#CES 2013: The winners on Twitter

Every year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) brings tech lovers closer to the hottest new gadgets about to hit the market. But technology that gets unveiled in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas. It gets tweeted.

According to Mass Relevance, Twitter users mentioned CES in just over one million Tweets during the four days of the trade show. The hashtag #CES trended organically every day of the show. Twitter was truly the second screen of CES, giving people around the world a real-time glimpse at all the action.

In fact, CES-related Tweets trended the longest in San Francisco not Las Vegas. Clearly, geeking out over gadgets was more interesting to Silicon Valley-types than slogging through their email inboxes after the holidays.

During CES, Mass Relevance used event-related Tweets to create a real-time visualization called The Companion. The Companion allowed people at the show and those following the event via Twitter to discover the most buzz-worthy trends and latest breaking news.

Top tweeted products at CES

What types of products nabbed the most Twitter buzz at CES? Mass Relevance found that pre-show conversations on Twitter were highest for TV-related products and announcements. During the show, the top category winner remained TV. Phones and tablets came in second and third, respectively.

Twitter buzz about TV and mobile devices isn’t surprising. According to our internal data, 60% percent of users access Twitter on mobile. And, last month, Twitter and Nielsen announced a partnership to create a new TV rating based on social engagement.

The top product at CES that had Twitter users buzzing was Samsung’s bendable screens, leading to over 70,000 mentions for the brand. UltraHD and wearable tech rounded out the top three product trends that sparked the most conversations on Twitter. Our geek chic favorite at CES: the Twitter T-shirt vending machine by Engadget.

Top tweeted brand hashtags at CES

Based on hashtags, mobile brands dominated the conversation on Twitter. #Android appeared in the top ten hashtags each day of CES. Despite not attending the show since 1992, #Apple still ranked as a top ten topic of discussion four out of the five days measured by Mass Relevance. #Bornmobile, Qualcomm’s new campaign, hit the top ten on the day of their keynote.

#SharpCES, #SonyCES and #DigiHealthCES also generated enough Tweets to snag a spot in the top ten CES hashtags during the week. Twitter users were also buzzing about self-driving cars. The first days of the show were the strongest for the auto category. Ford announced its developer program and Audi rolling out prototypes for “auto-piloted” cars. Gaming saw its biggest day on Tuesday with announcements from brands like Razer, Valve and Xi3.

The future of marketing

One brand on Twitter that caught our eye during CES was Sprint (@Sprint). As one of Newsweek’s top three greenest companies in America, @Sprint encouraged Twitter users to use the hashtag #SprintCES and share their innovative technology ideas for a greener future.

The brand then illustrated Tweets from users in real time and shared them via Twitter.

This @Sprint campaign demonstrates why an increasingly diverse set of marketers is attending CES every year. After all, technology is transforming consumer behavior. During CES, people were not only talking about technology on Twitter, they were using Twitter to interact with brands in new ways and share information on a massive scale. That’s the future of marketing.