Why CES 2016 didn’t live up to the hype… and why that’s OK
As an on-and-off visitor to CES over the years, I have a good guess at what I’m in for when I trek to the desert – meeting some of the best and brightest in our business, great parties, endless cab lines, never enough sleep.
But of course what we all head to Las Vegas for is to peek into the future – to catch a glimpse of what “could be” and “will be”. To wonder and dream like little kids.
This year, however, was different. This year wasn’t about the next big thing. CES 2016 felt like a sequel if nothing else – part something I had seen already and part something that left me wanting more.
As this reality came over me midweek, I began to ask colleagues, clients and friends to help me find what I was missing. Perhaps I overslept for the keynote or wasn’t invited to the party where the shock and awe innovation was revealed.
Nope. Nearly everyone’s reaction was the same – there’s nothing here that I haven’t seen already; just evolutions of products revealed in years past.
Talk about cynics, huh?
Can you really blame us given what our culture has come to expect in the last 10 or 15 years of technology advancement? Though there have been many brands that have helped redefine and create from scratch new categories, I can’t help but think about Steve Jobs and the leadership he assumed by developing technologies that people didn’t event know they needed. To me, that’s innovation – simple and intuitively ways to make your life easier and better.
This is the standard now – for better or worse.
As for this year’s event, HTC and Valve’s take on Virtual Reality isn't new, but their latest iteration of the Vive was certainly sexy looking enough to pique my interest.
Parrot Disco put a new spin on the increasingly popular drone category with a unit that even your mother could operate. Once in the air, it autonomously flies and can shoot video from high above. Perhaps this could be the next iteration of GPS for teenagers.
It was the year of the connected car and kudos to Chevrolet for teaming up with Apple and Google to create an infotainment auto system that rivals most high-end homes.
Connected health devices were everywhere – this category seems to hold true benefit for consumers, but questions around data and privacy remain unanswered for some.
But there was a silver lining to this year’s event: progress. All of the technologies that in recent years have been the ones to blow our minds – virtual and augmented reality, ubiquitous connected devices, drones, etc – are not just dreams anymore. In fact, I was very impressed with the number of media companies and brands who have started to test and learn (and, for some, thrive) with these new technologies.
So instead of a focus on the future, the real magic of CES this year was showcasing how accessible new technologies and innovation are for marketers. Not only is this a practical benefit, but considering how many marketing organizations are transforming themselves around digital-led efforts, now is an optimal time for modern marketers to embrace these new opportunities available to them.
And while I’m barely finished unpacking from this year’s trip to Vegas and haven’t yet caught up on sleep, I’m already excited about planning for next year’s event because it still is one of the best places to disconnect from virtual this and connected that to engage in some serious amounts of actual-reality fun.
Anne Bologna is chief strategy officer at iCrossing