I co-authored this deck with Shaun Farrar, Kevin Hung and Greg James following CES 2015. It outlines some of the key trends we saw and how marketers can act on them.
SUMMARY_
Just two words dominated CES 2015; “smart”
and “connected,” and despite 20,000 products on
display, these two terms united almost everything.
This is the proof that “the internet of everything” is
coming, a new ecosystem around us where digital
becomes the connective tissue of everything.
Sensors record and share what’s happening,
devices respond intelligently, our world becomes a
smarter, adaptive environment around us.
When things get smarter, when data becomes
more abundant and intimate, and where decisions
are outsourced to algorithms, what impact does
this have on marketing? When big data becomes
intimate data, what happens?
The internet of things is currently about
possibilities, but how do we focus on the
opportunities? To find out more about the threats
and opportunities at CES in 8 separate themes,
read on.
NEW MOBILITY
01
The way we move around is changing, CES saw the introduction of a plethora of
new ways that challenge our assumptions about personal movement. From
electric scooters that fold to motorized unicycles, from what looks to be a new
Segway to the world’s first electronic skates, mobility is about to change;
welcome to a new era in transport.
Cars are also changing fast, from rapid developments making electric cars more
affordable, to self driving car technology coming from all major players. With the
arrival of platforms such as Uber and the growing app based car clubs like Zipcar
and Hertz offering short-term use, one-way rental, we’re seeing changes in car
ownership patterns. It’s not a huge leap of faith to imagine a world where owning
cars, and cars even looking like cars, is a distant memory.
New mobility impacts marketers in profound new ways. The car is creating a new
media environment, now that you no longer need to pay attention to the road.
With this comes new advertising opportunities like promoted routes, real time
special offers, map based advertising, all taking advantage of your cars’ larger
digital screens.
SENSORED SURROUNDINGS
02
CES shows that the sensor economy is expanding and becoming even richer.
The technology is extracting and analyzing data, making improvements to
everyday life everywhere. Big data is even bigger now, yet becoming more
intimate. From meditation devices to baby monitors, portable 3D scanners, to
more advanced wearable health trackers, to fully connected homes, welcome
to an age where everything is monitored, recorded, shared and analyzed.
Brands can now have access to data they never thought possible.
Knowledge of what consumers are doing, feeling, and even thinking becomes
possible as sensors surround our bodies. An implication for brands is using
this data extraction to create the next wave of products and services.
Predictive analytics afford us the opportunity to influence or predict consumer
behaviors favorable to brand initiatives. In an aging population, it also allows
for consumers to monitor their loved ones from afar and ensure that proactive
measures are taken.
As you can imagine, the possibilities are infinite and the CPG, retail and
restaurant categories are prime first-movers for this trend.
SENSORED SURROUNDINGS
02
Scio allows you to scan practically anything — foods,
drinks, pills, plants, and more — and get detailed
information on the object’s chemical makeup.
RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
03
If CES is about everything being “smart” and “connected,” then sensors become
the foundational element. Everywhere we look, we see new types of sensors, new
ways to process data and new things to control. From homes that unlock as we
walk towards doors or cameras that keep tabs on who is home, to lights that
adapt to our needs and to fridges that order food for us, we’re soon to be
surrounded by connected devices that work around our needs.
Behold an age where cars drive us around, where televisions suggest content we
may want to watch, where our belts tell us how to behave. We could call this the
connected home or smarter living, but really this is about reducing the thinking we
have to do every day and about accepting key contextual suggestions that come
to us. It’s about us at the center of a life that just works around us, with
technology moving into the background to become ambient and assistive.
What’s most interesting about this is what this means for marketers. If machines,
algorithms and our toothbrushes are making decisions for us, what does the role
of advertising become?
PERVASIVE SCREENS & VIDEO
04
Slowly every surface around us is turning into a screen and every form of content is
converging to become video. Soon, from digital signage, wearables, smart TV’s,
connected cars, to projected walls, everything is becoming a place for moving images,
and our real life is being augmented by another layer of ambient information from the
internet.
