CES 2023 Takeaways
What a year for CES, the global stage for innovation. The event had more than 115,000 attendees and more than 3,200 exhibitors.
Whether you were exhibiting at the show, walking the aisles, or couldn’t attend CES this year, we have a full recap for you. The trend-setting event is one of the best places to gather insights, an industry pulse, and true inspiration.
Our Top 13 Takeaways
1. Go with the fully immersive experience when possible. The brands on the show floor that truly had floor-to-ceiling immersive experiences were the ones that made your jaw drop. We know this can add up quickly from a budgetary perspective; however, if you’re trying to engage an audience, this is one fantastic way to do so. Kudos to VinFast, LG, Mercedes-Benz, and Canon for their immersive experiences.
2. Arches are a thing right now. From a design perspective, arches draw you in, especially if they’re accented with lighting, movement, and depth. Brands were touting arches all over the place at CES and for good reason. We especially loved Power Electronics, Luminar, and Brunswick.
3. Stand out with a thoughtful accent piece, no matter the size or scale of your exhibit. An accent piece gives your audience something to draw them in, admire, and linger longer. We loved seeing Hisense incorporate a water feature and the US Post Office showcasing a massively beautiful hanging box chandelier.
4. People don’t just want to look and talk about your company; they want to EXPERIENCE it. Z-Wave Alliance had a smart home with tours to show how their products make your life smarter. Countless automotive companies had virtual driving experiences. And Hutech had massage chairs for attendees.
5. Holographic 3D content was seen throughout the show and was stunning every time. HYPERVSN did an excellent job simulating a holographic robot, birds, and anyone who wanted to try it out could be projected as 3D content. If you haven’t seen this technology in person, now is the time; photos don’t do it justice.
6. Textures and colors are always on the move. We saw tons of matte black, raw wood, slat walls, and greenery, as expected. Brands like Nordic Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Keysight Technologies, and Microsoft all incorporated some or all of these.
7. Content is so critical. We’ll say it again; content is so critical. Do not skimp on this, be thoughtful, direct, and captivating. Whether you’re producing an entire video wall or thinking through what messaging to put on the front or back of your exhibit space, it must be intentional, or your audience might completely miss your point. Mobileye won the content game with the most interesting massive (is an understatement) LED wall. The flat wall showcased content that made you understand that they are all about mobility, and often the content made the LED look rounded and not flat – indeed, an optical illusion. Gentex Corporation did a great job with their simple-to-understand message that said, “cabin monitoring & sensing” – you know what they do from looking at their space; there was no questioning what they offer.
8. Use unique assets and environments to make a big splash and draw people in. A standing ovation goes to CARIAD (a Volkswagen Group Company) for the cool and creative use of shipping containers. These were beautiful, and brilliant, and had lots of people taking pictures and wanting to go inside. Another kudos to Mercedes-Benz USA (they were included yesterday in our recap) for using mirrors that made their environment feel premium, expansive, and straight-up sexy.
9. Lead capture. If you are not thinking about capturing leads at your brand events, we encourage you that this is almost always worth the investment. Every solid brand that we connected with at CES wanted to scan our badges; they understand the sales funnel and how connecting with a company on the show floor should lead to more engagement off the show floor. Bridgestone Americas, Togg, Touchcast, and Dassault Systèmes understand the importance of capturing their audience’s contact information to drive their business forward, measure impact, and connect with attendees.
10. Movement gives the impression that things are active, interesting, and something to engage with – be sure your space isn’t static. Kohler Co. had running water from the top of the exhibit to the bottom. Reliably Smart projected lights onto a matte surface. And Bridgestone Americas and GIGABYTE had running lights to simulate movement and action.
11. Do something different; even if it’s a little weird, people will remember your brand. motionpillow did a fantastic job with their 80s rockers and guitars. 10Minds Co was memorable with their full-sized sloth walking around wanting to take photos with people. Togg built a river into their exhibit space, and Oceaneering brought in a tram to sit in and walk through.
12. Both large-scale and small-scale theatres to tell a brand’s story and products were alive and well at CES. Hyundai MOBIS, Mercedes-Benz USA, and VINFAST were just a few of the many who had theatres.
13. And last, robots. They were everywhere to help highlight products, encourage people into exhibits, and increase exhibit dwell time. HD Hyundai leveraged robots to demonstrate their passion for a cleaner planet. Robots were everywhere, but HD Hyundai did it best, in our opinion.
We hope our NPARALLEL recap was helpful for you. If you plan to exhibit at CES in 2024, we’d love to help you create an experience based on best practices, cutting-edge trends, and seamless support from our team.