Tag: CES 2016
The luxury and technology sectors have traditionally viewed each other from afar. Luxury has gained its value from scarcity whereas technology generates more value when it is widely used. Over recent years, this distance has begun to shrink as technology has become ubiquitous. Just like every other sector, Luxury has been impacted by new technology and this year’s CES saw this trend continue. We at OMD have identified four mechanisms by which luxury and technology are becoming ever more intertwined.
Luxury – the new technology niche where style is a differentiator
Nokia spotted the niche of high-end luxury in consumer electronics with the introduction of the Vertu brand in 1998 while last year Apple accelerated this sector with the launch of the Apple Watch Edition, made from the highest quality materials.
A wider range of brands joined this trend at CES, focusing on not just the technical function of their product but also the luxurious design. One example is Huawei which has launched a line of watches embedded with Swarovski crystals. As technology becomes ever-present, growth will come from better servicing specific niches, some of which are happy to pay a significant premium for exclusivity.
To gain credibility in this space, technology brands are choosing to partner with luxury and fashion brands. Intel, for example, partnered with Chromat for a new engineered sports bra. We can expect to see many more partnerships between technology brands and brands from the fashion, style and luxury sectors at future CES events.
Luxury brands upgrading with technology
The other side of the coin is embedding technology in luxury products. A number of fashion and luxury brands appeared at CES this year, building on a small but growing, presence. Swarovski returned to CES with Get Fit In Style fitness tracking jewellery, a simple sensor embedded in everyday jewellery that reports back to a smartphone app.
Wisewear from Apfel also integrates notifications into smart jewellery. A pre-defined touch will alert another device of problems, such as a fall or a dangerous situation on a night out.
Many connected services gain most value if they are persistent and worn every day. Embedding technology invisibly in products we wear on a regular basis rather than a specialist technology, which may make the wearer feel self-conscious, is a far more effective approach.
Technology as a new luxury
Technology is pushing into new boundaries as the previously impossible becomes achievable, if a little expensive.
A number of very high-end technologies appeared at this year’s CES. Laundroid, a laundry folding system, is due to launch in 2017. This device takes clothing direct from the dryer and then folds and displays it neatly. Likewise, the LGStyler is a smart closet that automatically steams and cleans clothes.
Drones were another big theme at CES 2016. At the high-end, ehang showcased the 184, an autonomous vehicle designed to carry people. Whilst there are still many technical and liability hurdles to cross, we may soon see the era of personal aerial transportation in and around cities.
One day some of these technologies will be mass labour- and time-saving devices, but for now they will only appeal to the most exclusive niches. They will drive new levels of expectation and new opportunities for integration and partnership.
Luxury tech experiences
High-end hardware is not the only way to differentiate with technology. Luxury brands are also investing in luxury technology-based experiences and content.
Virtual Reality was a huge theme at CES, confidently stepping into the mainstream – for example, Oculus Rift launched its first consumer product alongside devices from Sony, Samsung and Google. Brands are now creating experiences to showcase products and content in a Virtual Reality environment. Whirlpool illustrated a vision of a futuristic high end kitchen using VR, whilst Dior has already released a branded headset for VR brand experiences.
We are at the dawn of an entirely new medium with VR; the very best experiences will require sophisticated technology. Luxury brands have the opportunity to make a powerful statement in this space, especially to showcase luxury real estate, travel and lifestyle.
Key takeaways
Technology continues to pervade our lives and every sector must account for new opportunities and disruptions. Luxury brands are learning to understand how their products and propositions are impacted by the huge range of accelerating technologies displayed at CES. This is achieved not by jumping on the latest technology bandwagon, but instead by refocusing on core brand attributes and understanding how technology can empower those concepts.
CES was born as a trade show for the consumer electronics industry. In 2016 more than half the show space was devoted to technologies that hardly existed five years ago.
Attendance at CES this year was over 170,000 people and many of those, like ourselves, were from adjacent sectors such as retail, finance, health, leisure and marketing services. They each wanted to understand what technology was ahead and what it means for their businesses.
