXSW, or South by Southwest, if you didn't know (now you know), is an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place during mid-March in Austin, Texas. SXSW 2017 was bigger and better than ever before… and its interactive portion, what people often get most excited about, served as the first half of the event down south this year. It was dedicated to emerging tech and the ever-growing world of digital. We've done a little research about what came of SXSW Interactive, as well as the conference as a whole, and, well, we’ve got a good bit to say.

If you've been on the Internet at all over the course of the past two months, you've seen something about the new Netflix series Stranger Things. Seemingly straight out of the 80s, the Duffer twins’ X-Files-like thriller stars a couple of kids and the corrupt government around them. Sound simple enough? Well, it's not, and neither is the plot line, or the marketing scheme that's helped make the show the gargantuan success it is. That’s why we’re here: to break down the latest about this hit, and show you just how effective even a little marketing can be.

Per usual, we'll start by saying this: DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ UNLESS YOU'VE WATCHED THE MOST RECENT EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES! This article contains many, many spoilers.

First things first: SPOILER ALERT. If you are not up to speed with Game of Thrones—i.e. on Season 6, having watched Episode 2—do not continue reading! (But share this piece with people you do know are up to date with GoT, of course). Now that that's out of the way, we want to discuss the biggest thing on television since—er, ever? George R.R. Martin, the best-selling American novelist whose series "A Song of Ice and Fire" was brought to life via HBO as "Game of Thrones," is now in its 6th season—and it's crazier than ever. When the show originally aired in 2011, it had a decently sized following—but being available only on HBO hurt the show's viewing numbers—however, not its ratings. Since day one, GoT as been at the top of the charts in terms of viewer satisfaction. And when that happens with a TV show or movie, something else does, too: it becomes all people talk about. Six seasons in, and the success associated with GoT has never been greater.

The visual album Beyoncé released last week has gone totally viral. Lemonade is, for all intents and purposes, a beautifully written, filmed, choreographed, and of course sung series of heartfelt songs, all strung together to make something none of us expected (I mean, sort of... it is Beyoncé, after all. Expect the unexpected). But behind the album itself is a whole slew of interesting decisions that the Queen Bey and her cohorts had to have made before releasing this album… Here we go.