The biggest consumer electronics event of the year, CES, is just around the corner. With it comes a lot of opportunities to showcase your brand to the right buyers, consumers, media, and beyond. One of the great opportunities to get in front of those audiences comes in the form of awards.
Now, I know you have heard of the CES Innovations Awards. That program has been closed for weeks at this point. Sorry if you missed it, but this is your reminder to look early next year. The Innovation Award deadline usually closes in late August, so be on the lookout for it next summer for CES 2026.
Back to CES 2025: Did you know about all the other awards that are announced between now and January? Let me break them down for you.
Firstly, and not free, is probably the second most popular awards surrounding CES. The CES Picks Awards. These are put on by three trade publications: TWICE, Residential Systems and TechRadar Pro. These were just recently announced and are open now for the early bird pricing of $595 through November 19th. The final entry deadline for these awards is December 20th, and the regular pricing will be $695 through that date. To apply, you select the media outlet that best fits your target audience. Quick guide:
- TWICE: B2B outlet focused on the technology and consumer electronics industries.
- Residential Systems: B2B outlet focused on the custom installation industry.
- TechRadar Pro: A broader tech news-style site geared towards B2B (has a popular B2C component as well).
Other awards start to pop up in Q4 as well, many of them free. Yes, that’s right, free!
Android Authority and SoundGuys partner yearly to bring their Best of CES Awards to life. These awards are strictly open to consumer products in a number of categories, including but not limited to audio, smart home, fitness tech and beyond. As long as you announce the product within a few weeks of the CES show and it is a consumer product, it is eligible. FREE entry is already open for these awards closing on January 6, 2025.
Enter Android Authority and SoundGuys Best of CES Awards
As of today, I haven’t seen the announcement for all of the CES Awards typically run by Future Pubs’ consumer-facing media outlets, but they do them yearly. Last year, all of the below ran FREE awards specifically surrounding CES:
- Tom’s Guide
- TechRadar
- Android Central
- GamesRadar
- iMore
- Laptop
- PC Gamer
- PC Pro
- Tom’s Hardware
- T3
- What Hi-Fi?
- Windows Central
Techlicious usually runs its Top Picks of CES Awards too, but I haven’t seen that announced yet.
There are a lot of other awards we’ve seen previously and new ones popping up yearly. For example, LifeSavvy and How To Geek previously had CES awards that we never saw go live for 2024. We’ll see if they make a comeback for 2025. Sadly though, one of my personal favorite awards, The Reviewed Editor’s Choice Awards, will surely not be available for 2025 since Reviewed is closing its operations this November.
Keep in mind, I have seen awards go live as late as January 2nd! So you have to be on the lookout so as not to miss any opportunities. Hopefully this will help you know where to look in the very least.
If you need help with a smart CES strategy, shoot me a note.