It’s a mix of connecting with industry leaders during tours, meetings, happy hours, dinners, or even settling debates over which late night fast food burger is superior—In-N-Out or Shake Shack.
“The metric of success is, how are we maximizing our time with our clients?” Campo said.
Taking a practical lens to futuristic tech
Veteran CES attendees know that while some of the consumer tech gadgets on the show floor represent opportunities for today or tomorrow, others won’t be realistically used by consumers for the next three, five, or even ten years.
Campo reminisced on the promise of augmented and virtual reality tech that has been hyped for the past several years, and particularly last year after Apple released its Vision Pro headset.
“It’s cool, but it’s wonky to wear and it costs a lot of money,” he said. “You kind of had a sense that the price point was not going to take off.”
One of the goals Razorfish has at CES is walking its clients through the technology on the show floor and helping them understand what has near, mid- and long-term impact. Clients are more oriented toward tech and experiences that will be adoptable by consumers in the near term, Campo said.
“Pie in the sky is interesting and it’s useful, but it really comes down to, we have a year ahead of us, and we all have KPIs to hit. What’s going to help us with that?” he said. “We are here with clients. And so that does also bring us back to the marketing challenges that we have to help clients solve this year.”
AI everything
AI-powered everything is again a huge trend at CES this year. “I think it’s going to be a label slap on pretty much everything,” Mariano said.
As AI has become more accessible and available to consumers, Mariano is looking for a deeper understanding of what kind of AI is being used in consumer products, and how the technology is used. “What are you really talking about when you say AI?” she said.
At CES, the focus on AI will not be so much on how it can change agency workflows, but an opportunity for Razorfish to assess how consumer tech brands are leveraging AI and work that into its own clients’ positioning. Campo expects to see a lot more around “agentization of AI,” as chatbots are very front-and-center for consumers.
“I think consumers this year will continue to engage more and more with it, and that changes the comfort level of our clients,” he said.
Campo and Mariano are both interested in understanding how AI is going to play out in the automotive and health tech spaces, given its client set. For the former, Campo is looking for potential tie-ups between automakers and operating systems from Amazon, Apple, or Google. “Are you going to buy your car based on the operating system in the car?” he said.