Diffusion Goes Full CES…

Las Vegas—the jewel of the Mojave Desert, the nation’s gambling capital, top tourist destination, and a countless backdrop to spontaneous nuptials. It’s also the annual home of one behemoth of a convention sprawling across the city’s top hotels—the Consumer Electronics Show (or, with industry parlance, CES).

Top CES Trends

Every year tech companies, retail buyers, service providers, media and public relations folk gather from all over the world to bear witness to the latest trends in consumer electronics—as well as what’s to come in the New Year. And this year was no exception, with companies from Samsung and Chevy to Oculus and LG. And a lot of drones.

Every year, CES is looking more and more like the Detroit Auto Show, with this year deploying more floor space to car manufacturers than any other industry. We’ve seen innovations in dashboard designs (read: looking more like an iPad) from BMW and auto suppliers like Visteon and Rinspeed Etos, as well as the usual concept car unveiling. Volkswagen turned heads with BUDD-e and Chevy’s making electric the new black with the Chevy Bolt, a fully electric car with a 200-mile-per-charge range at the mainstream palatable price of $30,000. We could devote an entire blog post on cars at CES, but we’ll stop ourselves here.

Virtual reality was another hot ticket item. VR stole the day with notable presences from HTC, Oculus and Sony’s own PlayStation VR. VR’s cousin, Augmented Reality (AR), also shouldn’t be forgotten—with Intel featuring the Daqri Smart Helmet during its keynote address, AR is bound to drastically affect the work environment as the technology is refined.

And, of course, there were the drones, with this year cementing the fact that the technology is here to stay. They’re getting harder, bigger, faster, stronger—and better batteries. The one drone that really stood out, though, was the Ehang 184—a drone fit to ferry a human passenger around town. What a time to be alive!

The Diffusion Media Blitz

Without surprise, autonomous driving was the “it” kid of CES this year, as the concept of self-driving cars is poised to be one of the most disruptive technological advances in our lifetime (next to the Internet and the rise of cat gifs). Leading the forefront of this developing technology is none other than Mobileye. Using CES as its stage, the Israeli tech company worked with Diffusion to announce its vision and rollout plan for autonomous driving, highlighting key partnerships with GM and Volkswagen that dominated headlines. Our team was on hand coordinating media from the Wall Street Journal and Forbes to Reuters and the International Business Times.

The other talk of the town at CES were fitness trackers, with a sizable portion of the Sands Expo solely dedicated to designed to help you meet your health and wellness goals. Our client Skulpt took the opportunity to unveil a brand new device—the Chisel. A lightweight version of their flagship product the Skulpt Aim, the Chisel measures up to 24 different muscles on your body, providing the fat percentage and a rating of the muscle’s fitness. Some major outlets and reporters had the chance to measure their muscle quality in person at the Skulpt booth this year including ABC, The Next Web, Refinery29 and Yahoo.

Another client we supported at CES this year was M3D, the tech luminaires that smashed Kickstarter records with the Micro 3D printer last year, also seized the CES spotlight to introduce new filaments to the market. M3D has a core goal of making the evolving technology mainstream palatable, and with the introduction of their new filaments that are more flexible and durable, M3D can now empower users to make truly impactful applications with their printers—items durable enough to withstand daily life and use. The introduction of the new filaments resonated strongly with trade media—read all about it on 3DPrint.com.

Yes, CES certainly was a busy and successful year for our Diffusionistas this time around. Expect to see us, and our clients, again next year. In the meantime, we’re already booking our flights.

Looking to catch up with us at our next big event? See you at VRLA this week!