Key Takeaways from this Blog: CES is more than a trade show. It’s a major media, content and event marketing opportunity for brands to launch products, build awareness, engage media and influencers and stand out during one of the year’s most competitive news cycles. This guide outlines four key questions consumer tech brands should ask when considering a CES presence, from having a compelling story and the resources to activate, to planning early and exploring opportunities beyond a traditional booth presence.
Why is CES so important for brands?
Every January, hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe arrive to Las Vegas for CES, transforming the city into the center of the consumer tech universe. But CES is more than just the world’s largest consumer technology event, it’s an annual cultural moment that captivates attention far beyond the convention floor.
In 2026, the event drove nearly 150,000 attendees, including more than 7,000 content creators and members of the media (up nearly 7% from 2025). That level of reach and scale can sound incredibly exciting, but equally as overwhelming. When approached strategically, it’s a chance for brands to unveil new products, magnify thought leadership visibility, engage top tier media and influencers, connect with business partners, analysts and prospects and bring your brand’s next big moment to life in front of a highly concentrated and highly influential tech audience.
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So, how do you know if it’s the right move for your brand to participate? Here are four questions to ask:
- Is there something new or unexpected to highlight? If the biggest story you can tell is simply “we’re exhibiting at CES,” you might want to hit pause right now and rethink the value you’re bringing to the moment. Brands that break through make CES a better experience. They highlight or tease out new launches, giving attendees the opportunity to be among the first to hear, see and experience them. With the right event PR strategy in place designed to amplify these launches beyond the showroom floor, CES becomes a spring board to drive significant awareness, product trial and lasting consumer mindshare during one of the most crowded news cycles of the year.
- Is your story bigger than your product? CES is the world’s biggest stage for innovation. Even if you have something new to highlight, a new gadget alone won’t be enough to stand out. Offering a perspective – not just an incrementally better product – is key. Your brand’s CES stories need to connect the product to something bigger happening in culture, technology or consumers’ lives. Ask yourself: what problem are we solving, how is this unique, why does it matter, and what does it tell us about where the industry is headed? Having a sound PR strategy and narrative in place becomes particularly important in terms of giving media and industry tastemakers a reason to visit your booth and cover your story.
- Do you have the right resources to activate? With the scale of media and influencers in attendance each year, it’s important to maximize every on-site engagement to be able to tell your story in the most meaningful way. For product launches, having a variety of brand spokespeople available to give white-glove demonstrations, and answer in-depth technical, design and customer experience questions in real-time is crucial. In addition to building and fostering key relationships, these interactions can often translate into strong soundbites that are included in media articles or influencer content. To garner a strong volume of product reviews, putting the right inventory and processes in place to coordinate getting samples into the hands of the right journalists and influencers will help turn interest into meaningful exposure with consumers.
- Are you giving yourself enough runway? CES may only last a few days, but making the most of it starts with planning several months in advance. That means identifying the right story, developing a compelling narrative, building target media lists, coordinating product samples and demos, securing advance briefings and creating opportunities to generate buzz both before and during the event. Journalists and influencers are often planning their CES coverage and booking their calendars ahead of the holidays, so it’s important to secure briefings as early as possible. There’s a strategic advantage to starting early – it gives you time to build anticipation, rather than simply react to the noise. If timing is short or exhibiting at the LVCC isn’t an option, there are other smart ways to activate around the event – like hosting a brand dinner, participating in well-known CES showcase activations in Vegas like ShowStoppers and Pepcom, or leveraging the CES news cycle to pitch executives around emerging trends.
How should your brand start prepping for CES 2027?
If the answers to these questions are yes, CES will serve as a powerful opportunity to put your brand in the spotlight. If there’s anything that’s not a yes – yet – our team specializing in turning those tricky questions into buzzworthy CES moments for brands who want to be there is happy to support.
The goal as your event marketing partner isn’t simply to help you show up. The goa is to make showing up worth it. At Matter, we have extensive experience helping consumer technology brands navigate the CES landscape and deliver true impact, from developing newsworthy launch stories and securing high-value media opportunities to creating standout event marketing experiences. We know how to turn the attention surrounding CES into meaningful momentum for brands.