The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held annually every January, is one of the most important tech events worldwide. It offers a prime platform for brands to connect with buyers, consumers, media, and other industry professionals. A major highlight of the event is the awards program, which provides a significant opportunity to gain visibility.
You’ve likely heard of the CES Innovation Awards, which recognize cutting-edge products in various categories. Unfortunately, the window for these submissions closed months ago, but keep it on your radar for CES 2028, as the deadline typically comes around in late August.
But let’s shift focus to CES 2027. There are numerous other awards programs that will be announced leading up to January.
CES is held every January, which means the awards cycle you can still act on is the CES 2027 one, and it is open now.
That timing matters more than anything else on this page. The Innovation Awards, run by CES itself, close far earlier than exhibitors expect, typically many months before the show opens. The publication awards and the paid picks programs run later, through the fall and into the weeks immediately before the show, and several stay open until only days before the doors open. If you are reading this in the second half of the year, some of those windows are open right now and at least one has probably already closed.
So treat everything below as a live checklist rather than background reading, and verify each program’s current deadline and entry fee on its own page before you plan around it. Award programs change their dates, their categories and their pricing from one year to the next, and a deadline copied from last year’s guide is the most expensive kind of wrong. Every program named here publishes its own current terms. Check them, then work backwards from the earliest one.
Key Takeaways
- CES runs every January, so the cycle that matters now is CES 2027 and the Innovation Awards are already accepting entries for it.
- The CES Innovation Awards close far earlier than the show, historically around late August, which is why brands miss them.
- Several of the most useful CES awards are free to enter. The cost is submission time, not a fee, which makes them the obvious first move.
- Publication awards from outlets like Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, Android Central and Techlicious open in the fall and close in the weeks around the show.
- Category choice often matters more than product strength, because judging happens within a category and a thin category is easier to stand out in.
- An award is a credential for a retail buyer meeting, not just a trophy, and it is worth what you do with it afterward.
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Which CES Awards are Worth Entering, and in What Order
There are more CES awards than a small team can enter well, and entering everything badly is worse than entering three things properly. Here is how to triage them.
Start with the free publication awards. Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, Android Central, Techlicious, Android Authority and SoundGuys, GamesRadar, Laptop, T3, What Hi-Fi, Windows Central and the rest cost you nothing but submission time. There is no financial downside, the judges are editors who may end up writing about you anyway, and a win from a publication your buyer’s shoppers actually read carries real weight. Do these first, and do as many as genuinely fit your category.
Then assess the paid programs against what you need. The CES Picks Awards run through industry publications, and each one reaches a different audience: TWICE covers the tech and consumer electronics trade, Residential Systems covers the custom installation market, and TechRadar Pro reaches both business and consumer readers. Before paying, ask what you want from it. If the answer is press coverage in front of the specific audience that buys your category, the fee may be well spent. If the answer is a trophy for the booth, it probably is not. Pick the publication whose readers are your buyers, not the one with the biggest name.
Treat the Innovation Awards as a separate planning exercise. They carry the most weight of anything on this list, and they also have the earliest deadline by a wide margin. If you are reading this in the fall, the window for the next show may already have closed, which means you are planning for the cycle after. That is not a failure, it is how the program works. Put the deadline in your calendar a full year ahead and build the submission while the product is still in development.
Match the program to the product. A consumer gadget benefits from the consumer publications, where a win turns into gift guides and buying advice that shoppers read. A component, a platform or a business-to-business product gets far more from the trade publications, where the readers are integrators, installers and buyers. Entering the wrong list is not neutral, it costs you the submission time you could have spent on the right one.
A practical running order: free publication awards first, Innovation Awards planned a cycle ahead, one paid program chosen for audience rather than prestige, and nothing else unless you have someone whose job it is to manage submissions.
CES Picks Awards – Not Free, But Worth the Investment
The CES Picks Awards, organized by leading industry publications, are among the most notable awards tied to CES. These awards are put on by three major outlets: TWICE, Residential Systems, and TechRadar Pro.
Early bird pricing is available at $695 through the middle of November, with the final entry deadline set for mid December. To participate, you’ll need to select the publication that aligns best with your target audience. Here’s a quick guide to each:
- TWICE: Focused on B2B coverage of the tech and consumer electronics industries.
- Residential Systems: Specializes in B2B coverage of the custom installation market.
- TechRadar Pro: A broad tech publication catering to both B2B and B2C audiences.
Pro Tip: Write and photograph one submission package the week your product is final, then adapt it for each program rather than starting fresh each time. Judges and editors are reading text and images long before anyone touches the product, so studio shots, a clean one-line description and a single verifiable claim do most of the work. Produce that once and you can enter eight programs in an afternoon.
CES Award Programs at a Glance
| Program | Cost | Typical timing | Best for |
| CES Innovation Awards | Paid entry | Closes months before the show, historically around late August | Products with a genuine technical or design first |
| CES Picks Awards | Paid entry, early bird pricing available | Entries through the fall, closing in December | Brands wanting trade press reach in a named category |
| Publication Top Picks awards | Free | Open in the fall, close around the show | Any exhibitor with finished product and good photography |
| Best of CES | Editorial selection, no entry | Judged at the show | Exhibitors with a working demo on the floor |
Free Awards – Open for Entries in Q4
Yes, you read that right—some of the most prestigious CES awards are entirely free to enter!
Every year, Android Authority and SoundGuys partner up for their Best of CES Awards, which highlight top consumer products in categories such as audio, smart home, fitness technology, and more. Products must be announced within a few weeks of CES and should be consumer-focused to qualify.
The good news is that free entries for these awards are already open, with a submission deadline at the end of December.
Techlicious also typically runs its own Top Picks of CES Awards, which have just opened with entry through the end of December.
