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MullenLowe Looks Back at CES 2017

25/01/2017
Media Agency
Boston, USA
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Agency explores the trends and implications of note at this year's Consumer Electronics Show
Unless you live in a bunker sans Wi-Fi, you know about CES (or the Consumer Electronics Show) that dominates Las Vegas each year in January. This year’s event was the largest floor in the show’s history with nearly 4,000 companies in attendance and 2.4MM net square feet of exhibits dedicated to unveiling new products and services. Particularly noteworthy was the rapidly growing Eureka Park, the unique space dedicated to new start-ups which has exploded from 90 exhibiting companies since its inception in 2012, to 600 in 2017.  

We’ve captured six key trends and implications from our experience, but two overarching themes were omnipresent this year, differentiating it from past events. The first is that everything (and we mean everything) is Wi-Fi- and/or cloud-connected. From light bulbs to washing machines to wearables, the potential for every product to collect data and communicate with other products or services isn’t just an episode of Black Mirror, it’s our new reality. The second theme was Artificial Intelligence (or machine learning). Google, IBM Watson and Amazon each power their own voice-activated personal assistants (Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon Alexa), and the ability to verbally engage with these devices is fueling a fundamental shift in the way we seek out information (Gartner predicts that by 2020, 30% of searches will be made by voice alone). With each of these companies creating kits for simple integration with any capable product, AI will fundamentally change the way consumers engage with brands and products in the future.

With those two themes at the foundation of this year’s CES, here’s a roundup of the top trends of 2017:

1. Alexa is everyone’s BFF

Alexa was, hands down, the breakout star. Thanks to the recently debuted Alexa Skills Kit, designed for turnkey product integration, Alexa-integrated products were prevalent on the CES floor and spanned multiple categories, including smart home, robots, entertainment and automotive, giving it a substantial advantage over its rivals, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana. With sales of the Alexa-powered home assistant Echo reported at $14M post-holiday, it now has scale worthy of marketers’ attention, and many advertisers are getting on board, creating Alexa skills, or little “digital errands” she can perform. There are currently 7,000 skills in Alexa’s library, reinforcing its potential as a marketing consideration. 

IMPLICATIONS
Consumers are becoming accustomed to conversational interfaces. Whether it’s creating an Alexa skill or leveraging a Facebook Messenger bot as a customer service mechanism, incorporating conversational interfaces into products, services or marketing strategies should be top of mind for brands in 2017.

2. IoT matures, and it’s coming to your body

IoT (or The Internet of Things) first earned a spot on the innovation radar in 2015, but this year it was a driving force with behemoths like LG announcing all future products will be connected. The diversity of IoT products was robust, with the category expanding to fashion, health and beauty in a big way. Darlings included a smart hairbrush by Kérastase and Withings, which assesses the condition of a user’s hair and the effects of different hair care routines to recommend products, and Vobot, a smart alarm clock that enhances your rest by optimising your sleep schedule through a sleep coach program. Healthcare wearables were also prevalent. 

IMPLICATIONS
The volume of consumer data is growing exponentially. Brands who define their data strategy now will be best prepared for the boundless potential for matching data points and insights with personalised messaging in the future.

4. VR gets more immersive

There was no shortage of unveilings in the VR category this year. Among the big trends was the host of new accessories designed to enhance the VR experience, for example, gloves that allow for kicking and punching through walls, and even VR sneakers leveraging haptic technology to simulate walking across different surfaces. Discovery Networks is addressing the solitary aspect of VR by developing social experiences where you can engage with your friends. 

IMPLICATIONS
While equipment costs and content discoverability are still hurdles for consumers, there’s no doubt there is an increased demand for more immersive experiences. Entertainment brands are an obvious fit, but VR can enable brands in other categories to virtually experience products and services to elevate engagement.

5. Tech gets kid-friendly

Kid-friendly tech flourished at this year’s CES. One of the most noteworthy products was Mattel’s Aristotle, which, in addition to reading bedtime stories, playing white noise and teaching second languages, can learn “with the child.” Other tech included a toothbrush that gamifies tooth brushing, making the activity less of a chore. Finally, smartwatches, which have been met with mixed reviews from adult consumers, are showing more promise among kids. JOY’s Octopus smartwatch has multiple educational capabilities, including teaching kids to tell time and prompting them to complete tasks or maintain healthy habits.  

IMPLICATIONS
Growth in this category opens up new opportunities with data insights and life-stage targeting, although privacy laws and COPPA compliance will dictate what is allowed in regard to marketing to children directly.

6. Convergence of TV choice

Improvements to television are table stakes at CES and this year it was no different. Screens got bigger, thinner and more visually stunning. But one of the biggest highlights is that common interfaces will provide access to on-demand and live content in a single interface, replacing the cable channel guide. Hulu also announced the introduction of a live offering sometime in the spring, and Samsung announced its QLED universal remote, which will make it easy even for the non-tech savvy to navigate between streaming services and linear television.

IMPLICATIONS
Marketers need to quickly move beyond the TV spot and get comfortable with alternative ways of reaching TV viewers. Technologies like Samba TV that enable us to target nonlinear viewers on mobile devices and smart TV companies like Samsung that offer ads directly on the TV dashboard provide just two of many ways to reach viewers in the era of nonlinear programming.

WHAT BRANDS CAN DO NOW

1. Start testing AI right away.
Sometimes it pays to wait and be a second mover, letting others fail first, but in this case, first-mover advantage is crucial. Artificial Intelligence takes time to learn about your brand and its needs, so the sooner you start testing, the better off you are in the long run. Brands should look to test new deep learning or opportunities in text and conversational analytics through partners such as Google and Cognitiv, or through a DSP partner such as AdTheorent that deploys machine-based learnings in their bidding algorithms.

2. Plan for a new world of search marketing.
While mobile has had a tremendous impact on the search world in the past few years, forcing marketers to think about converting searchers in the physical world as much as on the web itself, as Amazon Echo and other personal assistant platforms become more ubiquitous, we’ll need to prepare for another pivot – to a world in which conversational marketing may be the message. It may also mean a new “search” world in which Google may no longer be king and more diversity in platforms becomes the norm.

3. Prepare to go beyond the two-dimensional screen.
Many marketers are still trying to catch up to the mobile-first, multiscreen world that we all now inhabit. But with the rise of AR and VR, and the addition of haptic and other immersive technologies, we not only need to prepare for a multi-screen world, but soon a world in which reality and virtuality overlap in a unique and personal way for every individual. To get ready for this world, marketers should, at the very least, start to bring data, technology and creative together as seamlessly as possible.




MullenLowe MediaHub
John Moore, President
Sean Corcoran, Executive Director of Innovation
Laurel Boyd, SVP, Director of Media Content & Innovation
Aaron Clinger, SVP, Director of Digital
Alanna Whelan, Group Head Producer
Lauren Schroeter, Digital Designer
Han Na Jung, Designer
Dan Johnston, Senior Developer
Stefan Harris, Senior Developer
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