1-17-2014
Another edition of the Consumer Electronics Show is in the books and it's time to reflect on what was learned from the experience.
The show has always been a guiding point to important takeaways that can be applicable in our everyday radio life. This year, every facet of CES comes back to connectivity, no matter what brand we are thinking about.
Wearable devices seemed to be the big story this year at CES and this marked my first event that I attended that Google Glasses were semi-prevalent. I actually saw someone looking hideously weird wearing Google Glasses on top of their own glasses. Can you say ?super nerd??
This year?s show also continued the trend of being a car show where automotive companies show off their new technology. Frequently, you could hear some variation of discussion from presenters about some form of self-driving mobility coming in our lifetime. BMW was touting its "Auto Drive "Capabilities. Ford talked about its "Adaptive Cruise Control." Mercedes highlighted its capabilities around "predictive user experience."
We are not only talking about a car that drives but now the manufacturers talk about "car physics."
If you want to see the next generation of mobility, look at Zoox.com and you'll see one of the companies that is certainly seeing the future. They would make The Jetsons proud!
Here are some thoughts that, hopefully, you'll find valuable after my CES experience:
1) We need to have a thirst for deeper behavioral understanding
To me this key starting point matches the goal of many of the exhibition companies and how they pursue their business ventures. They seek, through behavioral analysis research, the best "real-life experience data" that guides them on the final creation of the product.
So, as I was privileged to be walking the convention floor with Nielsen Audio?s Dr. Ed Cohen, we both took into account our own behavioral questions: when we saw things in the kitchen-aid category that included a Whirlpool refrigerator with Blue Tooth speakers, or the "smart refrigerators" which gave you exact readouts of what?s in the fridge.
Are these products part of an over-connected cultural fad or will they catch on and become habit? Let's see where the category of smart refrigerators is in popularity next year at this time.
If we in radio can be stronger in data interpretation, both in the raw number that Nielsen provides, and in the other metrics that matter, we can better serve our clients and customers.
2) Generosity in sharing
There is a spirit and a generosity in sharing that seems to be prevalent at CES. Maybe it?s the daze we all get in from the sensory overload that disarms us, but among attendees and journalists there appears to be generosity in sharing.
The shared experience among those in attendance is a great communal vibe of best-and-brightest experts.
As you ponder how to be better in your own job, finding ways to manage and expand your own network of the best-and-brightest is a great place to focus.
3) Make your street team brilliant
The street teams that circle CES are all fun and beautiful (male and female). Their nuisance factor is minimized and they carry the image and vibe of the brand very well.
As we fight to stand out, we have to challenge this specific point at our radio station. Do you have your full-timers on their A game when they work the street? (Do they even have an A game?)
Just as you want your street team to take their appearance (or the van?s appearance) seriously, do they take their physical appearance seriously? I didn't see one CES street-teamer shoveling food into his mouth while finishing his cigarette on his break.
4) Curiosity
Nolan Bushnell talked about how events like CES nurture your curiosity and how critical that factor is to further breakout thinking.
Wandering over 2 million-square-feet of convention space with 150,000 of your nerdy best friends, you see people of all shapes and sizes and multicultural background, all on a curiosity mission.
There is no one code to be cracked.
Just being around smart and different people with a curious backbone makes us sharper.
As Nolan said about CES and tradeshows in general, "Surround yourself in areas where your mind is being creatively challenged, and tradeshows are one of these...that represent the best and the newest of an industry. Collections of talent and creative people...they plasticize your brain just a little but."
5) Partnerships
A partnership mentality seems to grow every year at CES, the examples of which are too numerous to mention. Everywhere we look companies are finding and succeeding with integration philosophies that produce win/wins for both parties. Who can you partner with to create another product/product category or to enhance existing products? Some partnerships might have no immediate financial or strategic reward today but can or will in the future. Let's be willing to take that risk with an eye on honing partnerships for the future.
CES is all about seeing the future, and the future is in partnerships.
6) Innovation incubation
Failing fast and cheap while increasing innovation incubation is key to our long-term success. Sometimes this incubation occurs after following someone who is or has already tried something and gotten there first.
That?s okay, as long as you put your take on the project/harmonize it with your brand and make it better. Studying the Google innovation process is interesting because many times they aren't first into the category but they figure their own spin and execution and their own definable difference.
We should all be motivated from CES innovation and at the very least set small but realistic goals to grow.
7) Nurture your own professional alliances
Professional alliances grow the knowledge base of individuals and organizations and CES is a driver of this for me. Many existing relationships have gotten stronger as a result of the event, and it?s also afforded me the opportunity to create some new ones.
8) Simplicity
Going to CES reminds me that simplicity and ease of use are important for everything that we undertake with our brands. Whether it?s a promotion, a digital initiative, or a device, it has to be easy to use and easy to understand. Bells and whistles are great but if the user experience is clunky it makes for a negative experience.
Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.
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