We have non linear TV and Over the Top (OTT) delivery of content breaking down the
traditional linear TV model and putting the consumer in the driver’s seat of how they
view and engage with content. Content packages are being developed for the cord-
cutting generation. The world is now cross-screen, which has implications for greater
content and messaging flexibility, and where multiple touchpoints and sequential
storytelling (a sort of flow advertising) can provide richer messaging to consumers.
With this opportunity comes greater measurement and consumer insights across all
synched devices vs. channels for a holistic consumer picture vs. a siloed view.
Within this world, we need to stop our obsession with the digital divide and focus on
the implication of marketing when everything is digital and everything is video. In this
landscape the concepts of TV versus video, online versus offline, mobile versus
desktop have zero meaning. There are also huge implications to marketers on their
marketing mix and insights into effectiveness, given availability of new data.
The Whirlpool kitchen of the future projects messages, recipes
and even next steps on to your kitchen work surfaces.
04PERVASIVE SCREENS & VIDEO
DISH’s Sling TV $20/month unbundled video
package announced.
EVERYTHING BECOMES A SCREEN AND VIDEO
04
Smart TV’s now incorporating their own OS systems,
soon TV discovery become unbundled from the pipe.
EVERYTHING BECOMES A SCREEN AND VIDEO
04
A smartmirror, part of a whole new generation of
digital surfaces to enter our lives.
EVERYTHING BECOMES A SCREEN AND VIDEO
04
One of the many Virtual Reality and Augmented
Reality devices around CES. The notion of what is
real, virtual and blended is blurring.
EVERYTHING BECOMES A SCREEN AND VIDEO
04
05
HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
We’d imagine becoming a cyborg would have looked a bit more futuristic than
purple smartwatches, bluetooth headphones and Fitbits. But slowly and surely we’re
augmenting our being with a variety of electronics that makes us a little bit
superhuman. We’ve got wearables becoming popular by morphing into potentially
luxury fashion items, ceramic necklaces that beam notifications on your skin, t-shirts
that measure our vital statistics and smart belts that judge your food intake beyond
the likes of any judgmental friend. If that doesn’t work, we can place Thync’s
electrodes on our head and let restful pulses “induce a preferred mental state.”
We’re also getting closer to technology with the way we navigate content and
control devices in more tactile, natural and gestural ways. Amazon Echo was the first
device to bring voice activation back in trend, but now we see small startups such
as Cubic trying to bring technology to life using our voices. Whether it’s the variety of
eye-tracking companies such as Tobii, gadgets such as Ring that let you point and
control using fingers, or Myo and Bitbrick the trackable armbands, or even the
beloved Leap Motion, technology is becoming more physically bound to us.
Marketers need to be open to new ways to make immersive products, to explore
new UI's and find new ways to create richer buying experiences and remove barriers
to purchase.
Thync, a mysterious wearable that uses “neuro-
signaling to induce a preferred mental state.”
HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
05
French company Cityzen Sciences has developed a smart
t-shirt that measures statistics including your heart rate.
HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
05
Belty, the world’s first smart belt can track your waistline
over time, keep tabs on your exercise, or check how
much you sit and suggest you take a walk.
05HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
Ring, the smallest, most human of all gesture control
devices at CES.
05HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
Lechal’s smart and connected insole relays directions
via vibrations and provides fitness tracking.
05HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
05HUMAN TECHNOLOGY / VANISHING INTERFACES
Tobii makes one of the most advanced eye tracking
devices that allow you to control computers with
your gaze.
KID TECH
06
All parents want the best for their child and new tech advancements
showcased new ways to be even smarter and more involved from health to
education. Many tools were present to help with monitoring such as the re-
imagined pacifier (Pacif-I) updated to pair with a phone sharing a child’s
temperature and location; and SleepIQ, a bed that has sensors monitor
breathing, movement and heart rate.
Improving literacy, math, and science was also a focus for technologists this
year. Innovations such as Ozobot, Dash and Dot teach kids basics of
programming in order to further develop logic and critical thinking.
This is a new and developing area in which media opportunities will emerge.
For now, it appears key partnerships with tech developers would be
advantageous. Opportunities to understand the needs for smarter parenting
by brands to provide solutions could be largely successful. Imagine a
pharmaceutical company partnering to provide medicinal solutions to child or
parent in times of need.
