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CES 2012:
TRENDS,
TECHNOLOGIES
AND MEDIA
RESPONSE
...because sometimes, what happens in Vegas,
shouldn’t stay in Vegas
Introduction Every year in January the great and the good of the consumer technology
industry descend upon Las Vegas to showcase their latest innovations.
Anybody who has ever attended will agree it is easy to get lost in the crowd,
both physically but also from a brand perspective. Some companies return
triumphant, while others join a long list of those who have travelled to Vegas
hoping to strike it lucky, but leave having spent a lot of money, with little to
show for some late nights in America’s playground.
At GolinHarris we have pulled together this report to explore some of the
trends from this year’s show, highlighting what worked and what didn’t in
terms of generating media coverage and that all-important social media buzz.
I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in
more detail, please drop me a line.
Will Sturgeon,
Executive Director, Technology,
GolinHarris
T: +44 (0)207 067 0480
Walking the floor:
Long before most of us had
discovered the remote control, Las
Vegas favourite Elvis Presley
famously used a gun to turn off his
television (right).
The technology has come a long
way since then of course and Elvis
would have needed a whole army if
he was to take issue with all the
televisions on display at CES last
week.
Unlike Elvis in his Las Vegas heyday,
these televisions are also getting
thinner by the year and it was that
innovation alongside the rise of
OLED screens and smart TVs which
really caught the imagination of
many media attendees.
However, it was far from just a TV
show.
Smart phones and tablets were also abundant this year with names such as Nokia
staging a ‘comeback special’ of their own. The launch of the Lumia 900 certainly got
more than its fair share of column inches.
There was also a whole host of weird and wonderful gadgets on display. And up for
discussion in the media were perennial talking points such as the ‘Booth Babes’,
The Guardian posing the question as to whether girls in bikinis is still the way to
create interest in consumer technology in 2012.
Then there were the ‘freebies’ – or rather the lack of them. One UK journalist took to
Twitter to complain that the only freebie worth bringing home with him from Vegas
was a branded hand towel.
Did you know: Despite pre-show
talk of decline, CES 2012 boasted a
record-breaking 3,100 exhibitors
and attracted more than 153,000
attendees
Making a splash: Who generated the most media coverage and who
made the most noise on social media
The Talk Of The Town: Being different works Green technology was firmly
back on the agenda this
year, from the show’s official
car – the Ford Fusion hybrid
– to a device which almost
managed to steal the show
against all the odds.
The Nest app-controlled
smart thermostat drew the
cameras with its sexy looks
(OK, it’s sexy for a
thermostat) and its promise
of allowing users to more
efficiently control how they
heat their homes.
Among those behind the
device are Tony Fadell,
Apple's former Senior Vice
President of the iPod
Division – hence the fact it
looks a cut above the
average thermostat.
The lesson here is that
different works. There were
hundreds of televisions at
CES but only one app-
controlled thermostat.
2012 may have marked Steve Ballmer’s last
CES keynote.
Microsoft, the company of which he is CEO,
says its focus is going to be on smaller
shows from now on. But the larger than life
Microsoft boss still generated more UK
media coverage than any other senior exec
talking at the show:
The top five were as follows:
1. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
2. Eric Schmidt, Google
3. Stephen Elop, Nokia
4. Paul Otellini, Intel
5. Howard Stringer, Sony
Above: Steve Ballmer pictured with US TV
presenter Ryan Seacrest who was compère
for the Microsoft keynote.
What’s The Word On The Tweet
Our research has revealed that 93.5 per cent of all online
conversation around CES took place in ‘micro media’ channels
such as Twitter and Facebook.
Blogs
4.9%
Mainstream media
1.5%
Micro Media
93.5%
Most Tweeted
about brands:
1st (21.3% share)
2nd (18.5%)
3rd (14.6%)
4th (11.9%)
5th (11.4%)
USA (58 %)
France (6.9%)
Japan (3.8%)
UK (3.5%)
Brazil (3.5%)
It is perhaps no
surprise the top country
for originating tweets about
CES was the US - accounting for
58 per cent of the total. The top 5 were:
Day by day: Top 5 Brands by share of social voice
Microsoft
Samsung
Sony
LG
Nokia
Microsoft
Samsung
Sony
Lenovo
Nokia
Day One saw a host of announcements and the highest volume of both news
coverage and social media conversations. Microsoft’s keynote saw it take a
lead in the social stakes and also LG’s biggest showing of the week in social
chatter on the back of its smart TV announcements.
