Martin at #CES2016

We sent a group to the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to get our hands on the latest gadgets, hear talks from leading thinkers in the industry, gamble with agency money (kidding), and debate about the future of our civilization.

We’ve summarized our takeaways from the show below. Now that we’ve gotten some key themes on digital paper, we’ll shift our attention to take action and apply these insights to shift how our brands leverage trends and technology to create more meaningful connections with consumers.

Let’s do it.

The value of innovation

There’s a clear tension underwriting most innovations and enhancements: Is it necessary? Is an innovation solving a real problem and adding value into someone’s life, or is it further removing us from our own reasoning skills and ability to make independent decisions?

Being connected doesn’t make something smart or helpful. True connectivity is leveraging technology to enrich someone’s life. The same filter can be applied to how brands think about designing their own footprint in the world. Are you existing just to exist or have you created a distinct value proposition? Are you creating content because you think you should or because you understand how people are engaging with it and why they care?

Let’s make sure we never let the pursuit of a smart thing overshadow a smart story.

Convenience vs. Character

There’s a sliding scale that defines experiences, with convenience and character at opposite ends of the spectrum. Convenience promises standardization. Character doesn’t. How powerful is the pull of unpredictability in an experience? How much do consumers desire that uncontrollable “character” and how comfortable are you with it as a marketer?

This got us thinking: do decisions about where your brand or products fall on this spectrum define disruption? Is doing something unexpected simply a function of changing the perception of where on this spectrum your customers predict your next innovation to land?

Maybe. Or perhaps each product, touch-point and piece of content can dial up different elements based on why you’re creating it. Thinking about this issue will be at the center of how brands connect with people in 2016 and beyond.

VR: The brave brands will win.

Holy $#!+ -- this space is ready for the mainstream and poised to explode. We saw some incredible demos of how VR and AR are evolving to provide immersive, transcendent experiences for the user. Most importantly, the need for content on these platforms is striking.

Creating branded narratives or integrations in this world is a massive opportunity for marketers to tell stories in new ways and stack talk-value experiences with innovative tech. Even if it doesn’t feel right for a brand strategically, the need for content in this new media is so big that consumers and platforms will welcome experimentation. Who will have the balls to make something awesome?

The pervasive question is around the weighted value of an interaction with a product that is unlike anything a consumer has seen before. How much closer do they feel to your brand after touching it in a fake world with hands that look and feel like their own? Much closer, we assume.

From NO to NOT YET

After the initial geeking out subsided, you overhear a lot of people at CES saying “is that possible?” Or “do we have the technology (camera/software/bandwidth) currently to support that?” A lot of times the answer is some version of yes. It’s a work in progress. It’s not a hard NO just a NOT YET. So in short (and for the sake of our work) let’s always assume anything is possible.

Remember to consider if the way we’re utilizing these endless possibilities is the best way to tell our brand’s story. Because while these technologies, innovations, and products may be shiny, they’re all serving a quite antiquated purpose. To ensure our brands remain relevant, useful and enjoyable in a world moving so fast we can barely keep up.

What is content?

Any touch-point where a brand can add value is content. TV spots are content as much as a customer service agent’s script. Unifying your voice and POV is a key aspect of making your content fulfill its potential and truly understand user experience is at the center of this planning/execution.

Customer + user experience is how you do things -- not what you make for them to experience. This concept has leaped out of the digital space and is now being applied to how we design everything that a brand does, both online and offline.

This can seem overwhelming, but the opportunity for differentiation lies in consistency with scale. To do this, we can start with establishing proper consumer journeys to identify the best places and ways to speak with our customers that makes the most impact. And of course, data is a major key to helping validate these journeys and communication touch-points. Use data to understand that some decisions may go against the trend and intuition, but will help validate the end result.

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For more content and observations from our time at #CES2016, visit: http://martinwhatstrending.tumblr.com/

Onward!