Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 marketing trends for brands and marketers

No Gadgets: A CES 2015 Report for Brands and Marketers 1

No gadgets:A CES 2015 Report–For brands and marketers


Table of contents

Overiew:2015 International CES.................................3

Really? No gadgets?.....................................4

Key trends for brands and marketers..................................6

#1 The future of people based marketing.......................8

#2 Modern Marketing:

Emerging technologies and capabilities..................12

#3 New business models................................................17

#4 Regulation tightens, intelectual property loosens...21

#5 The consumerization of content creation.................25

Let’s do something extraordinary..................................................28


Overview

–

With a multi-year recalibration from a consumer electronics focus to a broader digital technology story behind it, the 2015 International CES made it clear that the event has hit a new stride and level of maturity.

After making bets on new audiences and exhibitors for the show (including marketers, start- ups and content producers), a record- breaking year makes it clear those bets have paid off in a way that is all too uncommon in Las Vegas.


We know, we know. But there’s a good reason.It’s the opposite of what you’d expect to hear about the 2015 International CES: a report with no run-down of the hottest gadgetry being promised to revolutionize your life this year.

But with the show’s increasing focus on a broader array of content – including digital’s effect on consumers, policy and technology services – there are some major developments marketers should be thinking about beyond the gadgets. Further, we (and likely you, the reader), are well aware that the hottest products have been well documented across the web. In case you’d still like a recap, you can catch these linked posts from Mashable, engadget and us.

Instead, we’ve focused this year’s report on a number of actionable takeaways that we are leaving CES with and taking directly back to our clients to factor into forward planning. If you’re still itching for some mention of gadgets, don’t worry. We have mentioned gadgets, generally in an effort to illustrate a broader ecosystem and movement that exists in consumer behavior and the industry at large.

Enjoy the report and do let us know what you think! Now, let’s get to work. Before we know it, CES will be back again – it’s scheduled for January 6-9, 2016.

Really? No gadgets?

Ben Grossman VP, Strategy Director [email protected] Office: +1.617.585.7017 Mobile: +1.617.752.1171

http://mashable.com/2015/01/06/best-of-ces-2015/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/best-of-ces-2015-winners/


Highlights from the 2015 international CES–2015 marked the largest CES in history, with over 170,000 industry professionals in attendance and more than 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space occupied by exhibitors. Today, the show sits at, as the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has dubbed it, “the center of convergence among content, services and products.”

The event’s new positioning is reflected by the fact that exhibitors and conference tracks have shifted in new directions. This year boasted a 70% increase in the number of start-up companies exhibiting at the show. CES also launched a new sector of the show campus called C Space, which is dedicated to exploring how content, creativity, technology, brand marketing, influencers and the consumer come together.

The result for brands is an opportunity unlike any other to showcase how they fit into the digital ecosystem that increasingly dominates consumers’ lives. The result for brands’ marketers is a conference that, according to AdAge, is rising in notoriety and popularity within the industry to rival events like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and South By Southwest Interactive.

CES launched a new sector of the show campus called C Space, which is dedicated to exploring how content, creativity, technology, brand marketing, influencers and the consumer come together.


Key trends for brands and marketers


Several key trends emerged for brands and marketers to consider in 2015, each of which is covered in more detail in this report:

In 2015, many brands turned their attention away from hunting for emerging gadgets, to instead examine emerging technologies that can drive their businesses forward.

The American Association of National Advertisers (ANA) partnered with CES to host a Digital Disruption conference at the show’s newly minted C Space (the official CES destination for creative communicators, brand professionals and digital advertisers).

Marketing executives from brands including Subway Restaurants,

MillerCoors, MasterCard and Mondelez International presented their approaches to innovation.

The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), Jack Morton’s parent company, sponsored a private suite where media companies gave private briefings to lead agency-side marketers. Innovators like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Yahoo presented their research, points of view and agendas for the future of how brands will use digital to reach consumers.

Key trends–For brands and marketers

The future of People-Based Marketing

Modern Marketing: Emerging Technology & Capabilities

New Business Models & Value Propositions

Regulation Tightens, Intellectual Property Loosens

The Consumerization of Content Creation


1The future of people-based marketing. Privacy vs. personalization, a cookie-free future and beyond.


