CES 2022 Day 1 Recap
Welcome to our daily recap of CES 2022! Today was the first official day of the event, filled with a lot of excitement and interesting discoveries from the Vegas show floors. Along with our sibling agency MAGNA Global, we presented a full slate of content sessions today that brought our unique perspectives on the latest innovation trends to the IPG family.
Chad Stoller, UM’s Global Chief Innovation Officer and resident futurist, kicked off our CES content sessions with a high-level overview on the most noteworthy trends in consumer tech and innovation this year, specially those in healthcare, entertainment, and home services. He also highlighted a number of interesting products on display at CES this year, including the LG Media Chair, Masonite’s all-in-one smart door, the Ecovacs self-cleaning robot vacuum, John Deere’s autonomous tractor, the Mojo smart contact lenses for bikers, and “the world’s smallest 100W gallium nitride wall charger” made by Anker.
Taken together, these cutting-edge gadgets and appliances represent the general direction in which the consumer technology industry has been evolving — more autonomous, more immersive, and more convenient — and it is up to us marketers to figure out how that will continue to shape consumer behavior and media attention.
In the afternoon, members of the Lab team presented two “Future of…” category disruption reports as well as a comprehensive virtual tour of the “must-see” products and exhibitors from the show floors. Richard Yao, our content manager, walked us through why he believes the future of entertainment content will be omnichannel, interactive, collaborative, and global.
Katy Geisreiter, our strategy manager, followed up with her insightful takes on the future of healthcare, explaining how the rise of medical-grade home medical devices, telehealth services, and immersive fitness equipment are ushering in a new era that puts consumers in control of their health.
Closing out our first day of CES content session, the entire Lab team collaborated to put together a 90-minute-long virtual tour that dissected the six key sectors of this year’s exhibition and analyzed their brand implications. Ben Hone, our director of client service, introduced the tour with a summary of the key cross-category trends (metaverse, creator economy, products that offer “peace of mind,” etc) and how they are playing out on the show floor. Different Lab team members then presented our deep dives into digital health, smart home, smart city, the future of mobility, the future of work and creator economy, and the startup scene in the Eureka Park.
As usual, recordings of all our content sessions will be available for IPG employees and our clients by inquiry. Please reach out to Ben Hone ([email protected]) to request a link if you missed any of these presentations and wish to catch up.
GM Keynote Recap
Following the fun but unsubstantial Samsung keynote from last night, CEO of General Motor (GM) , Mary Barra, took the CES stage on Wednesday morning to extol her company’s grand vision for a mobility future led by, first and foremost, electric vehicles.
Appearing virtually to kick off her pre-recorded keynote presentation, Barra emphasized how GM’s Ultium EV platform is enabling the company to reimagine how people and goods are moved at a scale that will help achieve a zero-emission future.
During the keynote, Barra and other GM executives restated the company’s goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, announced its commitment to release 30 electric vehicles by 2025, and offered some updates on BrightDrop, the last-mile delivery unit GM launched last year.
Following up on the sustainability theme that Samsung leaned heavily on in its keynote, GM made a strong case for the necessity of transitioning into an EV-led future. While the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV was reportedly the star at GM’s CES booth, Barra also teased two more electric SUVs that are coming to dealerships soon.
As for BrightDrop, GM doubled down on its collaborative partnerships with both FedEx and Walmart to test its EV last-mile delivery vehicles and logistics system. Both partnerships have been announced before CES, but executives from the three companies all reaffirmed their commitment to decarbonize last-mile delivery by ordering thousands of electric delivery vans from BrightDrop.
Barra closed out her keynote by sharing some information on GM’s upcoming Ultra Cruise autonomous driving tech, which promises “door-to-door, hands-free” driving even on city streets and local roads. This is a massive leap over GM’s current Super Cruise system, which started to make its way to more GM vehicles in 2021. Ultra Cruise will be exclusive to Cadillac to start, and it’s the upcoming Celestiq flagship sedan will be the first vehicle to include the system, Barra said.
Surprisingly missing from this GM keynote was any update on its EV charging system. Unlike Tesla or Volkswagen, GM does not own its own EV charging network; instead, the company opts to rely on a patchwork of third-party charging services, such as Blink, ChargePoint, EVgo, Flo, Greenlots, and SemaConnect. Most recently, the company announced in November that it plans to triple the size of EVgo’s charging network by 2025.
Most car buyers skeptical of purchasing an EV fret over the lack of charging infrastructure. In fact, nearly 3 in 5 U.S. adults surveyed in 2021 cited the inconvenience of finding nearby charging stations as a major reason for not buying an EV or hybrid car in the next 10 years. To truly help us transition into a more sustainable EV future, the automakers will need to come up with a more proactive approach to address this common consumer concern.
