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One of the trends at this year’s edition of  involves major national brands using food trucks to create a kind of interactive marketing experience. But they’re relying on Austin eateries to inject some local flavor into the mix.

Free food is everywhere during South by Southwest. The web host  has a food truck serving dishes from places like  and . The social media news site  has a food truck giving away food from . Austin mobile food vendor  has been , including one for 

“Our marketing team, they’ve seen how much food has grown at this event, and it was a great way for us to get involved,â€� said Vidya Rao, a food editor at . We are a morning show. We have a lot of cooking segments on the show, so food kind of mixes in perfectly with what we’re doing.â€�

Sometimes corporations use food as a recruiting tool. rented a trailer and was handing out breakfast tacos made by the local food truck . Ursula Ayrout is director of marketing at SalesForce.

“We’re looking for new people to join Salesforce. We’re hiring,� SalesForce marketing director Ursula Ayrout said. “People love talking about food, and we really want to show our personality across with the food we’re giving away.�

Food truck marketing was a subject at a South by Southwest Interactive panel on Sunday called . One of the panelists was Daniel Shemtov, creator of the Lime Truck and winner of the  reality show the .

“It’s the trendy, cool urban kind of way to directly interact with customers,� he said. “Big businesses want to be involved with them to say that, ‘We also have cool personality. We’re also young. We’re hip.�

But Shemtov warns that local proprietors partnering with large corporations need to be careful.

“We’ve been approached by a couple companies that didn’t match our brand and we would never do it, because it’s like selling out,� Shemtov said. “And we still are like a unique urban niche. And once you sell out, you’ve sold out.�

So what do food trucks get out of it besides a daysâ€� worth of sales?  Most of the people eating their free food are from out of town and might come back. owner Eric Klusman partnered with the marketing company  and says he can just hope there is some kind of long term benefit.

“We get to give people our sandwiches for free and let them trying them for the first time and hopefully come back. As far as we’re concerned, yes, we’d like to have people that are local trying our sandwiches, but we’ll feed anybody from anywhere,� Klusman said.

But many food trucks are confident they’ll do just fine without a corporate partner, and some are even slimming down their menus so they can sell more quickly, because as long as the weather cooperates, this week will be one of the busiest all year for mobile food vendors in Austin.