Last week we descended upon the city of Las Vegas with our sextants and swagger, to host clients and guests at CES 2014. We led tours to navigate clients to the latest and greatest gadgets on the show floor; demonstrated YuMe ad units across multiple screens in our Connected Living Room suite at the LVH, and tracked the hot topics at each booth with our social interactive heat map.  Here’s a look back at the week’s highlights:

Monday: 2nd Screen Summit

Once again, the Summit highlighted leading trends in second screen. SVP of Marketing Ed Haslam presented the latest YuMe / IPG Media Lab research around tablet video consumption and then later.participated on the Monetization Strategies That Work panel alongside Viggle, Unicorn Media, Samba.TV and Base 79.

At the technology spotlight, Bob Hall, VP of Platform & Partnerships, announced our partnership with Gracenote – advancing the synchronization of second screen advertising. The potential collaboration between Gracenote’s ACR technology and YuMe’s SDK technology demonstrates how relevant mobile video ads can be targeted and delivered to YuMe publisher’s mobile sites and apps.

Tuesday – Wednesday: CES Show Floor

There were several big trends at CES: wearables, new device forms (e.g. curved TVs and phones), the ability to track/collect data, gesture control and cross-screen/device connectivity (e.g. LG Connected Home, Cisco’s “Internet of Everything”). Here are the highlights from some of the booths we stopped by, on our floor tours:

		Samsung  The 2014 smart TVs were showcased with a curved screen. While their UI hasn’t changed dramatically from 2013, the remote has. It is simple and includes both voice and motion control – a great improvement to the user experience. They also showcased their evolving capabilities around connecting Samsung-specific screens – especially mobile and TV. Their second screen demo highlighted how smartphones and tablets seamlessly connected to Samsung smart TVs.
		LG   LG debuted their new WebOS-powered smart TV, which was named one of the best ideas by Fast Company. In an effort to simplify the smart TV experience, it allows for more intuitive content discovery while still in live TV mode. They continue to provide an industry-leading approach to the connected home. Both Android- and iOS-compatible, their new Home Chat platform allows consumers to command and interact with their smart appliances via text. Their new Flex phone is a great illustration of the curved screen trend on display at this year’s CES.  The curved screen allows for better viewing in ambient light, along with better picture quality overall.
		Qualcomm  Qualcomm’s Gimbal system in particular was extremely exciting to see. It is a context awareness platform for on premise marketing where beacons can be placed throughout a store and then target consumers with offers within a 150-ft radius. Another unexpected surprise was the Toq – an Android-compatible smart watch. The color touchscreen utilizes the light around it so the screen is visible even in bright sunlight.
		Haier  We had to stop by at the Haier booth to check out the YuMe ad units displaying at the TVNow Smart Viewing station! Other notable tech from Haier included fingerprint ID capabilities on their smart TVs for online purchasing. It works like Apple’s TouchID, allowing in-browser purchasing direct from apps and advertising.
		Tobii  On our MEC tour in the South Hall, Tobii had a great demonstration of how its product tracks the movement of the eye, allowing you to see how and where viewers look on the screen.  With many possible applications for this technology, this could be huge for brands in terms of creative testing and for publishers to test redesigns and user interface.
		3D Printing  3D printing drew a huge crowd this year in the South Hall. It’s already being used in industries like healthcare (prosthetics) and architecture, but some companies are starting to debut consumer-friendly models (and prices). This will be an extremely exciting field to keep an eye on in general, and for any brand making hardware, this could be a huge area of opportunity in the future.

Wednesday: Digital Hollywood

We concluded Wednesday’s CES activities by participating at Digital Hollywood’s Video Everywhere – Technologies & Platforms, where Vamshi Sriperumbudur, our VP of Platform Marketing, spoke on a panel alongside executives from IBM, NTT Data, Alcatel-Lucent and Adobe.  The panel discussed today’s challenges and opportunities of OTT video for video service providers, and trends in video platforms, covering “TV everywhere” initiatives, data and mobile devices.

That rounds up our #CES2014 coverage – let us know what your favorite CES moment was! And be sure to check out our CES guest blogs on Vivaki, where we discuss how screen fragmentation can be an opportunity, what brands should be paying attention, and a look into 2015 and where the consumer will be. See you in January 2015 for the next CES!

Earlier this month during CES, YuMe hosted hundreds of marketers and agencies at their “Connected Living Room” suite in the Las Vegas Hotel. Within the suite, attendees got a glimpse into how connected TVs offer new advertising opportunities to engage and learn. Watch the footage here:

At CES, YuMe unveiled “Click-to-Ngage,” a new, interactive, long-form video ad unit for the connected TV market. The “Click-to-Ngage” ad unit offers:

• Increased engagement, improved metrics, and an opportunity to efficiently run long-form video advertising while the viewer is attentive and in a brand-receptive environment.
• An immersive experience, with tabs for different types of content including videos and a photo gallery, allowing consumers to dig deeper, discover new content, and spend more time with the brand.
• A low-clutter and low-ad load opportunity for brands that typically compete within traditional, highly-saturated media.

Jayant Kadambi, YuMe’s CEO, emphasized the focus for the future, “We want to embed software in all different devices, then learn about the user experience…we use the data and aggregate it at scale to deliver audiences.”

“Click-to-Ngage” is the newest in a series of connected TV ad units from YuMe, together comprising an extensive set of four-screen video ad unit offerings for connected TV, tablet, smartphone, and PC. From interactive pre-roll to ready-made ad templates to custom-made ads built just for your brand, YuMe has a range of ad solutions to help advertisers achieve their branding objectives. In the past year alone, 70 of Ad Age’s 100 Leading National Advertisers ran their video ad campaigns with YuMe.