While consumer brands are gearing up for the holiday season, many are looking even further ahead to the consumer tech event of the year – the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Hosted in Las Vegas in January every year, the dynamic show brings together thousands of companies and professionals, spotlighting the latest innovations and products in the consumer tech industry.
With deep expertise in consumer tech, our team at Bolt PR has participated in CES for years, both on the client and brand side, as well as members of the media. We know firsthand the impact of the event with the proper planning and strategy to place brands in front of the right attendees. As a major marketing investment, this strategy, coupled with an experienced partner, can ensure brands can fully capitalize on their attendance and demonstrate a measurable ROI.
Prior to attending, brands should identify key goals and objectives for their participation. Whether launching a new product or meeting with key stakeholders and partners, brands should set expectations for what they want to accomplish and what is feasible at such a large expo. Additionally, these focus areas and benchmarks should guide the overall event strategy and approach, as well as necessary preparations to set up the brand for success.
WHERE TO START PLANNING FOR CES
Keeping those core goals and objectives in mind, brands should craft a custom event strategy for a targeted and streamlined approach to their CES participation. CES is a widely attended event, so understanding how to effectively engage with attendees, from media to stakeholders, will ultimately determine your success. At Bolt PR, we work with companies to customize these strategies to ensure they’re able to capitalize on time and money spent at CES. Depending on the brand’s goals, the strategy should detail the target audience for meetings, key materials needed for those conversations, such as product one-sheets, press releases, or demos, and a strategic approach with custom messaging to help brands stand out in a crowded event landscape.
For the media in particular, it’s important to recognize that they’re hearing from hundreds of brands for the event, so utilizing a relevant and timely approach, coupled with strong relationships with industry media, is vital to securing interest and ultimately meetings. In addition to capturing their attention, brands must ensure that these meetings are worthwhile, providing impactful product demonstrations wherever possible, as well as offering simple takeaways, such as a one-sheet or a brochure, that capture top product features. This makes it easy for media to include top-level product information in any potential coverage during or following the event.
While media will be in attendance for the event, other core audiences can be valuable to connect with from a business perspective. For partnerships, brands should evaluate current or potential brand partners that will also be in attendance, evaluating opportunities for cross-promotion as well as strategic relationship building. For potential partners, brands should set up meetings or offer complimentary meals/happy hours to entertain potential partners, showcasing their company and product offerings in a more casual setting. Crafting and executing these opportunities require creativity and expertise. At Bolt PR, we’ve coordinated a variety of partnership activations, meetings and setups during CES to further amplify participation and deepen partnerships.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR CES
Once you’ve crafted your strategy, it’s time to get to work building out the necessary materials as you move closer to the execution phase. From press releases to one-sheets, brands should evaluate every touch point any key stakeholders will have with the brand before, during and after CES and ensure alignment and strength in messaging. In addition to more strategic marketing materials – don’t forget to consider branded swag that can be handed out to any attendee. Items such as Koozies, AirPod cases, pens, portable chargers, hats and more can be easily branded and given out to attendees for additional marketing and branding opportunities. Moreover, brands might consider hosting a giveaway campaign to drive engagement and grow their email marketing list as an extra touch point following the event. Every asset that is onsite should provide value to your attendance.
As the event nears, brands must have a strategy to put their preparation into action. Every touchpoint with stakeholders, as well as media, prior to the event must be effective to set the brand up for success once they arrive at the event. Securing on-target meetings and crafting preparation materials, such as backgrounders and schedules, will determine the flow and overall success of the brand’s time at CES.
HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT CES
Once onsite, brands should have dedicated team members to facilitate these meetings for successful execution. This includes making thoughtful introductions when the media member or potential partner arrives, participating in the meeting to capture any follow-up questions or next steps and ensuring a smooth transition from each meeting. In addition, these team members should be ready to adapt schedules based on delays, as well as coordinate any impromptu meetings that occur due to interested parties spotting the booth or product. Through a partnership with Bolt PR, we remove this burden from internal teams, allowing them to focus on the brand itself, while we fully manage meeting management and execution.
Finally, once the event has wrapped, it might be easy to think the work is complete, but as we know, that’s when it is really just beginning. Brands should quickly recap how the event went, identify high-priority follow ups and effectively act on any leads or opportunities. Brands should also take the time to capture key learnings from the event, including what worked and what didn’t for future events. Finally, there’s a reason the phrase, “Strike while the iron is hot,” is so popular, and CES is the time to do this. Media, stakeholders, and partners should hear from brands post-event to expand on the time granted during CES. Effective execution of this requires a partner who not only knows how to do this, but also how to carry this momentum beyond the event.
This guest blog post was provided by the team over at Bolt PR, a top-notch PR agency that has been in business since 2007 and has over 210 years of combined experience in the PR world. If you are looking to maximize your company’s brand at or after CES, contact Bolt PR today to get a quote.
