Is CES still CES?

Question for you: When is CES not CES?

Answer: When Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang is delivering the keynote.

My casual search for “CES 2025” turned up these headlines:

I haven’t seen this much excitement since Taylor Swift announced her Eras Tour.  There are even reports of major surprises – which actually hurts the nature of the word “surprise.”

And while we’re being precise on language, Nvidia isn’t really a consumer electronics product for the Consumer Electronics Show.  Rather, it’s a B2B play. 

But it’s clear that I’m just being precious and a touch annoying since CES is happy to host what NBC’s Rob Wile describes as the “the most important company in the world at the moment.”

What does this mean for CMOs and VPs of Marketing who plan on attending?

Welp, if you can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em.

In other words, newsjack!

Most journalists will not get a one-on-one with Jensen, but they will want some sort of unique angle to the Nvidia news. Companies wanting to make news at CES should lean into that with narratives that position them as key beneficiaries of Nvidia’s technology.    

I predict the strongest stories will focus on what Nvidia’s announcement means to regular people, the so-called consumers CES is supposedly catering to. These storylines will be stronger if they include unpublished research and predictions about what we can expect in the market over the next 12 months.

There are other ways to win, too.

When Bospar attended Nvidia’s GTC in March, the show even bussed participants to an arena to watch Jensen speak.  While it was exciting to watch the pyrotechnics up close, it did make us long for creature comforts, like private bathrooms and quality refreshments. 

That inspired us to think: could a company host a VIP viewing party of Jensen’s remarks? 

Having been a journalist myself, I could see a lot of media tempted to watch Jensen’s remarks in a comfy chair with power for my laptop, my phone and my body in the forms of fruits, sushi or anything that I couldn’t get on the show floor.

Finally, there’s the philosophy that when others zig, you should zag with counterprogramming.  For example, we teamed up with Star Trek actor George Takei to launch the AR game House of Cats.  While most of the gaming media was focused on Comic-Con in San Diego, we conducted a media tour in New York City, giving the tech journalists who were left behind a worthwhile story to cover. 

Similarly, not every journalist attending CES wants to cover – or even understands – GPUs.  By offering a clear alternative to the Nvidia hype cycle, responsive PR teams can provide reporters and clients an actual consumer electronics story worthy of the name CES.