Day 1 Recap at #CES2014 by Ogilvy & Mather

1. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1

2. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1
1
mind the
gaps
Surprise! There’s a massive gap between consumer behavior and the actions of brands and advertisers.
Our mobiles are positively stapled to our foreheads at every moment, and yet they only account for 5% of
advertising spend. But we’re not the only deluded ones. Consumers may claim to ignore mobile advertising,
but Deloitte found that 30% of them have acted on an ad in the past year. It would seem there are some gaps in
how we understand mobile—as an industry and as individuals. We need to define it, or, as Audi would have us
do, redefine mobility. They brought out a bunch of laser dancers and cool cars and sotto voce asked us to think
of them as a technology company as much as a car company. That’s quite a challenge, given the gap between
auto engineering design lifecycles and tech industry standards. The former is 7 years. The latter is 7 minutes.
But they brought their new partners—AT&T and Nvidia—on stage to make clear that it could be done. Tech
iteration comes to automotive! The auto is the most complex, most expensive, and most impressive piece of
consumer electronics that any of us owns. Shouldn’t it be the most connected as well?

3. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1
2
Open and
shut case
In a supposedly open world, we’re subject to the whims of Google and Apple. In the mobile
world, they control access to the app ecosystem. Is it appropriate to put so much power in
their hands? One of them claims not to be evil. The other riffed on 1984 in the most famous
ad of all time. Maybe we need to remind them of that. Plus, how does your content become
scalable when you are tied into a single ecosystem? We can’t compete with them in the
content of the apps we create, and we can’t break free of them when all of our consumer
electronics are in their world. It’s a beautiful, sparkly jail.

4. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1
3
Data
mitosis
Self-replication is the norm for any data. Snap a photo and it can be copied and pasted a
billion times. Each of those is another cell of data. As a marketer you’ve got to be on guard
for data cancer—the moment when the consumer sees the data that you’ve built up about
them to be a threat to their being rather than a benefit to their life. Build up your brand’s
data immune system. Let the data self-replicate naturally, unencumbered. When we all
play together—when the data streams from the sensors multiplying around us merge—the
system will become self-regulating. When data converges, it becomes a product in an ordered
marketplace. Keep it walled off, and the consumer will perceive you as a creepy predator, and
your knowledge of them will be seen as an noxious invader. Dude, don’t be HAL.

5. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1
4
the new
80/20 rule
Just because we can act in real time doesn’t mean we should. Our goal ought to be the delivery
of content that feel relevant the moment it is consumed. The challenge isn’t reacting fast; it’s
figuring out what the hell to say. That’s why Anne-Marie Klein proposed a new 80/20 rule.
(Ok, she didn’t call it that.) Spend 20% of your time reacting to the marketplace and 80% of
your time planning so that you have material that sounds right in-the-moment. Here’s a
little heresy to confront: maybe a few of those media dollars—say 20%?—need to go into
that content planning and creation. We don’t think of content as working media, but maybe
working media isn’t really punching with the same force it once did. Good content works for
you, travels, and has a higher referral value.

6. 2014
International
CES
recap
Day 1
5
From brand persona to
brand person
It’s not what your brand stands for anymore. It’s how your brand stands. Hands on hips?
Canted on to one leg? Those characteristics are part of how humans recognize each other.
We communicate not just with the content of our conversation but also with our gesture and
tone. These are parts of basic human nature. We used to look at brands as ancient heroic
archetypes—the quester, the hero, the mentor, the trickster, the shape-shifter—but technology
enables us…no, requires us…to turn turn them into fully fledged real people. What is your
brands gesture and voice? What is its speaking style? What is its character? These are no
longer metaphors. These are descriptions of entity you want to be and the tactile form the
consumer aspects you to inhabit. Maybe we’re wrong. Ask Siri what she thinks.