CES: Where technology meets marketing

Last year, when it was reported that an estimated 5,000 advertising and marketing professionals were at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it made headlines. This year, the presence of the ad industry is taken as a given. From 8 to 11 January this year, IPG took up residence in the Scripps Network tent where it held talks and panel sessions, Publicis hosted more than 600 clients and agency partners, while Xaxis GroupM chairman Irwin Gotlieb gave a personal tour of the bewildering show where participants have been known to clock up several kilometres a day just making the rounds.

The (non-tech) brands were there too. Unilever’s chief marketing and communications officer Keith Weed and Coca-Cola’s EVP and chief marketing and commercial officer, Joseph Tripodi, spoke at a keynote address entitled ‘Brand Matters’, while P&G sent a ‘small multidisciplined team’ to the conference as it has done for years. “We attend the conference to experience emerging trends and be inspired by the possibilities that the future holds for connecting and engaging with consumers,” said a spokesman for the FMCG giant.

For Nissan Europe’s digital marketing manager, Timothée Gazeau, CES 2013 presented an opportunity to glean ideas from beyond the automotive sector. “It presents a chance to discover how tech is disrupting marketing as we know it. Trends that grabbed me were: connected devices which grow into personal eco-systems; real-time and participative user-experiences; and social, not just as an additional channel, but disrupting traditional channel usages as well.”
“From a marketing standpoint, CES is less about big announcements and more about experiencing it together with clients,” says Joe Lozito, SVP of Technology, at Digitas North America. “It’s an opportunity to talk with clients about tech in terms of how users will be interacting with electronics.”

Besides prearranged meetings, Tribal DDB Worldwide CEO Paul Gunning values the “serendipity of running into people”. “Internet leaders, top publishers, ad technology companies, start-ups, agencies and more all had personnel at this show. Walking the main floor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel might have yielded more helpful collisions for me than any­thing I saw on the actual trade show floor.”

In terms of exhibitors, CES is a barometer of sorts for tech brands. Traditionally a North American event, this year also saw the rising presence and leadership of Asian brands and the noted absence of Microsoft. Samsung and Sony dominated social media conversation with more than 58,000 and 41,000 mentions respectively according to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Chinese brands, too, were a force to be reckoned with.

“This year, we really are seeing the rise of the Chinese brand,” says Greg Armshaw, chief technology catalyst for McCann Worldgroup. “Hisense took over what used to be the Microsoft stand and showed beautiful products. TCL and Haier were there and Huawei really showed what they could do. The Korean brands, LG and Samsung, have got to be looking over their shoulders now.”

The product-centric nature of CES 2013 has also undergone a subtle shift, several advertisers observed. Although technology writers decried the lack of ‘coolness’ and bemoaned the shortage of genuine wearable technology, perhaps the break is a welcome one.

The emphasis at CES 2013 was centred on the refinement of technology debuted at CES events of the past and its adaptation to the consumer lifestyle.

“In a way, advertising in a multiscreen universe has so far been a little forced because we haven’t figured out how users really want to use it yet. Now we’re finally seeing how people are living with it and how we can enhance their experience,” says Lozito.

In this feature, Campaign Asia-Pacific speaks to advertisers and marketers who made the trip to CES 2013 on their motivations for attending and what they learnt there.

Greg Armshaw
Chief technology catalyst,
McCann Worldgroup

This is the third year I’ve attended and one thing I’ve noticed is that no one is questioning if CES is relevant to marketers anymore. There was an official IPG event this year for the first time. We hosted a few events, one of which was a panel bringing clients and partners together to discuss the challenges of innovation. We also held client tours of the show floor.

From Samsung’s partnership with Evernote to produce smart fridges and washing machines, to the Whirlpool research project bringing brands together to help them quantify their carbon footprint, partnership-based products was a big trend this year. The automotive sector in particular has taken partnerships to heart. A decade ago, the only additional brands you’d see on a car would be the tyres and its hi-fi set. The Ford Sync platform had 30 different brands as partners, including an insurance company and a smartphone application named Glympse. A new way to market could be for brands to collaborate to add value to their products.

The Makerbot stand was still one of the most exciting ones at CES. There is a misconception that 3D printers won’t take off until everyone has one on their desktop. What about every retailer having one? Just think how disruptive it would be to have the ability to create products from anywhere on the planet, in the department store, without need for distribution. Everyone selling a physical product can let the buyer personalise it. Lego, for example, could let the child create a personalised set.

Olivier Pierini
Marketing communications manager
Nissan West Europe

CES presents the opportunity to discover the links between technology, marketing and consumer engagement. My first visit to CES was in 2009 and I hope to go again as it’s increasingly becoming a consumer electronics and marketing event. I’ve been impressed by the marketing evolution of the show, which four years ago was far more product- and tech-oriented.

Connected TV is finally getting some real attention in terms of content and engagement. In the automotive sector, onboard apps are opening up a new array for marketers and new ways to deliver messages and services. I’ve also noted the integration of location-based technology with commerce. These trends can be leveraged by marketers if they focus on building new possibilities and solutions that look ahead without comparing against what has been done so far. The tech presented at CES offers huge opportunities — comparable in magnitude to the launch of the iPhone and when the apps world emerged.

