#CES2020: How brand names fight for your attention on Twitter, Instagram

This story becomes part of CES 2020, our total protection of the display room flooring and the most popular brand-new tech devices around.

It’s hard to get observed at CES. So Nissan established a miniature golf course with a function the Japanese cars and truck huge idea would be social networks catnip: an ensured hole-in-one.

Standing at the carmaker’s display, I putted a golf ball geared up with comparable driver-assistance innovation to that utilized in the Nissan Skyline, a high end sedan. The ProPilot golf ball wound its method over the green as CES guests took out their phones. Then it dropped in the hole with a rewarding plunk.

“We make sure that we have all these engaging activities…for people to share,” stated Camille Lim, who leads Nissan’s material group in Japan. “In terms of the content, they can post their own.” 

Sure enough, videos of Nissan’s putting green and the clever golf ball made the rounds on Twitter and Instagram bearing #CES2020 or #NissanCES hashtags. One tweet of the golf course published by a tech influencer got more than a million views.

Posting to social networks at CES can seem like yelling in a crowd. The tech program’s congested hashtag is a relatively limitless scroll of selfies, newspaper article and videos including robotics, futuristic automobiles, an unnoticeable phone keyboard and clever refrigerators. Roughly 4,500 business displayed at the program, and lots of attempted to stick out on social networks. They utilized targeted advertisements, their own hashtags, appealing videos and, like Nissan, interactive experiences, 

More than 450,000 tweets utilized #CES2020 throughout the program, which ranged from Jan. 7 to 10. Facebook-owned Instagram hosted more than 55,000 posts with the hashtag. Videos bearing the #ces2020 hashtag were seen more than 15 million times on TikTok. 

Four of 5 of the most-retweeted tweets utilizing the #CES2020 hashtag remained in Japanese. The most-retweeted tweet, which was shared more than 28,000 times, showed images of keyboards in green, pink, blue, and black-and-white displayed in the cubicle of Chinese producer Shenzhen Caddy Technology.

“Too cute,” composed Twitter user @shinoalice_kabo, whose feed is filled with pictures of keyboards. 

The Consumer Technology Association, which arranges CES, will launch more comprehensive information in the coming months on social networks’s reach at the program. Last year, more than 5,000 tweets about CES were published every hour throughout the program. The CTA hopes this year’s social networks chatter was even larger.

Crammed in between reporters and organisation partners, Lenovo’s social networks group was hard at work recording videos and shooting images to utilize throughout CES and later on in the year. 

One professional photographer concentrated on an item supervisor who turned the Lenovo Smart Frame vertically and after that horizontally. The video was later on published to Instagram and Twitter, where it acquired approximately 750,300 views integrated. Earlier that day, a Lenovo executive checked out off a teleprompter as videographers from marketing speaking with business Findasense taped the short speech — video footage that might be utilized in a wrap-up of CES on social networks or in a staff member video. 

“Everyone’s here to be part of the future of innovation, so this is our place to put our stamp on that,” stated Taylor Wilson, who handles social networks material for Lenovo.

As in previous years, Lenovo likewise targeted Twitter advertisements at users who have actually engaged with the brand name in the previous or those who utilized CES hashtags. The business likewise had its own hashtag for the occasion. Lenovo utilized ConnectedIn, the expert network, to relay an approximately four-minute live video showcasing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, Yoga 5G and other items at its area at The Venetian. 

The Chinese business read information and social networks chatter to sharpen its technique around collapsible phones and 5G, 2 subjects it concentrated on this year. Lenovo kept an eye on conversations about the subjects on social networks to see if the business was appearing in conversations about them, stated Kirsten Hamstra, director of around the world social marketing at Lenovo. 

Social discussion around Lenovo as a brand name and items leapt 33% throughout CES 2020 from CES 2019, she stated.

Alex Josephson, who heads a group called Twitter Next that assists brand names on material technique, stated utilizing information to find out what their consumers desire, together with a strong human voice, is important for business to prosper on the social media network. 

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One reason marketers come to Twitter, he said, is to connect to what’s happening, which can be an event like CES. In 2018, for example, Toyota livestreamed a keynote that its president was delivering in a video on Twitter that got nearly 8 million views. 

“The key is understanding how the audience is behaving and what they’re talking about right now, because our platform is open,” Josephson said. 

Nissan didn’t limit itself to the mini golf course. The company brought a zero-emissions ice cream truck to the show to show off a recycled battery system called Energy Roam, which kept the frosty treats from melting. The vanilla ice cream served to visitors came in a cup bearing the carmaker’s CES hashtag,  #NissanCES. A traditional Japanese rice cracker displayed an image of Nissan’s Ariya Concept, an electric SUV that was also at the booth. 

In a blatant appeal to social media users, Nissan set up a station for visitors to take a “power selfie” directly behind its Nissan Formula E electric race car. The booth blasts air into visitors faces for 2.8 seconds, illustrating the time it takes for the car to go from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (about 62 mph). It also blows your hair back for a glamorous shot.

During the show, Nissan’s Twitter account shared images and photos of CES attendees who took power selfies, ate ice cream and played golf at their booth. 

Outside of providing fun ways for visitors to learn about the carmaker, Nissan also posted short videos meant to grab viewers in the first three to five seconds and purchased ads. Lim, Nissan’s content chief, said the idea is to show the public how Nissan is part of the “future of mobility.” 

“There’s a lot of conversations going on,” Lim said. “If you’re not promoting your stuff, it probably will not rise to the top.”

Originally published Jan. 15 at 5 a.m. PT.
Update, 10:51 a.m. PT: Adds data from Lenovo.