After six weeks, just

53% of people corresponded to a single cookie.

In a private briefing of top marketing executives at CES, Carolyn Everson, the VP of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, heralded which she has called her team’s biggest achievement over the last 12 months: “People-Based Marketing.”

Broadly, this term refers to a movement towards a “cookie-free” world, driven by the realization that, in a cross-device landscape, cookies are a poorer identifier of individuals than ever.

Facebook’s Atlas Insights team conducted a study in late 2014 and found that, for roughly half of the population measured (500 million cookies), the one-to- one relationship between cookie and person was broken after only a few weeks’ time, distorting measures of reach and frequency significantly.

But that cookie inconsistency also points towards a major gap in advertisers’ understanding of which users they’re targeting and their ability to target them with personalized messaging.

The prospect of a cookie-free world– Facebook Atlas Study

March 2014


If achieved, true personalization in digital marketing stands to yield significant benefits to brands in 2015. Yahoo’s recent research on the impact of personalization was also revealed at this year’s CES. While its research exposed a general hesitancy to accept an increasingly personalized web when consumers were asked directly, it also found that consumers responded extremely well to those very personalized messages.

This tension between personalization attitudes and actions points towards the importance of use of explicit and implicit feedback from users in order to personalize messages. Users

want to feel in control, but also to benefit from information publishers have. Facebook’s new Atlas Ad Server offering will provide a significant amount of explicit information to advertisers, allowing them to target unique users based on their Facebook identity, rather than cookies. Implicit feedback will continue to be an ongoing focus of marketers. Legendary, an American film production company, shared during its CES presentation that it often leaves 25% of its marketing budgets unallocated in order to respond directly to the feedback it receives implicitly from consumers.

While ad technology companies and publishers are sure to continue establishing a footing in the new people-based marketing world, brands that move decisively will begin to see significant benefits in 2015. Both Facebook and Google made direct promises to advertisers at CES that their organizations wanted to be held responsible for ultimate business value, not soft media metrics like impressions and clicks.

The tension between personalization and privacy–


78%of consumers expressed a desire for some kind of content personalization, with 62% interested in viewing a mix of algorithmic and currated content.


2Modern marketing techniques. Start-ups collaboration and a new go-to-market strategy for brands.


Beyond the buzz about ad technology, CES also acted as a showcase for new, disruptive marketing techniques and methodologies that are catapulting some brands forward.

MillerCoors, coming from an industry that generally relies heavily on broadcast TV to market its beverages, presented its recent innovation in how it goes to market to a youth audience with Miller Lite. The organization sustains the MillerCoors Incubator, a technology incubator that maintains relationships with start-ups that can aid the brand it overcoming some of its key business challenges.

Currently, MillerCoors is focusing on branded content and lower- funnel marketing by testing campaigns with 26 different technology companies, ranging from iBeacon to content marketing.

Side by side with its incubator, MillerCoors also launched a Tap The Future program, dedicated to taking young entrepreneurs’ businesses to the next level. The competition includes $300K in prize money, business seminars, live pitch opportunities, and access to mentors and business moguls like Daymond John from ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

Rocking the beer marketing boat–

MillerCoors is focusing on

branded content and lower-funnel

marketing by testing campaigns with 26 different

technology companies.


The way we’re thinking about technology is one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow. We’re taking some risks.

Stevie Benjamin Senior Director of Digital & Media

Miller Coors


Some of the top products at CES had already been seen long before the January event.

But beer isn’t the only industry with

a shifting go-to-market strategy. Ironically, consumer

electronics, once the central product-launch

focus of CES, have also experienced a changing

landscape in terms of going-to-market.

Modern methods used

to go-to-market Singtrix, a voice-defying karaoke system launched at CES by VOXX International Corporation, had been seen my millions of TV watchers on the show “Shark Tank.”

AirDog, a GoPro camera wielding auto-follow drone created by a team of 20 engineers, had already been backed (and thusly pre-ordered) by over 1,300 investors on Kickstarter and seen by many more through the product’s publicity engine during its crowdfunding campaign prior to CES.

Ring, a smartphone-controlled video doorbell, had already flopped on“Shark Tank” in its pre-investment days (then known as DoorBot), butturned around to sell over 10,000 units after its airdate and generate $1 million in venture capital investment, all before it showed on the stage of The Last Gadget Standing at CES.


