SXSW Sydney 2024 day five recap: Manipulating consumers [Video]

By James Manning, Alisha Buaya and Jasper Baumann at SXSW

SXSW Sydney day five rounds out a long and tiring week that was fun, insightful, and inspiring. Mediaweek was on the ground – here’s what happened on Friday, October 18.

Brilliant marketing or Dark Art: Are you convincing or conning your customers?

WARC managing editor Rica Facundo moderated a lively and interactive panel between Hardhat founder, Dan Monheit, and Sarla Fernando, ADMA’s regulatory expert, on the fine line between the behavioural economics of marketing and “conning” your customers into a purchase. The trio examined common practices and debated whether they’re great marketing or potentially problematic cons, and teach the audience how to avoid landing on the wrong side of the law.

Fernando spoke about dark patterns, noting that it shares “the common notion that you’re manipulating consumers into making choices that they might otherwise not have made.

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