Technologies such as the smart-home, the internet of things, fitness tech and 3D printing have been hot for a few years but are now maturing into competitive categories with significant disruption potential.
Ubiquitous home Wi-Fi and smartphone penetration, as well as the declining cost of sensors, has driven the connected smart-home market over the past few years. Lighting, security and energy management have proven to be the key use cases as many of us share common needs in our homes. This year the theme was interoperability as consumers demand that the various devices around their home talk to each other and deliver seamless services. A number of rival platforms and protocols were showcased at CES from Alljoyn to Gojee, Fibaro and Thread to name a few.
This market will need to consolidate over the next few years to avoid consumer confusion. Likewise, brands will need to navigate this complex landscape so that their propositions work with the most widely used, cost-effective and secure technologies.
The personal fitness and health technology area contrasts with the connected home as the use cases here are often highly specialised. Each sport now has a sensor to improve performance such as the Marlin swim sensor or EquiSense for equestrian enthusiast. As well as trackers, an array of specialised drones for enthusiasts, from hikers to skiers, were also on show. Our favourite was Lily, which automatically follows the user even when thrown off a nearby bridge.
Health is also managed and optimised by devices as diverse as gamified toothbrushes, smart pill dispensers, baby dream machines and a suit to simulate the experience of ageing.
Each of these will provide not just a service but also valuable personal data. Brands should seek to understand where that data can be of use to them in providing a better, more efficient more personalised experience for the consumer.
Technology and the fashion sector were brought more closely together. Samsung showcased the ‘Smart Suit’ and the Welt connected belt. Many devices were given a style upgrade as their looks became as important as their function. One such example was a fashion pendant that also act as a translation device. Smartwatches were found all over the show and other forms of jewellery are getting tech upgrades, such as WiseWear, that sends alerts from a bangle.
3D printing took a larger share of the show floor this year with huge advances in both the consumer and professional ends of the market. Prices are lowering at the consumer end and the capability to print in up to 50 different materials drove the high end.
One of the highlights of the OMD Oasis was a panel with the next generation of entrepreneurs, each under 21 with multiple start-ups behind them. They provided an inspirational look at how they utilised the technology around them from simple web search to 3D printing to create products as diverse as low-cost prosthetics, safer handguns and exhaust reduction technology. Their common thread was that their youth and inexperience proved to be a benefit as they looked at an existing problem with a fresh perspective.
One of the most high-profile technologies and probably the major theme of this year’s CES was Virtual Reality. The first consumer version of Oculus Rift went on sale and sold out within 15 minutes. VR is rapidly developing into a realistic market sector with high-end and value products and a range of peripherals.
At the OMD Ignition Factory start-up event we met The Void perhaps the most advanced and immersive VR experience yet in which consumer wears VR gear whilst exploring a physical maze-like environment.
2016 will be a critical year when brands can judge how much consumer potential there really is for this technology, will it be a profound shift on the scale of moving pictures one hundred years ago or a headache-inducing flash in the pan?
Laundroid is a laundry folding robot from Japan that takes clothes fresh from the drier and folds them neatly. It doesn’t launch until 2017 and will be a high-end product, we can be sure that costs will come down fast if the use case proves robust.
All sorts of robotics challenges were addressed at CES from how they move around to how we can talk to them. We saw a robot home bartender, multiple robot shop assistants and even a robot barbecue cleaner. We should expect to see many more robots appearing in our day-to-day lives over the next few years.
KEY TAKEAWAY
If it is a device you use today, CES has a connected version for it. Whether or not that connectivity is of any value is for the market to decide. This is the key point why marketing must take a more active role as these technologies need to be blended and designed around every day human challenges and opportunities.
At the OMD Oasis, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong stated that we need to focus on the ‘human operating system’. We need to think of people not just as the client of connected technologies but also a critical component. It is the consumer’s trust that needs to be earned to allow data to be shared. The best incentive to share that data is through more personalised and powerful messaging and product experiences.
