At SXSW, we had to solve a simple problem: how do you get strangers to stop at your booth?

The hardest part wasn’t explaining what we did. It was getting someone to want to stop in the first place.

So we built a branded beer pong table and put it at the center of the booth.

It gave people something to do. Someone would wander over and start shooting by themselves, and one of us would jump in. Or two strangers would start a game together, and suddenly they were hanging around our booth instead of walking past it.

The table did its real work even when we didn’t.

That changed everything. We weren’t trying to pull people into a conversation anymore. We were already standing there together, playing a game. Before long, someone would ask, “So what do you guys do?” The conversation started itself.