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Hey, tech enthusiasts! CES 2024 was a carnival of innovative products and thoughtful discussions with a sprinkle of Vegas magic. Each hall was an immersive experience with plenty of head-turning booths and exhibits. With over 135K attendees, the air was buzzing with excitement as the electronics industry dove into key themes like AI, sustainability, and data privacy. At AO2 Management, our main objectives were to connect with current and future clients and to identify key takeaways from educational sessions. With that in mind, we present to you our retrospective of a few days spent on the CES floor.
1. Riding the wave of collaboration:
A collaborative spirit permeated the event. Despite all of the uncertainty an election year brings to US business and economy, there was palpable excitement for progress and future innovation. While the main focus of CES is consumer electronics, we were pleased to see a presence from both Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect, validating our own presence and cultivating great conversations around digital marketing collaborations. This also helped to establish that advertising on these key marketplaces should be on the radar for any brand, even those not currently selling in those spaces.
2. Cookie scarcity:
The industry continues to grapple with familiar yet evolving challenges regarding the fate of cookies. The looming cookieless advertising landscape has everyone on their toes. Enter curation! Curation is a powerful tool to transform the packaging and distribution of first-party data. It's the secret sauce for scaling reach and creating new revenue streams without relinquishing control of your data. As the industry braces for change, curation emerges as a simple yet efficient solution to build a robust data strategy.
Our perspective again comes mainly from the Amazon world, and man, what a difference a year makes! Amazon may not share customer data with Sellers, but they share signals curated from that data via Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). We met with our partner Sreenath Reddy, Founder & CEO of Intentwise, who commented, “AMC continues to evolve to become the center of all Amazon advertising measurement. We couldn’t agree more.
AMC data is available only for Amazon Demand Side Platform advertising (DSP). DSP does have some barriers to entry, including gated access and potentially high minimum spends. As a result, many Brands (and agencies) aren’t utilizing this type of advertising on their own just yet.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you! If DSP is something you’d like to explore, reach out to our team and we’d be happy to discuss options.
Sreenath Reddy, Founder & CEO of Intentwise, Jessica Wright, Director of Partnerships AO2 Management, and Aman Advani, Senior Director of Operations AO2 Management, met us on the CES floor to talk about AMC
3. AI – More than a trend:
As we expected from a tech show, AI was everywhere, proving it really is here to stay and begging the question: should the “I” in “AI” actually stand for Innovation? According to the CES website, “Taking problem-solving to epic new levels, AI is revolutionizing the user experience. Whether increasing accessibility or boosting efficiency, AI’s state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions play an active role in industry development worldwide.”
Some stand-out AI products showcased at CES ranged from the Anura MagicMirror (from NuraLogix, which analyzes the blood flow in your face to gauge vital measurements, such as blood pressure and stress levels) to in-car generative AI (via BMW’s in-car intelligent Personal Assistant). Clearly, this technology is poised to take us to the next level in all aspects of daily life, but not without concerns. In the digital advertising space, we continue to walk a fine line between integrated automation with AI support and keeping the human touch in place. We’re thankful for the AI innovations Amazon Ads has rolled out in the last year, for instance, that give us access to tools that enhance our existing content, but we’re even more thankful for our team and all of our great service provider partners who perform real magic behind the curtains.
4. Amazon keeps it fresh:
As mentioned, many big names in the eCommerce industry had a major presence at CES this year. AO2 operates with the mindset that if Amazon is showing interest in an event, we should also. Anywhere Amazon is attending or exhibiting will surely provide opportunities for us to connect with like-minded service providers and learn about what’s new in the Amazon world, which is a great opportunity for us to bring knowledge and great partners back to our clients and followers!
CES was no exception to this rule as we found time at the event to connect with Amazon Ads, Amazon Agency Partner teams, and our favorite Tech Evangelist, Jeff Cohen. We also got to visit the Connections Hub and Amazon Alexa Developers showcase and, of course, attend the big ticket event: Amazon After Dark, featuring Ludacris!
Favorite takeaway? As an Amazon Ads partner, we were stoked to learn more about the upcoming expansion of ads to Prime Video and Amazon Studios (and the opportunities available for products not currently sold on the Amazon marketplace) as well as ] additional opportunities developing for the existing Thursday Night Football, Twitch and Prime Video advertising spaces.
CES 2024 was not only a showcase – It was a celebration of innovation and the evolving landscape of the tech world. The discussions, partnerships, and Vegas vibes have set the tone for a transformative year, and we’re here for it. Did we leave you wanting more? We’d love to answer any lingering questions or help you on your journey to e-commerce domination.