With the start of the year seeing the annual CES event bring many of the big tech providers together, we saw some less likely candidates take the main stage as our world continues to change. Share anything interesting you spot with #OMDFWD
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
- Need some help sticking to your New Year healthy eating plan? Use this magical gadget to reveal your foods nutritional value or track the contents of your fridge with the latest announcement from Samsung
- After what is said to be the biggest weekend for holiday bookings, consumers will be pleased to hear you can now track how much the sun is effecting you
- Need help with parking, FordPass app helps you find parking spots, you don’t need to drive a Ford car to use the app, set to realise later in 2016
DEEP READS
As the annual CES tech-fest in Vegas takes it’s final roll of the dice, it’s time to decide whether the 2016 event came up ‘aces’ or was simply ‘craps’ ?
Overall, I’d say it was a solid (yet unspectacular) year for consumer technology and my initial preview predictions didn’t fall far wide of the mark. Virtual reality, wearable tech, drones, robots and the Internet of Everything (from connected bras to smelly alarms) all featured highly. That said, there was no breakout piece of kit which captured the imagination of the geeky cognoscenti. Best described as a year of evolution rather than revolution. And that was best epitomised by the noticeable increase in the amount of car manufacturers touting their ever-evolving wares this year.
Only five years ago there was no automotive presence at CES. This year, ten major car brands were in attendance and the amount of space they had taken was breathtaking (25% more than in 2015). BMW, for instance, had a rather swish dedicated area just outside of the main auditorium which even featured test drives of both the i8 and i3 electric models.
What became very clear, very quickly, was that they were actually all pushing the same 3 key themes:
1. Electrification – whether it was the glitzy launch of the Bolt from GM in their oversubscribed keynote, or the rather magnificent Batmobile-esque FFZero1 from Faraday Future, or the VW BUDD-e minivan (which to me resembled a modern day version of the Scooby Doo ‘Mystery Machine’) every manufacturer wanted to show off their spiffing new electrically powered products.
Mercedes went one better and showcased their new concept the IAA which has a ‘shapeshifting’ rear end (don’t ask) which apparently reduces the drag on the vehicle.
2. Connectivity – there was once a time when the only way to connect with your car was by putting the key in the ignition. Nowadays, most cars don’t even have a key but can easily boil the kettle for you at home whilst on the move…
Ford, for example, took great delight in demonstrating their new Android and IoS compatible Sync3 system. With its associated app functionality users can control connected devices inside their homes plus interact with Amazon Alexa voice recognition to deliver real-time information about the vehicle itself.
VW have gone one step further and entered into a strategic alignment with the mighty LG. The aforementioned BUDD-e basically connects to your LG equipped SmartHome. Volkswagen demonstrated that from your Mystery Machine, sorry BUDD-e, you can open the front door of your home to let people in if you are running late. Or maybe you want to check the contents of your LG fridge with it’s built-in camera to see if you need to order a takeaway for dinner or can feast on left-over lasagne.
3. Autonomous Cars – the trend for self driving cars has largely been driven by the first foray into the market by Google. In a meeting with the John Krafcik, CEO of Chauffeur (Google’s autonomous vehicle division) he told us that their reasoning behind producing a car which can drive itself was very simple and yet equally compelling. Over 1.2 million people are killed each year in car accidents across the globe. To put that into perspective that’s the equivalent of a passenger jet crashing every 2 minutes for twelve months. And the main cause of all this carnage? Well over 90% of these accidents are caused by human error. No wonder they want to remove the organic bit behind the wheel.
But not content with Google muscling in on their turf, the car manufacturers have decided it’s their turn to get in on the act. You would maybe expect to see self-driving cars from the likes of Ford (pictured below) but may be a little surprised to see the likes of Hyundai / Kia also jumping on the bandwagon.
So there you have it, with not much more news apart from increasingly bigger / thinner TV’s and even smarter SmartPhones the automotive boys stole much of the limelight this year and I’m finally ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ (unless El Nino has other ideas of course).