Pro Tip: Put every award deadline for the cycle in one calendar with a reminder two weeks before each, the day you decide to exhibit. The free publication awards close in a compressed window between late December and the first days of January, when a small team is on holiday and then in show prep. Almost every missed entry is a missed date rather than a rejected submission.
Other Free CES Awards from Top Publications
In addition to the Android Authority and SoundGuys awards, several other well-known outlets frequently host their own CES awards, often with no entry fee. These publications include:
- Tom’s Guide
- TechRadar
- Android Central
- GamesRadar
- iMore
- Laptop
- PC Gamer
- PC Pro
- Tom’s Hardware
- T3
- What Hi-Fi?
- Windows Central
Pro Tip: Read last cycle’s winners in the category you plan to enter before you write a word. You will see immediately whether that category rewards technical novelty, design, or a price breakthrough, and whether your product is a plausible winner or a filler entry. If every past winner is a category leader and you are launching, enter a narrower category instead.
What Separates a Winning Submission from a Rejected One
Editors and judges read a lot of entries in a short time, in a category, under deadline. Understanding what that reading is actually like changes how you write the submission.
They are looking for what is new, not what is good. A well-made product that does what the category already does will not win. The entry has to name the thing that did not exist before, in the first sentence, in plain language. If the novelty takes a paragraph to explain, it is not landing.
Category choice decides more than product quality. A strong product in a crowded category loses to an adequate one in a thin category, every year. Read the category list carefully and think about where your product is most distinctive rather than where it most obviously belongs. If two categories are both defensible, pick the less contested one.
The submission is judged as text and images before anyone touches the product. Most judges will never hold it. What they see is your first sentence, your description and your photography, which means the photography is not a formality. Clean, well-lit images that show what the product is and how it is used carry more weight than the specification sheet. The same applies to any demonstration video: short, clear, and showing the thing working.
Every claim has to be verifiable. A judge who cannot confirm something will discount it rather than ask. Say what the product does and what it is made of. Avoid superlatives you cannot back, because the ones that cannot be checked make the ones that can look weaker.
Timing is the requirement people miss. Most programs require the product to be announced within a defined window around the show, and most require it to be a consumer product, available or nearly available. Read the eligibility rules before you write anything, not after.
Have your press materials ready before you find out. A win generates a short burst of interest, and the brands that convert it are the ones with images, a press release and a spokesperson ready to go. If you learn you have won and then start writing a press release, the window is mostly gone. The award is worth what you do with it.
What to do with a CES Award after You Win It
For a brand selling into retail, an award is not the outcome. It is a credential, and it is the scarcest thing a new product brand can bring into a buyer meeting: someone with no stake in your success has publicly said your product is good.
Use it where a buyer will see it. On the sell sheet, near the top, with the publication named. On the packaging, if the program permits it, because it does work on a shelf next to a brand the shopper already knows. In the first line of an outreach email, because it is the one thing in that email a stranger has a reason to believe. Before any of that, read the licensing terms. Most programs specify exactly how the badge may be used, for how long, at what size and on what materials, and some restrict packaging use entirely. Getting that wrong is an unnecessary problem.
Quote the publication rather than the award where the publication has more recognition with that buyer. A category buyer may not follow a specific awards program, but they know which publications their shoppers read, and “chosen by” a title they recognize means more than an award name they do not. Match the citation to the audience.
And use it as a reason to go back. A buyer who passed on your product six months ago is not going to reopen the conversation on their own, and a polite check-in with nothing new in it gets ignored. A win is new information. It gives you a legitimate reason to email again, with something to say, and it signals that the product has moved since they last looked. Brands that enter awards and then never mention them again have bought an expense. Brands that plan the follow-up before they submit have bought a sales tool.
It’s also worth noting that some awards remain open for entry as late as January 2nd, so stay vigilant and be sure to check for new opportunities in the days leading up to CES. We wish you success at your 2027 CES showcase.
If you’re ready to bring your product into major retailers but need help navigating the process, Retailbound can guide you every step of the way. Schedule a free consultation with one of our retail experts and discover how to get your product retail-ready, connect with the right buyers, and drive long-term retail growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CES award?
It covers several separate things. The CES Innovation Awards are run by the show’s organizer and judged before the event from a paid submission. CES Picks is a separate paid program tied to trade publications. A large number of outlets also run their own Top Picks of CES awards, most of them free to enter, and Best of CES is an editorial selection made at the show itself.
How do you get invited to CES?
CES is not invitation-only for exhibitors. Brands book exhibit space through the organizer, and attendees register, with badge types and access varying by category. If your question is really about getting noticed once you are there, the award programs described here are the cheapest way to arrive with something to point at.
Is CES still relevant today?
For a product brand the useful version of that question is who you expect to meet there. CES concentrates buyers, distributors and technology press in one week, which is what makes it worth the cost for a brand that has something to show. If you have no finished product and no meetings booked, the answer is different.
CES innovation award application deadline
The Innovation Awards close well before the show, historically around late August for a January event, which is why so many exhibitors find the window shut. Check the current application information page for the exact date each cycle rather than relying on last year’s, because the date moves.
Are there free CES awards to enter?
Yes, and they are the obvious starting point. A number of technology publications run their own Top Picks of CES programs that cost nothing to enter, opening in the fall and closing in the weeks around the show. The only cost is the time to prepare the submission, which you can reuse across every program.
About The Author
Yohan Jacob, President and Founder of Retailbound, leads a retail channel management consultancy that supports brands in over 150 retailers across North America. His team specializes in retail strategy, sales presentations, buyer engagement, and long-term retail expansion. Yohan was also the judge for both the 2025 and 2026 CES Innovation Awards.
