First things first. I have to actually get to CES 2015. Last year, record snowfall grounded me. Since it’s almost 50 degrees about a week in advance, I am pretty sure I’ll make it this year. If you are there, ping me via Twitter - @jbell99 – and say hello.
As a marketer, I am eager to get a glimpse of behavior-changing trends. While I am curious to see with my own eyes some of the most obvious trends – phablets, 4K TVs (what happened to 3D and curved?), and the increasingly connected car, there are a few things I will be on the lookout for beyond these big trends.
Four CES 2015 Trends to Watch For
The instrumented life – our homes can update us on how much energy they burn, our cars can calculate our driving efficiency, our mobile device counts how much aerobic activity we expend. At the crossroads of the Internet of things and data generated by our choices and efforts sits an increasingly instrumented life. This is less about a broad capability like what Smart Things may bring to Samsung products and more about the application of measures and data to help us make decisions (or change behaviors). It’s about the actual application of the technology capabilities.
The connected kitchen – While the press continues to focus on the macrotrend of the connected home (707 exhibitors), I will be keen to see what specifically is on the horizon to make the kitchen a more connected experience. For many of us, that room is our most social meeting place. And, like it or not, it remains the female head-of-household’s stronghold. Whirlpool’s concept piece from last year looked promising. Will there be any right-around-the-corner innovations? From connecting that space and its rituals to friends and family via social media to just-in-time meal information and choices to personalized product recommendations, the implications for marketing could be significant.
C-Space for Marketers – There’s a sidebar at this year’s CES designed to cater to marketers. Twitter, Google, Yahoo and others will huddle and have a few sessions amidst the chaos. I hope they focus on CES-inspired issues and don’t carry on the same conversations we have when we meet in NY or SF. I don’t really know what to expect but hope that there will be some good “what-does-this-mean-to-marketers” discussions. Here’s the schedule of events for C Space.
“Immersive Storytelling” – At least PFSK tries to frame all this innovation in terms of what it may deliver to consumers. Their term, immersive storytelling, is what you get when you introduce all this new virtual reality gear from Oculus Rift and entertainment companies eager to lock in future revenue from consumers. While VR has tremendous potential as a training tool, it’s the entertainment that we must really figure out. As we all know, there are only two ways for the consumer to pay for that – fee or advertising. What will the appropriate advertising look like?
6 POVS on What to Expect at CES 2015
PFSK – Your Guide to the Best of CES 2015
FORBES – 5 Big Things To Watch at CES 2015
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