Rockfish was honored by Econsultancy as a "Highly Commended" entry in the 2011 Innovation Awards for Most Innovative Digital Agency.  Econsultancy is the UK's leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and e-commerce.  The Innovation Awards recognized companies in 21 different categories such as Mobile and eCommerce.

Written by Dave Knox, Chief Marketing Officer at Rockfish (@daveknox)

There are few events in the world of business that bring together a more diverse group of people than the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  The event literally has hundreds of thousands of people who descend upon the Convention Center at the Hilton Las Vegas to see the latest and greatest in gadgets.  This mass of people includes buyers from the world's largest retailers, manufacturers of all shapes and sizes, executives from Fortune 500 technology companies, and press of every kind. 

Over the past few years, another group has started to make the annual pilgrimage to CES: Brand Marketers and Advertisers.   Driven by an increasingly digital world, marketers have embraced the show as a way to get a glimpse at potential new advertising and marketing vehicles like tablets, web TV apps and smartphones.   The show gives them a chance to sit down with technologists and learn first-hand about what they should be paying attention to when it comes to new ways to connect with consumers.

It was with that goal in mind that a small team from Rockfish made the trip out to Las Vegas this year.  We walked the show floor, checked out the product booths and listened to countless launch announcements in order to get a glimpse into what’s next in digital innovation.  Using the hashtag #RockfishCES, the team also shared what caught our eye throughout the trip (you can see all the posts at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23RockfishCES).

Implications for Brand Marketers

Our CEO, Kenny Tomlin, shared his thoughts least week on the technological trends that he found particularly interesting at the show.  For me, I viewed the show from a slightly angle, focusing on the implications for Brand Marketers.  A few things stuck out that I found particularly interesting:

The Living Room is changing…and advertising needs to change with it:  A lot of buzz has happened over the last two years thanks to Internet Enabled TV and TV Web Apps (think Pandora, Boxee, etc).  The buzz has been further fueled by the likes of Xbox Live and deals they’ve struck with ESPN and others.   And all of this is on top of a TV experience that is undergoing a tremendous shift driven by DVR penetration.  As a result, marketers are looking at a Living Room experience that will potentially be drastically different than the one they have known for the past 50 years.  But in the face of this change, Brand Marketers need to be careful with avoiding the inevitable shiny objects.  For instance, I saw many manufacturers talk about “Social TV” where you could send Twitter and Facebook updates right from the TV screen.  While nice in theory, I think there is a fundamental flaw in these applications.  TV is a group experience, where many people generally sit around a single screen.  Social Media however is a personalized experience, where a single person broadcasts to multiple people.  What this means for the TV experience is that if a group of people are sitting around the TV, they probably don’t want a single person interacting with social media on the screen (ie, my wife doesn’t want to see my fantasy football smack talk on screen while we are watching a game at home).  Instead, I think the bigger opportunity for marketers is to think about the other multi-tasking screens that people have in front of them while watching TV.  You should focus on how the mobile phone, tablet or even laptop that an individual uses simultaneously while watching TV.  

Influencer Marketing still matters:   When we walked onto the show floor the first day, the usual suspects like Sony, Intel, Microsoft and Motorola had their booths set up.  But one brand stood out as being a bit misplaced… Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  Sitting right next to the Wired booth outside of the Central Hall, Reese’s had set up a small booth for sampling their latest product launch.  What at first seemed odd, suddenly became brilliant as the show went on.   Reese’s was practicing old fashioned Influencer Marketing with their product sampling and getting a ton of great buzz as a result.   Just about every person I knew at the show did a Tweet or a blog post at some point that mentioned the Reese’s presence.  And the brand built a ton of goodwill as their samples ended up being lunch for more than a few folks who didn’t want to wait an hour in the “cafeteria” lines.  Even at an event filled with the latest and greatest, it was nice to see the basics of marketing still at play.