Brands in and outside the technology sector are changing the way they launch products and get noticed. Despite the claim that 20,000 products are launched at CES (made by CEA, its hosting body), it is clear that brands are taking alternate routes to reach their audiences – and that the definition of what a true ‘launch’ at CES means may need to be re-examined.

The lesson? –


3New business models. Traditional industries disrupted by Dr. Phil, Sling TV and Amazon.


Several industries showed signs of active

reinvention, from the medical industry to

traditional television.

Aside from marketing evolutions, CES also showcased technologies that are disrupting the way businesses are structured. Several industries showed signs of active reinvention, from the medical industry to traditional television. Meanwhile, Amazon reinforced its end-of-2014 introduction of the Echo and growing ecosystem based on Prime subscribers (including Prime Photos, Prime Music, Prime Instant Video and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library).

Doctor on demand

Dr. Phil and his son spoke on the CEA’s show floor stage about the company they co-founded: Doctor On Demand. The company offers insurance-free appointments with doctors, psychologists and other healthcare providers on-demand for a flat fee.

Patients can have Video Visits with these providers on their smartphone or computers for services ranging from acute sniffles to lactation consulting. While the service currently is not meant to replace primary care physicians, it can greatly shorten the path to service.

The doctor is in (the mix at CES)


Amazon has morphed into a much

broader ecosystem of content libraries

and content delivery, device invention and device proliferation,

and point of sale and publisher.

Amazon Echo

While Amazon didn’t launch any new products at CES, it was still one of the most exciting presences at the show. In a private briefing to top marketers, Amazon’s executives gave demonstrations with the brand’s new Echo product (launched at the end of 2014) and talked about the direction of its business.

Though initially a bookseller turned eCommerce company, today Amazon has morphed into a much broader ecosystem of content libraries and content delivery, device invention and device proliferation, and point of sale and publisher.

With the introduction of Prime subscriptions, proprietary devices and original content, Amazon has also developed a dedicated media team that is nascent, but ready to bloom. Marketing opportunities across eCommerce, video and its proprietary devices will continue to proliferate.

The most threatening dynamic for marketers looking to establish brand preference is that, to some degree, the ecosystem Amazon is developing is self-funding, so it will not be beholden to advertiser dollars. It can make

bold choices, like providing commercial-free audio and video streaming services, because it can monetize them through Prime subscriptions and incremental eCommerce sales gained from keeping users in Amazon’s walled garden.

Did you hear an Echo?


Positioned as a way to “take back

TV,” the service will cost $20 a month

with no contract or commitment.

Sling TVIn the midst of a time of television turbulence, filled with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and iTunes, Slingbox broke through at CES with the promise of a simple, affordable solution: Sling TV. Positioned as a way to “take back TV,” the service will cost $20 a month with no contract or commitment.

While the service offering received plenty of buzz at CES, skeptics argue that the 11-channel streaming package doesn’t provide nearly enough channels or coverage of programming that is of interest to its young millennial target audience.

While these companies showed up as especially prominent and innovative at CES, they are emblematic of a business landscape ripe for revolution. Radical moves by progressively-minded companies like Uber, Warby Parker and Bonobos, all founded on new technology and consumer behavior, will continue to force new business models upon traditional industries.

Simplifying live television streaming


4Regulation tightens, IP loosens. The FTC and FCC shut down threats, while corporations open up.


Over the past few years, CES has become an opportunity for government officials to collaborate with and take the stage next to technology leaders.

This year, the FCC Chairman and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman both made splashy appearances at the show, giving a preview of tightened regulations and policies that are coming down the pike.

Meanwhile, corporate giants showed a willingness to loosen the reigns on some of their intellectual property for the betterment of the industry.

Regulation tightens, IP loosens–


In 2015, the number of smart

home devices will reach nearly 25

million.

2015 will also be the year we

start hearing about smart-home

hacking.

Edith Ramirez, chair of the FTC, warned about the perils of, and presumable pending commission action regarding, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are proliferating rapidly. She warned of the devices’ ability to capture a “deeply personal and startlingly complete picture” of consumers that they may not want public or vulnerable. Compounding the threat of the deluge of captured personal data, Ramirez also cited start-ups’ general lack of sophistication in and attention to privacy practices that consumers take for granted from more established companies.

