The Client Electronics Present could also be “the occasion that people like to hate,” as IAB CEO David Cohen put it to AdExchanger – nevertheless it’s nonetheless the place to be at first of each new yr.
CES, which takes place January 7 by January 10 in Las Vegas, had greater than 138,000 registered attendees final yr, which isn’t even the occasion’s file. It hit near 170,000 in 2015.
The commerce present ground can also be packed. There have been greater than 4,300 exhibitors final yr, up roughly 17% from a decade in the past.
With a lot noise, it may be exhausting for advert tech corporations to face out. In 2024, simply 4% of attendees – lower than 6,000 folks – have been within the promoting and advertising industries, in response to CES.
However as CES proudly proclaims on its exhibitor web site, “each firm is a tech firm” – and as anybody within the promoting business is aware of, the place there’s tech, there’s the potential for advert income.
It’s tech all the way in which down
For instance, one of many issues that excites Mike Brooks, international head of enterprise growth and partnerships at LG Advert Options, is the potential of “screens increasing into nontraditional environments,” in addition to shoppable TV advertisements and ad-supported CTV choices.
In fact, simply because a services or products includes a display doesn’t imply it ought to robotically embrace advertisements – very like not each product can justify the inclusion of synthetic intelligence. Not that you just’ll be capable to keep away from AI at CES, even for those who tried.
Final yr, roughly one-fifth – greater than 28,000 attendees – claimed to work in AI.
However for each inexplicably AI-powered toothbrush, there might also be a vertical AI product – which means one really constructed for a particular business activity – that could possibly be helpful to entrepreneurs, mentioned EDO president and CEO Kevin Krim.
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Or, within the phrases of Nancy Corridor, CEO of Mindshare North America: “There must be a core human perception on the middle of what you’re doing and actual worth to your viewers.”
CES vs CTV
In the meantime, CES additionally marks the unofficial starting of what one may consider because the CTV upfronts, months forward of linear TV’s annual advert shopping for season, Krim mentioned.
Which is why it’s not shocking that digital-first corporations with streaming choices, together with Amazon, YouTube and Roku, attend CES in pressure.
“Attending CES is a no brainer,” mentioned Sarah Harms, Roku’s VP of promoting, advertising and measurement.
But additionally count on extra conventional publishers comparable to NBCUniversal, Paramount and Disney to be there as effectively with programmatic shopping for and advert effectiveness on their thoughts.
“If I had to decide on one phrase that might be on repeat at CES, it might be: ‘Simple,’” mentioned Mark McKee, common supervisor at FreeWheel. “How are we making TV promoting straightforward to purchase, straightforward to handle, straightforward to validate, straightforward to indicate impression?”
A matryoshka of meetups
It’s additionally simpler to get face time with decision-makers at a present like CES. Persons are there to do offers.
Manufacturers, companies, publishers and advert tech platforms use CES as an excuse to convene their very own “present inside the present,” mentioned IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur, who isn’t attending this yr however has been at CES a number of occasions prior to now.
Many don’t even step foot within the conference area itself, as a substitute taking conferences and internet hosting displays at close by resort areas on the Las Vegas strip.
The place issues have modified in recent times is that corporations appear to be sending fewer representatives than they did prior to now.
One purpose could possibly be a hangover from pandemic-related disruptions. After being compelled to go digital solely in 2021, CES hasn’t but absolutely bounced again to its pre-COVID numbers.
However there’s additionally an easier rationalization: value.
”It’s not an affordable journey,” mentioned Katsur. “It has to make fiscal sense.”
