NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a record-breaking 1.87 million square feet of space for exhibits at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, the real buzz wasn't about hardware -- it was about connectivity, apps and the cloud. New research from Digitas, a digitally led integrated brand agency, and Brandwatch, a social media monitoring and analytics company, analyzed over 330,000 social media mentions to reveal what trends and products coming out of CES really matter to people worldwide.

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"CES has traditionally been all about hardware, with a particular emphasis on television," said Chia Chen, SVP, Mobile Lead, Digitas North America.  "But this year the ecosystem of software, apps, and content became a crucial part of the show. And while TV still has a role to play, mobile became more of the centerpiece. These trends in consumer preferences have important implications for both manufacturers and marketers in today's multi-screen world."

CES 2013: Connectivity, apps, and content dominated product discussions

Digitas and Brandwatch dove into the social chatter surrounding five key product features for mobile phones, tablets, TVs, and PCs/laptops. With the exception of TVs, the most buzzed about capabilities focused on the connectivity, apps, and content related to these products, beating out other features such as size, display, network, and processors/speed. In fact, connectivity, apps, and content drove:

• 29.5% of product feature mentions for mobile phones (23,499 out of 79,625)
• 27.2% of product feature mentions for PCs and laptops (20,449 out of 75,223)
• 27.5% product feature mentions for tablets (13,133 out of 47,679)

For TVs, connectivity, apps, and content capabilities took second, beat out only by display:

• Display drove 35.9% of the conversation (28,070 out of 78,251)
• Connectivity, apps, and content drove 22.5% of the conversation (17,592 out of 78,251)

A declining emphasis on hardware also revealed itself in a look at the connected technology trends at CES. Digitas and Brandwatch research picked up over 17,000 mentions of connectivity and connected technology. Of those conversations, 12,454 mentions honed in on four specific areas -- and the cloud drove about one half of the conversation:

• 41.7% of mentions focused on the cloud (5,198 out of 12,454)
• 26.1% of mentions focused on NFC/RFID (3,247 out of 12,454)
• 19.4% of mentions focused on connected cars (2,417 out of 12,454)
• 12.8% of mentions focused on connected homes (1,592 out of 12,454)

Mobile rises to the top of the technology charts - even before you count tablets

While social chatter in the months leading up to CES focused more on television, mobile rose to the top during the week of the show -- and that's without factoring in tablets. Out of 273,624 product mentions worldwide, there were:

• 74,703 mentions of mobile phones
• 59,998 mentions of television
• 55,586 mentions of PCs and laptops
• 37,285 mentions of tablets
• 31,382 mentions of cars
• 7,969 mentions of cameras
• 6,701 mentions of home appliances

Digital health and fitness gains momentum

The social buzz surrounding digital health and fitness technology also generated notable results, with a total of 12,119 social media mentions -- outnumbering conversations for items such as cameras and home appliances.

From Las Vegas to the world: CES is truly an international show

While the bulk of social media conversations (279,000) took place in North America, CES also had a significant presence in social chatter worldwide:

• 29,000 mentions in Europe
• 16,000 mentions in Asia
• 6,900 mentions in Australasia
• 6,100 mentions in South America
• 2,400 mentions in Africa

This research is the second in a series from Digitas and Brandwatch focused on providing social analyses and real-time snapshots of a variety of consumer trends and preferences. Previous research analyzed over 2.6 million social media conversations concerning holiday shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Methodology: Social data analysis took place from January 7-10, 2013. Data points drawn from specific subsets of a total of over 330,000 CES mentions analyzed. For example, the percentages of product feature mentions were based on the total number of social conversations that disclosed such information.

About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a leading provider of social media monitoring and analytics solutions.  More than 600 global brands and agencies use Brandwatch, relying on a broad range of social coverage and highly reliable, spam-free data to monitor online conversations. As a result, organizations can glean insights around their brand interests, conduct market research, predict market trends, and more actively engage influencers, customers and prospects.

Founded in August 2007, Brandwatch is headquartered in Brighton, UK and has offices in the United States and Germany.  For more information, please visit www.brandwatch.com.

About Digitas
Digitas, a digitally-led, integrated global brand agency, builds brands for some of the foremost companies in the world. In 2012 Digitas was named OMMA Magazine's Agency of the Year and The Drum's London Integrated Agency of the Year. Digitas was also the winner of nine Cannes Lions in 2012. The agency also counts Agency of the Year honors from the Festival of Media, BtoB Magazine, and Les Agences de l'Annee, France, and has been named to the Advertising Age Digital A-List among its many awards.

Digitas also operates the brand content platform, The Third Act:, producers of first and most well renowned event on digital content, The NewFront and Prodigious Worldwide, the world's only standalone, global digital productions company.

With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo and Razorfish, Digitas is a member of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi -- a global digital knowledge and resource center that leverages the combined scale of the autonomous operations of its members to develop new services, new tools, and new partnerships.

Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange - FR0000130577 - and part of the CAC 40 index] is the world's third largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Web site: www.publicisgroupe.com

www.digitas.com | Twitter: @Digitas | Facebook: Digitas Fan Page | Blog: Digitas Distillery

SOURCE Digitas; Brandwatch