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Inside CES

CES: Ad agencies invade the geek playground

Jennifer Collins Jan 10, 2012

Steve Chiotakis: We’re thick into the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a show that prides itself on all the cutting-edge gadgets on display. But CES is also about advertising, and one of the major venues for advertisers is smartphone apps.

Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports.


Jennifer Collins: So you’re playing “Angry Birds.”

“Angry Birds” music: Wee!

And an ad for ringtones pops up. Rovio, the company that makes “Angry Birds,” says its games deliver 10 billion ad views a month. Apple says the average iPhone user spends more than an hour a day using apps. That could be one reason why advertising on mobile devices like smartphones is expected to surpass $2 billion this year.

Chad Stoller: The app landscape is becoming more and more attractive to advertisers.

Chad Stoller is a managing partner with IPG Media Lab.

Stoller: Now the challenge with that is, is finding the right apps.

That not as easy as it sounds. Apps have broad ranges of users and advertisers are still figuring out who’s downloading what. At CES this year, thousands advertisers and marketers are swarming the floor.

Curt Hecht leads digital innovation and tech for advertising group VivaKi.

Curt Hecht: I saw tons of agency people boarding the planes to come here just like they would to Cannes or AdWeek. That’s what this event has become.

So VivaKi and other agencies are trying to bring advertisers and tech companies together — even though they don’t always speak the same language. Vivaki is organizing…

Hecht: Something called speed-dating.

Where big advertisers like Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Citibank sit down with lots of startups who have just a few minutes to make their pitches before everyone heads back to the floor to see the next in a long line of game changing do-dads.

I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.

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