The Consumer Electronics Show takes over Las Vegas this week, showcasing technologies and products for virtually every phase of the consumer, corporate and industrial lifestyles. Marketers and brand owners will be among those hunting for new opportunities, as tech companies seek well-known names and allies to raise their profiles in already crowded fields.

“Across the board smart features are being incorporated to make things easier and more convenient for the consumer and I don’t think you can have a product in almost any category that doesn’t have some sort of smart element to it” and brands help make the products and technologies more recognizable, says LMCA’s  Ray Uhlir, whose firm represents Westinghouse in licensing.

CES will also be a platform the growing number of streaming services vying for press and consumer attention, showing off their potential as advertising and promotional vehicles.

Among the areas we’ll be keeping an eye on  in Las Vegas:

Digital Health Brands

*Hundreds of digital health companies that will be at CES hawking fitness clothing, smart gym  equipment with subscription services and a range of products designed to monitor heart rate, blood pressure and other health metrics. Sakar will unveil its own Bluetooth-equipped Next Gen Fitness brand resistance bands, jump ropes, dumb bells and other products with plans for adding licenses to the mix, says Sakar’s Liza Abrams.  Westinghouse licensee American Weigh Scales also will show its “smart” scales that are design to monitor calories and sugar levels, all of which are stored on a cloud-based platform. Many health and wellness technologies will feature non-licensed brands such as AerBetic, which grabbed a  CES 2020 Innovation Award for a wearable diabetes alert device that pairs with an app as well .

The connected health and wellness products will be in addition to entire non-licensed systems that use data and apps to monitor health. Among those with potential for licensing will be the Skiin Health and Wellness system (from “textile computing” developer Myant) that connects sensor-equipped underwear, bras, polo shirts and other apparel to a smartphone app that monitors heart rate, body temperature, sleep and activity. It also can connect to a consumer’s “Care Circle” of medical professionals and allows for subscription services that can monitor for, among other things, slip and fall incidents and driver fatigue.  Myant wants to partner with apparel companies.

The growing trend in connected health and wellness products and service will be highlighted by a panel discussion dubbed “Peloton Factor,” related to the fitness industry’s partnering with music, video, and live streaming device companies along with wearable product suppliers.

Kid Tech

*Technology’s role in the lives of children and families will be central to the BabyTech, Kids@Play and FamilyTech summits. Mattel is expected to provide fresh details on its connected products platform, one that allows it to integrate technology across its products or work with a licensee.  For example, Mattel’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based mixed play technology introduced last year enables specially enabled Hot Wheels vehicles to be scanned into smartphones for online play to STEAM-based games, apps and web sites that are designed to deepen children’s understanding of science, technology, engineering and math.

Meanwhile, Bandai Namco will demonstrate its Tori platform that uses physical toys to control mobile apps as of a collaboration with French developer ISKN that allows for playing games on tablets and mobile phones.  LMCA’s Prodigy Works, along with The Toy Association, also is expected to detail research on the types of technology that can be designed, developed and manufactured to further deepen the use of STEM and STEAM in toys.

Playing the Standards

*As always in the electronics business, there will be lots of talk at CES about standards-setting, particularly in the “Smart Home” and home automation sector. For example, Alexa and Google aren’t on speaking terms, and neither of them can have a conversation with Siri.  The broader home automation business that involves major appliances, HVAC, and other home systems and devices, is still relatively underdeveloped partially because consumers aren’t comfortable that one device or appliance can work with another.  A big recent development:  the announcement last month by Amazon, Apple and Google that they’ll will work to development of an open-source, royalty-free home automation standard with an existing group called Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) whose members include Samsung, Ikea, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting).  More details on the effort are expected to be disclosed in Vegas.

*Esports will have a presence at CES largely through panel discussions as the growing number leagues seeking to tighten links with brands. Among these will be “How Brands are Engaging with Esports and Gaming” which will discuss research showing 39% of brand exposure during Esports broadcasts comes from companies unrelated to gaming.  Another panel,  “Esports and Technology: An Innovation Game-Changer” will delve into how Esports enables advances in gaming hardware, content and infrastructure and its effect on 5G wireless, AI, VR and AR technologies.

*While names such as RCA, Compaq and Admiral have long-since vanished as standalone companies, their brands live on.  For example, LMCA, which represents the RCA brand in China, is expanding its reach to include digital imaging in the U.S..  Compaq tablet licensee Alco, which also is an RCA licensee, wants to expand distribution beyond Home Shopping Network. Sakar is bringing the skateboarding great Tony’s Hawk’s brand into electric scooters for the first time, while the Admiral brand is being positioned for another return to the TV market now that the brand is controlled by consumer electronics supplier Craig Electronics.