​Just seven years ago, Twitter took SXSW by storm with its launch of the social media site. Foursquare gained similar momentum at SXSW in 2009. This year, the festival’s focus seems to be less on finding the next big startup and more on giving exposure to already well-known brands and their new talent, premieres or announcements.

An article from Re/code asks: Is SXSW taking the same route as Comic-Con?

Comic-Con started out treating geeks to panels about their favorite comic book heroes. By last summer, the fan fest was launching some of TV’s biggest hits, including Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” and NBC’s “The Blacklist.”

Even with its new Episodic category, dedicated to the world premieres of new TV series on all platforms, Austin’s show premieres largely stem from already established TV brands such as AMC and Fox. A few of this year’s featured series are related to the SXSW culture, such as “Halt and Catch Fire’s” storyline about the early 1980s computer industry, or HBO’s “Silicon Valley” about a group of guys launching a startup. ESPN is using the platform to hype its new site from Nate Silver, who has been welcome at the festival for years.

And SXSW seems like the perfect place for certain TV brands. Many of them are focused on gaining more social-savvy audiences through the festival’s largely male, digitally advanced demographics, while the rest are using the space to gain some extra buzz through word of mouth and the press.

Read more at Re/code.

Brief Take: While SXSW’s focus may have once been to launch a new Web site or chat service, TV brands’ SXSW goal seems to be to turn the conference’s influencers into fans who will spread the word via social media.

[Image courtesy of Re/code]

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