Some Key Takeouts from This Year’s CES

CES 2018 wrapped up last week and was the largest show they have had on record, most notably with over 900 startups participating in Eureka Park, proving that disruption is real and innovation for consumers and brands are ever growing.

Every niche of the industry appeared to be on show, it feels like every man and his dog (referencing Sony’s relaunch of Aibo) should be there in order to extract information relevant to each cross section of tech, industry, retailer and brand.

With this in mind, we need to focus our attention on how brands create rich experiences, frictionless interactions and deliver value to cut through the noise.

Autonomous Cars

Mobility, connected cars and the rise in sophistication of vehicle technology has paved the way for brands to provide greater value for consumers whilst on the move.

Advertisers can benefit from people and their vehicles being truly connected and deliver solutions such as in car payment and loyalty rewards by teaming with manufacturers and technology.

Autonomous announcements were widespread from big auto brands, with Nissan looking into building a platform infused with human reactions, Ford’s self-driving delivery vehicle in partnership with Postmates that will be testing in a currently unnamed city this year, and Toyota showing off their concept cars and delivery vehicle the ePalette.

Imagine a world where we are connected in such a manner that our need states are recognised by technology first and brands can build ads or solutions to resolve them.

Amazon vs Google

CES 2017 saw Alexa dominate as the preferred voice platform for new consumer products coming to market. However, we’re seeing the chips fall with providers making an ecosystem bet on one or the other, and some building for both.

There was a lot of voice assistant integration to be seen this year, an example being Vuzix’s wearable product, Blade, which won 4 International Innovation Awards; providing an AR experience as well as being integrated with Amazon’s Alexa.

Sarah Stringer, SVP Innovation, Carat USA, put it beautifully, retail brands need to understand “what their digital experience is and the importance of what that means for bricks and mortar.”

There is a real opportunity to share information across both physical and digital to personalise shopping experiences and create immersive content to bring brands to life for their consumers.

Smart Cities

Global spending on smart cities is projected to reach $34.35 billion by 2020 and this was the first year the conference launched CES Smart Cities to cover this booming market.

Why Smart Cities? Steve Koenig, Senior Director, Market Research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)– the owner and producer of CES eloquently says “The tech community is committed to and passionate about changing lives for the better, and smart cities have the potential to address the need for more sustainable and livable cities around the world. With the Internet of Things (IoT) as a foundation, technologies such as automated street lighting, smart energy metres, parking assistance apps and sensors have the ability to make cities safer, more efficient and more accessible…

Click here to view Carat’s CES 2018 wrap up report in full.

Fern Potter is Global Digital Partner at Carat.