Day Two saw Microsoft conceding some ground while Lenovo made its one
and only showing in the top 5. That was on the back of an Intel announcement
and its Yoga Ultrabook and tablet hybrid demos which proved to be popular
video content online. Sony and Samsung both grew share around television
announcements, though Samsung’s ‘disc to digital’ announcement also
resonated with people clearly keen to digitise back catalogues of media.
Day by day:
Top 5 Brands by share of social voice
Microsoft
Samsung
Sony
LG
Nokia
Microsoft
Samsung
Sony
LG
Nokia
Day Three saw a very strong showing from Nokia. The company CEO tweeted
about Nokia scooping CNET’s ‘best of show’ smart phone award, sparking a
flurry of retweets. Meanwhile talk of Samsung’s Galaxy Note was spreading
like social media wildfire.
Day Four suggested the week in social media had been a very good one for
Samsung. A range of launches, most notably the Note and the widely
discussed ‘Smart Window’ got social channels chattering. Importantly, the
Smart Window, due to its interactivity, was a major driver of video content in
social channels. People who can’t be at the show want to see things working.
The value of celebrity in creating online buzz
When Justin Timberlake took to the CES stage with Panasonic, social media
mentions of both the brand and the celebrity peaked. However, it’s worth noting,
mentions of Panasonic were already clearly in the ascendency prior to mentions
of Timberlake hitting their own spike. Naturally, not everybody tweeting about
Panasonic at CES mentioned the company’s choice of celebrity but it seems
Timberlake’s arrival did little to extend or heighten the buzz, while the lag
between the two peaks suggests conversation about Timberlake continued
without tweeters connecting the brand and the celebrity.
Who got the Twitterverse buzzing? The UK’s top four CES tweeters...
BBCworld
t3dotcom
BBC Click
Guardiantech Followers
Posts about CES
Overall influence
@
@
@
@
Note: Scale is indicative for the purposes of
comparison, and not uniform across all three
measures. Eg. The number of posts ranged from 10
(@BBCWorld) to 124 (@t3dotcom), while follower
numbers ranged from 33,000 (@t3dotcom) to 1.8
million (@BBCWorld).
TIME
UK Media Trends
The great appeal of CES is the thrill
of the new – a first opportunity to see
the technology we’ll be talking about
later in the year. As such speed is
critical for the media who want to
win the race to cover the major
announcements. This results in a
flurry of coverage on Day One which
markedly tails off (right).
For the tech press, CES certainly
remains a pilgrimage worth making
and nobody was more productive at
the show – in terms of pure numbers at
least – than The Inquirer whose output
(left) from the show was prolific. Of the
nationals, The Telegraph put in a very
decent shift.
Despite some high-profile media being unimpressed by the notion of a trip to Las
Vegas...
...many did still make the trip this year and were busier than ever. A trend of
increased CES coverage year-on-year continued unbroken:
Five year news reference volume of ‘CES’
Source: Google Trends
Day 1
What the media were saying: No clear winner but lots of good news
Conclusion
Record attendances and wall-to-wall media coverage would appear to be the
hallmarks of a show in rude health.
The growth in social media has also clearly helped companies exhibiting at
CES breakout of the frenzy on the conference floor and reach new audiences
and new levels of publicity in the altogether more frenzied world of social
media.
Few things fuel the wheels of Twitter so spectacularly as some ‘must have’
innovation and gadgetry, presented in a simple, visual way.
Undoubtedly social media and the blurring of the lines between online
channels and ‘traditional’ media is also driving the increasing levels of
coverage. Whereas a newspaper or broadcaster may have limited itself to one
or two big announcements from CES in years gone by, their increased online
channels and outlets allow for a far more rapid fire, ‘little and often’ approach to
content, in the manner of their younger rivals. Among the most influential voices
on social media this year were two BBC accounts and the Guardian’s Tech feed.
All three boast huge followings and while they didn’t Tweet as much as others,
their words resonated further and wider.
Of course, some people will say that for the umpteenth year running the focus
of the show was on fiddling with form factor - smaller tablets, thinner TVs,
bigger screens, lighter notebooks – or tinkering with specifications such as
higher resolution cameras in mobile handsets. But the purists will tell you those
are exactly the reason why consumer technology continues to be the exciting
industry it is.
Prepared by:
Will Sturgeon,
Executive Director, Technology,
GolinHarris
T: +44 (0)207 067 0480