Notable CES Announcements
Amazon Fire TV is coming to Ford SUVs in 2022 [Engadget]
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BMW will use Amazon’s Fire TV to power an 8K backseat ‘Theater Screen’ [Engadget]
As connected cars went mainstream, our cars are quickly becoming media rooms on wheels, and streaming platform owners have naturally started the land grab. Amazon won this round with two high-profile partnerships that will see its Fire TV system being integrated into the back seats of upcoming Ford and BMW vehicles. Your next road trips may be filled with binge-watching as much as your special Spotify playlists. Now advertisers need to figure out how to ensure branded content shows up on these in-vehicle media moments.
Related: Volvo is bringing YouTube and Google Home integration to its vehicles [CNET]
HTC is launching a VR wrist tracker for its Vive Focus 3 headset [Road to VR]
VR is recently enjoying a bit of a revival in attention thanks to its association with the metaverse (largely due to Meta’s need to justify keeping throwing money at Oculus — but I digress.) And this CES, some of the dormant VR makers are making a splash again. As part of a larger suite of new features HTC revealed at CES, including a 5G-powered VR experience, this new wrist tracker for its Vive Focus 3 headset caught my attention, because it further complicates the user experience of VR. According to the Verge, this smartwatch-like tracker is designed to complement the business-focused headset’s existing controllers, particularly for simulation and training experiences where body position is important. This will obviously be great for more kinetic gaming and fitness experiences, but I also wonder what other use cases they could unlock.
Related: Sony confirmed the name of PSVR 2 and device specs, but no details on pricings or release date [CNET]; The first VR Headset from CES 2022 is the lightweight, MicroOLED MeganeX [VR Focus]
Samsung showcases a metaverse concept called My House [The Verge]
Continuing the trend of ill-defined metaverse concepts popping up everywhere at this CES, Samsung today opened up the virtual doors to its My House metaverse experience. Created in collaboration with Zepeto, a metaverse platform, My House is essentially a customizable digital home accessible through the Zepetto app, complete with a Second Life-like UI design. The digital space is unsurprisingly filled with Samsung’s latest TVs and customizable home appliances, but overall it feels like a virtual booth for product demos, which is a rather limited application of the metaverse concept. But then again, you gotta start somewhere, and this My House experience does fit well with the hybrid approach of this CES.
Related: At CES, Hyundai sees Boston Dynamics robots as a part of the metaverse [CNET]; At CES 2022, Beauty brands begin to step into the metaverse [Digiday]
Cool CES Discoveries
BMW’s color changing car concept works just like an e-reader [Engadget]
A car that can change its exterior color with the push of a button? That should come in handy if you ever find yourself in a cinematic car chase sequence. Jokes aside, this is a pretty cool application of the e-ink technology that has already been in the market with the many e-ink readers and tablets. With personalization being a top-of-mind preference for many consumers, the freedom of choice opens the door for more dynamic personalization.
Razer’s Enki Pro HyperSense can jig to the beat of your games [The Verge]
Razer, a premium gamer gear company, is set on making your gaming experience more immersive with this new chair that can vibrate and wobble to the action happening in your games. Razer collaborated with D-Box, maker of those 4DX moving seats in some movie theaters, to incorporate the haptics and movements into the Enki Pro HyperSense. If this CES is anything to judge by, the cottage industry of gaming furniture is only getting better and crazier.
What to Expect for Day 2
Tomorrow, Abbott Labs, the company behind the popular BinaxNOW at-home Covid test kit, will become the first-ever healthcare company to deliver a CES keynote. In the afternoon, I suggest keep your eyes out for these three conference sessions: Content to Commerce: How Technology Flipped the Customer Experience, The Future of Transportation is Driven by Tech, and Voice and the Metaverse.
In addition, the Lab and MAGNA will continue our joint CES content sessions with three great disruption reports on the future of mobility, at-home economy, and the way we work. And our partnerships team will close out the day with two partner sessions. Check the schedule for tomorrow’s slate at https://ces.interpublic.com/events/Thursday
All of our content sessions are invite-only. Be sure to get in touch with our Director of Client Services, Ben Hone ([email protected]), if you’re interested.
As always, we will be sending out daily CES recaps till the show closes on Friday, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter at www.ipglab.com or reach out to Richard Yao ([email protected]).
This has been a special CES edition of the Lab Weekly newsletter. We hope you enjoyed the news and insights we bring you. Let us know what you think!