Pacify-I, the world’s first smart pacifier that monitors a
baby’s temperature and transmits the data to an app on
a parent’s smartphone or tablet.
06KID TECH
Vigilant Rainbow, the first smart toothbrush for kids
and one that gamifies brushing.
06KID TECH
With Dash & Dot, kids learn how to program toy
robots which makes coding fun using apps.
06KID TECH
EVERYDAY ROBOTICS
07
Robots have been around for many years now, but always behind the scenes
in distribution centers and factories, hidden away from most people. CES this
year saw a whole new range of robots that are designed to aid our lives in
more personal ways than ever.
We of course saw a huge range of drones, but most differentiation was by size
and little else, and we don’t see much in the way of real life problems they can
currently solve, at least not until regulatory controls and battery life improve.
Home robots saw most of the coverage, from a range of personal robots
designed to aid our everyday lives, to a much greater array of machines that
excel in single purposes. From floor to grills, solar cells to gardens, it’s hard to
find anything that can’t be cleaned by a robot, but even harder to find a robot
that can do more than one thing well.
Robots in retail seem to be the most obvious new frontier for robotics in
business, but how many people would prefer the human touch? And what are
the longer term implications for the labor force when everyday tasks become
automated?
OSHBOT, the retail robot developed in partnership
with Lowes, is already on the shop floor.
07EVERYDAY ROBOTICS
The Furo-i home, a wheel-mounted smart tablet holding
robot can take voice commands and connects home
networks and devices.
07EVERYDAY ROBOTICS
Budgee, a robot with one thing in mind, helping the
elderly move large and heavy items around.
07EVERYDAY ROBOTICS
DEMOCRATISATION OF CREATIVITY
08
We’ve never been more empowered to make things for ourselves, what we consumed
was once dictated by expert strangers, they’d decide what media we could consume,
what products we could buy and makers were selected by editors, A&R people and
design committees. Now we’re empowered with 3D printers, additive printing, cheaper
professional cameras, 3D scanners, home recording studios; we’re now all able to
create on a level playing field.
Along with the hardware comes the software and services, from online destinations to
upload patterns for the maker movement, for parts makers and concepts like Arduino.
We’ve also burgeoning distribution channels like Etsy or Quirky and funding
infrastructure like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, today it seems like truly anyone can make
it, so long as they can make it.
The effects are considerable: We once relied on middle men to control, publish,
replicate, distribute and sell to use, but now everything is disintermediated. When
anyone can make anything, in any quantity, when people can sell direct to the masses,
when success becomes truly democratic, how can retailers, brands and media owners
embrace this new dynamic and become enablers of creativity?
Ultimaker 2 Go, it's the hobbyist's ultimate dream.
The $1,450 printer is small, compact and portable.
DEMOCRATISATION OF CREATIVITY
08
Go Pro Hero 4, now putting 4K high frame rate
capture in anyone’s hands for less than $500.
DEMOCRATISATION OF CREATIVITY
08
We’re
about
to
enter
the
next
stage
of
the
internet
-‐
the
"thinternet,"
if
you
will.
Here,
the
internet
becomes
a
thinner,
more
pervasive,
more
tactile,
ambient
layer
that
surrounds
us.
It
connects
us
to
everything,
while
becoming
predictive
and
personalized.
In
this
world
everything
is
digital,
so
let’s
shift
to
think
about
contexts
not
pipes.
We’re
about
to
enter
an
age
where
Everything
Becomes
Smart.
Our
fridges,
TVs
and
watches
all
make
decisions
for
us
-‐
or
at
the
very
least
they
make
key
contextual
suggestions.
What
can
or
will
become
of
advertising
when
we,
individuals,
are
no
longer
in
as
much
control?
We’re
about
to
enter
an
age
where
everything
around
us
collects
our
intimate
data
more
abundantly
than
ever
before.
The
question
for
brands,
advertisers
and
consumers
now
becomes
"If
my
watch
knows
where
I
am,
what
I
am
doing
and
how
I
am
feeling,
what
new
targeting
opportunities
come
about?"
FINAL THOUGHT