#omdces2016
CES 2016 is now in full swing, the parties have kicked off in style and the sheer scale of gadgetry on offer leaves you slack jawed. And, in amongst all this insanity, there are some rather excellent TED-style tech talks on a multitude of topics including the impact of technology on culture, virtual reality and millennials. But the one that really caught my attention was the session on the Internet of Things – the connected consumer, smarter homes & cities. It featured a stellar cast of speakers from a diverse array of disciplines – Spotify, CNET, CBS Interactive and Under Armour etc.
One of the key themes in the OMD Oasis was, as I (now smugly) pointed out in my CES preview, that the term IoT is rapidly becoming obsolete and is being replaced with the Internet of Everything (IoE). I guess now that we have connected bras and pet fitness trackers, what else is left to be digitised?
‘Personalisation’ was a common topic amongst all the speakers and (in my humble opinion) most eloquently portrayed by the PTA acronym which stands for ‘Premature Technology Arousal’. Explanation? The way that consumers (often selfishly) decide how they want technology to work for them beyond its current capabilities. And yet, in a strangely prophetic way, that is precisely what spurs on the developers to improve their products. An example? Spotify talked about how their users want a seamless music experience from waking up in the morning to their chosen playlist and having it synced across their day whether its pumping it at the gym, listening during their working day, during their commute in the car or simply going to bed. Across devices, on demand, no lag. Imagine a personal playlist which follows you wherever you go? Even to the extent that, by working with partners like Uber, your chosen music follows you into the Uber vehicle that you have just taken and plays your tunes on that cars sound system. Cool huh?
Data and privacy were also high up on the agenda with the guys from Under Armour boldly stating that they were actually a “big data company”. They discussed the importance of the “value exchange” with their users. If a consumer gives permission to use their data what is the benefit for them? People are (generally) smart and will inevitably become more comfortable with the use of their data as long as there is a fair trade off for them providing it in the first place.
An example? If you utilise the ‘Map my Run’ app and go on a trail instead of the road then Under Armour will detect the difference and recommend that you invest in a pair of running shoes that are more suited to that terrain (and most likely at a discount for a valued repeat customer). That said, it’s vital to give consumers the choice if they decide that they don’t want their data to be used and have a more generic experience.
And tomorrow? It’s time to finally walk the floor. Stay tuned.
Christmas is barely over and the annual pilgrimage to the tech mecca that is the Consumer Electronics Show has already started with an expected 200,000 geeks and gear heads descending on Las Vegas as I write. As ever, it promises to be bigger (2.4 million sq ft of space, up 10% on last year), brasher and bolder than ever before. But frankly that’s the same every year – it is Vegas after all. Baby.
The doors don’t officially open until Wednesday but the anticipation levels here are already cranked up to eleven and the rumour mill is humming like a flux capacitor. So I’ve scoured that interweb thingy and (beyond the usual slew of larger TV’s and smarter smartphones) I have compiled a list of the top 7 areas of focus at this years tech-fest:
1. Connected Cars – only 5 years ago, there were none of the automotive manufacturers here at CES. This year? There will be 10 of the major car makers present and a further 100 smaller auto tech companies exhibiting their wares. Last year Mercedes unveiled their autonomous ‘living room on wheels‘ the F015 and there are noises being made that Ford have been working with Google on their own version which may be showcased at CES. What we do know (because they have officially announced it) is that BMW are going to be showing off their new Air Touch system which is effectively a 3 dimensional hand scanning interface for controlling a whole array of functions within the vehicle. Bye bye buttons on the dashboard?
Also, as a outside bet for something revolutionary take a gamble on a Chinese firm called Faraday Future who claim to have a concept which, in their words at least, will “define the future of mobility”. Sounds interesting right and given their name I’d wager that it is most likely an electric vehicle? A Tesla rival maybe? Oh and the ‘spy shots’ make it look like the Batmobile…
2. Wearable Tech – this sector was the bleeding edge of revolutionary thinking just a few years ago at CES but is now much more part of the mainstream, epitomised by the likes of Fitbit. They have a major press conference lined up for Tuesday morning so expect a big announcement. Given their ‘teaser’ for this event (a little flash of leather) I’m guessing some kind of fashion related tie up? In fact that could be a common trend this year with the likes of Huawei set to unveil a smartwatch that will apparently appeal to women and a company called Wisewear going one step further and releasing a range of high-end connected jewellery. Jewelification if you will. It’s a thing. You read it here first. Live with it.
