If you won a CES Innovation Award, congrats!
It’s a great proof point and useful marketing tool. Regardless of your company size and the readiness of your product, there are key considerations and common steps you can take after winning this prestigious award.
We’ve compiled a plan and some KPIs for you here.
Before we go further though, our PR agency specializes in helping consumer tech companies grow their brand equity and sales in the US.
We’ve been coming to CES for 10 years. We’d love to meet at the show to chat about helping you execute it. You can book time for a free chat with our firm’s CEO here.
Onto that plan and KPIs…
Context, Plan and Goals
This strategic plan outlines key PR initiatives, tactical elements, and success metrics for CES. Innovation Award-winning products. The plan focuses on maximizing award visibility while building toward successful product launches, and retail presence.
Core Objectives
- Transform CES award recognition into sustained market visibility
- Drive pre-launch anticipation and demand if your product has not yet hit the market
- Secure tier-1 media coverage and influencer reviews
- Establish retail partnerships and distribution channels
- Generate measurable sales impact from PR activities
Monthly Timeline & Tactical Elements
The tactics you pursue flow naturally from your goals, the readiness of your product and factors like seasonality and key calendar dates.
Our discussion of tactics is thus best viewed as a menu from which you can select as few, or many, options as suit you. Whatever you pursue, we’ve included common best practices and metrics for you to look at.
Here is a timeline for you to consider:
December to January 10: Award Momentum & Foundational Activities
- Issue CES award announcement press releases with product imagery
- Conduct media outreach to tech journalists who are attending CES (the show’s organizer will share a media list with you that is up to date)
- Consider attending media events such as PEPCOM, Showstoppers or CES Unveiled during the show
- Create an award winning digital press kit with high-res imagery; Ideally you have both physical copies and a scannable QR code at your booth
- Attend a media training session to prepare for on-site interviews. Ensure that everyone on your team is familiar with the basic rules of media relations. You can also listen to this chapter of our audiobook on media interviews.
- Schedule at-show executive interviews highlighting your innovation story
- Develop product messaging framework and PR narrative
While in Vegas
At the show, record and track any media and influencer visits to your booth. Document and compile product sample requests. Compile media questions and attendee feedback about your products for your engineering and marketing teams.
Ensure you have video content of action around your booth; Testimonials and public expressions of delight are especially valuable. Monitor media coverage and social media trends and respond in real time if relevant for your industry.
January and February: Post show adjustments and outreach
- Compile a media and influencer wrap report highlighting the best quotes and content you generated in Vegas from third parties
- Synthesize media and attendee feedback from the event
- Adjust messaging and assets as needed, based on feedback
- Send out any samples and requests once feedback and assets have been adjusted (if your product is ready)
- Create and deploy any marketing assets based on content generated at the show
- Conduct any distributor and retail outreach using content and feedback from the show
- Analyze media, influence and social media coverage of the industry trends and predictions coming out of CES and use them to refresh your strategy
Key Performance Indicators
If you are going to put resources into promoting your award win, you need good metrics by which to judge your efforts.
Again here, your metrics will flow from goals. We’ve included a host of items below. These
measures are common ones we use in our PR practice. Pick and choose those that fit your
needs best, and know that this is not a comprehensive list.
Media Relations
- Total press mentions: A fairly simple, if crude, metric
- Tier-1 media placements: Tech is dominated by bigger outlets; You need to assess what the top media properties are saying
- Media sentiment analysis: Is the press covering you with a favorable, neutral or negative tone
- Share of voice vs. competitors: How much of a conversation do you own vs the other guys?
- Executive quote inclusion rate: How often are your top people quoted in the press?
- Key message pass through: How often are your key messages showing up in stories
- AI search impact of coverage. Any changes to AI share of answer should be included.
Digital & Social
- Social media impressions: How many impressions does your news generate?
- Engagement rate: What are people doing in terms of interactions with your posts re your award win?
- Influencer content pieces: How many do you generate? What happens as a result of them?
- Website referral traffic: How much traffic do your digital efforts produce?
Business Impact
Marketing qualified leads from PR activities around the award: Fairly self-explanatory PR cost per acquisition: Divide acquisitions by total cost of these activities.
Contact
Again, we would love to meet at CES. Book a 30-min chat here. Or, you can reach out to Jackson directly at jackson@properpropaganda.net or call +1 514 605 9255 / Borjana at
borjana@properpropaganda.net