Brands need to explore Digital Services & Products as a new revenue stream:  Towards the end of our trip, we had a chance to stop by the Nike booth to meet with Ricky Engelberg, Experience Director for Digital Sport at Nike.  Nike wasn’t there with a big splashy booth, but instead a tucked away presence where they were doing 1:1 meetings to introduce their latest product in the Nike+ family.   Nike+ is a model that all marketers need to pay attention to for two reasons.  First, they are turning what could have been an advertising expense, into a new revenue stream by creating a Digital Service.   Instead of spending millions of dollars on media that advertises a message (ie an expense), they are instead creating a media property with tangible value (ie a potential new revenue stream).  Second, Nike is creating products that have a seamless and natural digital extension.  Digital is not just a marketing tool in these cases, but instead an extension of the product.  The watch that they launched at CES is just another great example of this.  In the end, Nike is creating new engagement opportunities with consumers, increasing sales of Nike shoes AND finding new revenue streams.

CES has really emerged as a must attend for Brand Marketers and I expect we'll see even more brands on the showroom floor come 2012.

Rockfish was recently honored to be named OMMA Magazine's Agency of the Year for Web Design and Development.  OMMA is one of the leading magazines for online media, marketing and advertising so it's a great honor to be recognized this year.  

In particular, it was great to see OMMA recognize the evolution of what a digital means in our industry.  As they wrote in the announcement:

Even our pick for Best Web Design and Development this year, Rockfish Interactive, doesn't call itself a digital agency, but refers to itself as a digital innovation partner due partly to its approach and partly to its entrepreneurial drive (the company has launched several efforts independent of client work that differ significantly from typical incubator endeavors).

If you want to read more, you can check out the great write-up of the award by Mediapost.

Having just returned from my first CES I’ve been asked a number of times what impressed me most. Numerous things stand out but I’m personally most intrigued and impressed by Motorola’s new ATRIX phone and accessories.  To be clear, I haven’t actually used the ATRIX and can’t comment on the phone itself, but the concept should be widely embraced and has many implications for computer hardware manufactures (Dell), software companies (Microsoft) and your business.

 
In review, to compliment the ATRIX phone Motorola is currently offering a docking station for your home or office and a dock for your car.  Both extend the app functionality of the smart phone to a more convenient and applicable experience when driving or at your desk. This, in my opinion, is the future of personal computing.  I already use my iPhone or iPad for well over 50% of my computing needs. I rarely travel with a laptop any longer.  A bit more innovation in the apps and technology (Motorola ATRIX and the Android OS is a great start) and goodbye laptop.  My operating system will be that which runs on my mobile device, software downloaded from the app stores, and the hardware I use to compliment the experience will be low-cost accessories.  The business concerns to Microsoft, Dell and the likes should be obvious.
 
What are the implications for your business?
 
Integration of work / personal use PC & phone
If company issued phones and laptops haven’t already become passé at your office, they soon should be.  You’re personal computer / phone will travel with you and simply be docked at home, at the office, and even your local coffee shop.  Your apps and data will run in the cloud and the docking station itself may add some processor capacity and larger screen real estate, but little more. I suspect location awareness and/or device authentication will allow companies to restrict certain apps and access but the need to issue a company phone and laptop will be unnecessary as your new employees will join with their preference already on their person.
 
Goodbye browser, hello apps
Intelligent docking will influence the version of the app that launches.  Docking your smart phone in your car will launch a different version of your navigation app than you get when walking.  Docked in a workstation will launch different versions of your email, word processing, accounting, etc. app than when launched when the phone is not docked.  Typing in the URL of your favorite retailer will launch their mobile app rather than the browser experience.  On my iPad I’ve already noticed a number of companies will direct me to download their tablet app when visiting their site.  Why?  Because apps are capable of providing a much richer and robust user experience than the browser…a distinction that will only continue to evolve as the devices themselves and the development community rapidly matures.  If you are a company that is not already experimenting with developing apps for tablet devices then you will be playing catch-up.
 
Docked consumer experiences
If you’re a major retailer, what is the experience of a customer with their mobile device docked in your shopping cart?  If you’re in the food services industry what does that experience look like when docked at a table in your restaurant?  As evidenced at CES, automotive manufactures are already envisioning docked devices in their cars.  What is the implications and innovations for your industry?  I know battery capacity will rapidly evolve, but right now I’m docking my smart phone every chance I get if it also involves a free charge.  The device I carry is my business and personal lifestyle manager.  What Amazon.com has been able to do online, physical locations can do today.  Personalization, customization, education and efficiencies in time and cost are but a handful of the ways that businesses can transform their customer’s experiences through mobile computing.