And some of the more, shall we say, quirky offerings? Well from Digitsole we get the spiritual successor to the self-lacing training shoe from Back to the Future 2. Great Scott! There is also the OMBra which aims to measure a woman’s biometrics via a piece of clothing already worn daily. And finally, there is apparently a preponderance of pet related tech such as PitPat which is an activity tracker for your pampered pooch.
3. Day of the Drones – again, becoming much more of a mainstay at CES these days with all eyes looking skyward to see what the guys from GoPro have got to offer in the guise of Karma which is reputed to have a full 360 degree view and (most importantly for dodgy drone pilots like me) collision avoidance functionality.
Safety does appear to be a recurring theme this year with drones, like the new product from Fleye which has hidden rotor blades (and looks a little like an upturned desk fan) plus an exciting development from UK firm Intelligent Energy who will be demonstrating their hydrogen fuel cell which allows a drone to stay airborne for hours instead of minutes (or, as we established earlier, seconds if I am at the controls).
4. VR becomes a Reality – Oculus Rift was the darling of CES when it launched its virtual reality headset on an unsuspecting world just 3 years ago. I queued for a few hours back then for a go and was blown away by what I (virtually) saw. Rapidly snapped up by Facebook in $2 billion deal in 2014, we have seen refinements but no finished product. That is all set to change with the breaking news that pre-orders open on 6th January. Immaculate timing. And if that’s the case, then surely we will get to see the finished article at CES?
But it’s not just about Oculus, there are plenty of big hitting rivals keen to grab their slice of the virtual pie. Sony are expected to release details of their PlayStation VR headset with rumours of smartphone compatibility and HTC are also doing a press conference this afternoon on their very own updated / revised Vive unit.
5. Rise of the Robots? – ever since the very first CES show way back in 1967, robots have been an ever present theme. We are fascinated with them but, to date, manufacturers haven’t been able to make them truly viable for consumers. Our attempts have been clunky at best and downright embarrassing at worst. So with 71% more floor space at CES dedicated to robots than last year is 2016 the year to change all that and launch us into a dystopian world of RoboCop and the Terminator? The answer to that is an emphatic ‘no’ given what is on offer.
Japanese firm, Flower Robotics reckon their little robot will bring ‘beauty’ to the genre as they have designed their metal friends to be as aesthetically pleasing as they are practical. Call me a cynic but I’m not convinced – to me it just looks like an LED light bulb, with two plastic spoons strapped to the side and a webcam plonked on top. A much more practical and worthy contender is Leka which is a robot developed to help stimulate children with autism and other developmental disorders.
6. Internet of Everything – the buzz phrase for the past few years at CES has been IoT – the internet of things. This year, I think it will finally morph into IoE, the ‘internet of everything’. The trailblazers were Nest with their smart plugs and app controlled central heating systems. Now it seems everyone has jumped on the proverbial bandwagon if you take a mere glimpse at the dazzling array of connected items that are being touted this year. I honestly can’t think of anything that is left that can be digitised and / or app’d. Here are just a few examples of what’s on offer this year…
– a shower head that tracks how much water you have utilised (have I missed something but why would you want to do that?)
– a vibrating sofa to alert you when your favourite TV show is about to start (the mind boggles as to what kind of content you might watch with this gadget)
– an alarm clock that will wake you up with a smell rather than a noise – odours on offer include croissant, peach and (erm) money? (very apt for Vegas I suppose)
Seriously though, you cant make this stuff up.
So there you have it, my top 6 predictions / watch-outs for CES 2016. Keep reading over the next few days as I get down to the CES floor for a ‘walk about’ and bring you an up-to-the-minute status on all the other tech that’s on offer plus a closing review with a ‘best and worst’ tech from this year’s event.