Tom Wheeler, chair of the FCC, received significant press attention for his interview with CEA chairman Gary Shapiro, during which he tipped attendees off to FCC action on net neutrality. He disclosed a timeline and general premise of the commission’s forthcoming final rules to enforce net neutrality under Title II. This action would constitute a coupe for many consumer electronics manufacturers and innovators whose interests are often at odds with traditional, established telecommunications companies.

Threat of loT and promise of net neutrality–

Edith Ramirez Chairwoman

Federal Trade Commission


Two of the biggest non-gadgetry announcements at CES came from two of the largest brands there: Samsung and Toyota. Each organization demonstrated a willingness to play in the sandbox amongst the start-ups that have tended to steal the show in the last few years.

Samsung opened the show with its Keynote that, among other things, focused on the company’s commitment to making its IoT components completely open source. This new approach to building a more compatible series of IoT products is fueled by open source standards that came as part of Samsung’s acquisition of SmartThings.

Toyota made a landmark announcement that it would invite royalty- free use of over 5,600 fuel cell related patents, including critical technologies developed for the Toyota Mirai. This openness to sharing its intellectual property stands as a noted change in tone for auto giants like Toyota, many of which will likely feel increasing pressure from similar moves from challengers like Tesla, which released its patents in June 2014. Widely celebrated by analysts, this move is reflective of what is believed to be the key to emerging energy sources: broad-based collaboration, shared technologies and established standards.

Large corporations begin to open up–

90% of Samsung

products, from smartphones to

refrigerators, will be able to connect

to the Web by 2017.

Boo-Keun Yoon Co-CEO

Samsung Electronics


5Consumer -ized content creation. A new generation of user-produced, premium content.


The final key trend we noted at CES didn’t actually occur at the event itself. Instead, it’s a prediction in the way we see the most popular technologies moving. Several of the year’s most notable product presences: AirDog (GoPro filming drone), Selfie Sticks (not at all innovative, but extremely popular) and 3D Printers (with more viable outputs than ever before).

All three of these categories of products are centered on the increasing consumerization of quality content creation – a trend that will live on far beyond the 2015 CES.

Consumer creation like never before–

New Makerbot filaments containing limestone, iron, maple wood and bronze.


3D Printed dinosaur cookies rocked the

CES show floor.

The concept? Amazing. The taste?

So-so.

Call to brands: build on emerging

technology

The way content is published and distributed has changed radically over the past decades, starting with simple weblogs and standing today in an environment where 18,000 days of video are uploaded to YouTube every day.

What’s coming next is increased accessibility to professionalized content creation capabilities. Amateur music artists will be including stunning sky shots in their music videos. Lone explorers are photographing breathtaking landscapes... with themselves in the picture. 3D printers’ new lower cost and increased material options give average people the ability to custom print their own products.

That means that the pace of content will continue to accelerate – and consumer expectations from brands may continue to rise. Brands that can leverage new content production technologies themselves and give consumers an elevated platform to create may be able to achieve an advantage over competitors. Moreover, being first to market with unique ways to leverage these technologies offers a breakthrough potential for brands.


Let’s do something extraordinary.

We’re living in a time when human imagination coupled with technology makes anything possible. Where amazing has become the new normal.

Brands must be sure that the experiences they deliver live up to the messages they send. Those who achieve it, we call Experience Brands.

If you’re interested in chatting more regarding our insights on CES or are ready to do something extraordinary, let’s connect.

Ben Grossman VP, Strategy Director [email protected] Office: +1.617.585.7017 Mobile: +1.617.752.1171


Talk to us—

Contact Melinda LindlandSVP, New Business and Group Account [email protected]

Read our blog at blog.jackmorton.com

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Visit us online at jackmorton.com

About Jack Morton

We’re a global brand experience agency. We generate breakthrough ideas, connecting brands and people through experiences that transform business. Our portfolio of award-winning work spans 75 years across event marketing, sponsorship marketing, promotion and activation, experience strategy, employee engagement, digital, social, and mobile. Ranked at the top of our field, Jack Morton is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG).

More information is available at: www.jackmorton.com or @jackmorton

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