Paul Gunning
CEO
Tribal DDB Worldwide

CES has become a far more complex show than ever before. First, our clients are now taking a personal interest in what happens at CES. Where my clients go, so do I. Next, the interactive marketing ecosystem is attending CES on the fundamental trend that content is as important as the hardware on which it will be shown. In response to that trend, publishers, internet leaders and ad technology companies, from start-ups to established, attend. I personally can arrange meetings with these partners and accomplish in four days in Las Vegas what would take me six weeks on the road. I have been attending for over a decade. As long as I can derive value on behalf of my clients, I will happily continue to attend.

The event is not just about hardware any more. Everywhere you looked there were screens of all sizes. And the conversations I participated in were about the content that would fill those screens and how that might affect consumers. For example, how will people behave as they discover the benefits of a TV connected to the internet? Will they consume more content? Will that content come from internet sites like YouTube more so than from networks? Would they embrace social networking like Twitter during live shows and if so what does that mean for commercial breaks?

Also, the battle for the in-car screen is on. The race is on for in-vehicle technologies, touch-screen dashboards and entertainment devices. The big car brands such as Audi were there in droves showing off new dashboard applications such as driver safety technologies, in-vehicle entertainment and maintenance reminder notifications. There are huge opportunities for brands to provide content and utility for their consumers on their journey to work, particularly when incorporating location-based technologies into their content and/or products.

Joe Lozito
SVP of technology
Digitas North America

The first year I attended CES was for personal reasons. The agency soon got involved though; this is after all, part of what Digitas wants to do as an agency. We attend now, not just out of curiosity about technology, but to get together with clients and experience it together — it’s about relationships and ideas.

Increasingly, CES is less about shattering announcements than it is about how these manufacturers are all thinking about experiences. It’s more than just new tablets or bigger TVs, it’s about how electronics are working together for the consumer experience. Now, manufactures have to show how this device can better your lifestyle. In the past few years it was all about the cloud, then social, and now we’re seeing the fulfilment of these promises. Convergence and connectivity is finally coming into play.

Much of the technology showcased is about integrating digital into life. Fitness, health monitoring, security and home, smart cars. Devices for parents and their children. The overriding trend was not just about the internet of things, but the digital lifestyle and how these gadgets are meant to enable and reward. There were watches that connect with your smartphone; the start of wearable tech; cameras you can wear on your head; and even a fork that measures your caloric intake. In fact, 50 per cent of CES was taken up by accessories. I’ve stopped thinking that this is a bad thing because it points out that we identify so much with our digital lifestyles that we want it uniquely personalised to ourselves. The same goes for the waterproofing booths — it shows just how protective people are of their devices. Tech is just such a part of us now.

Barry Cupples
CEO
Omnicom Media Group, Asia-Pacific

Having attended CES for the past several years, I think the major trade show matters more now than ever to marketers across the globe. CES provides a fantastic opportunity to get a firsthand experience of the key trends and technologies that will impact the marketing and communications industry in the years to come. While the big boys ­— Microsoft, Apple, Google — stayed away from CES, the show did not lose its sheen. More than 3,250 companies took part and a noticeable trend was the presence of China. Haier, Huawei, ZTE and many others had a bigger presence at CES this year.”

Television is far from dead. Television manufacturers are in a new bragging zone in the competition to produce bigger, thinner and ultra-HD devices. The TV industry is actually seeing growth in the larger TV category and not without reason. The latest Journal of Advertising Research has an article that states larger television screens positively impact how advertising and television programmes are consumed. Large-screen television viewers were less sceptical of advertising than small-screen viewers; more positive toward advertising; and paid more attention to both commercials and programming, according to latest studies.

Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG were particularly impressive in the area of connected TV interfaces across multiple devices within the connected home. Software enhancements in the form of embedded apps put the focus on content-led viewing, navigated by viewers. Broadcasters and advertisers need to take note of that. In fact, apps that make your life simpler, faster, better, and can be embedded into everything from cars to home appliances to watches, are the new order, ensuring seamless connection between platforms ­— everything you have is connected.

Alice Curry
MD of advertising, promotions and product marketing
American Airlines

As a marketer, I need to keep up to date with so much now: insights from within the airline industry, the moving media landscape, consumer trends, and so on. It’s important to give time to all. Similarly, innovations in consumer technology signal large macro trends with a huge impact on our business and strategies. CES is so intense that McCann’s immersive, marketer-oriented tour allows me to check our strategies against these trends efficiently.

This year, I was particularly interested to see how the auto Industry is reaching out to other brands to offer joint services to customers. It is also clear that road travel is heading towards a more managed form of transport. This may influence how people will see freedom in travel in future.

Meanwhile, 3D printing technology is likely to have a disruptive effect on logistics in years to come.

Media selection is only going to get more complicated, so the argument around investing in bringing the consumer into our community with content and services becomes even more compelling.

The velocity of disruption on display at CES takes some time to translate into people’s everyday lives. It is useful, though, to apply course correction to existing strategy and potentially use some of the emerging technologies to accelerate that strategy.