Stars add flair to tech

Rhianna developed a splash finally years CES with Polaroid. Dr. Dre, center, could expand his initial Monster partnership, introduced within the 2008 CES, because he grew to become part of Peter Chou, left, and Jimmy Iovine for just about any collabration between HTC and Beats by Dr. Dre this season.Lady Gaga and Polaroid developed a paparazzi-worthy splash by announcing a cutting-edge partnership throughout last year's Electronic Products Show. Despite the fact that their first product, a co-high quality printer, later showed up on numerous best-of lists, with CNet stating it "made mobile inkjet ink jet printers sexy again," two more products also introduced within the confab have not yet materialize.Meanwhile, within the same Las vegas confab, fans mobbed a booth where artist 50 Cent suggested his entry to the crowded headset category getting an item referred to as Sleek by 50.Within several days, though, that deal soured and Sleek by 50 never turned up inside a Biggest Score in your town.CES has extended tried to create its tech awesome and, consequently, has progressively found itself inside the celebrity game.Just have a look at press conferences for that new the new sony and Yahoo, formerly, that presented Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen, even though this year, The brand new the new sony and Yahoo featured Will Cruz and Tom Hanks.But CES is learning what Hollywood knows perfectly: where stars go, drama follows.That is not always an undesirable factor. A hollywood contingent, ultimately, brings from it elevated visibility and media attention, which might be a boon to technology businesses that use stars, artists and filmmakers.Nevertheless the jury's still on exactly how effective a couple of of those alliances are, even though it's not surprise they keep happening thinking about that they're a sure-fire approach to generate warmth, no less than initially. (Nikon and Ashton Kutcher continue being going strong, and Rim has elevated its brand together with your famous pitchmen as Adrian Grenier and customary)."CES is nearly the Super Bowl of tech marketing," mentioned David Schwab, controlling director of Octagon First Call, which supports brands assess celebrity value for ad campaigns. "Like brands use sports sports athletes to create products within the Super Bowl, tech companies perform the identical factor with stars at CES."If there's a defacto standard in the past couple of years, it may be Beats by Dr. Dre, a partnership that opened up in 2008 pairing within the stylish-hop mogul, with record executive Jimmy Iovine and audio gear company Monster Cable Products.Though exact figures aren't available, estimations known as the product's retail sales at $50 million for fourth quarter 2009, after Biggest Score put into-store Club Beats locations.Not only gets the Beats line grown substantially over time, the item has showed up at into other industries with innovative crossover deals. The earphones are built-into a $2,300 Hewlett-Packard laptop and into Chrysler's renovated 300 sedan, for example."Beats has become synonymous with a specific level of quality,In . mentioned Jonathan Geller, editor in the influential tech blog, Boy Genius Report. "And they're a means statement for your youthful audience they're marketed to."Dr. Dre, who used the earphones in the popular Dr. Pepper commercial, through which he starred, may be within achieve of Iovine's conjecture that he'd be to earphones what Jordan would be to sports footwear.The fashionable-hop artist surely tips when you're first inside the category, which has since become crowded together with other famous faces.Jay-Z, along with his RocNation Aircraft pilots from Skullcandy, and Soul by Ludacris from Signeo now fight it with Beats' own JustBeats (associated with teen heartthrob Attacking Youthful Boys) and DiddyBeats (rapper P. Diddy). The 2nd, according to launched reviews, may be producing about $millions of yearly for your artist-businessman.Bieber will probably be at CES to market TOSY Robotics' new robot.For that carefully seen Rhianna-Polaroid deal from last year's CES? There's still an instantaneous camera coming, that's been postponed but looks like it's being launched sometime this year. The long run is less certain for some advanced camera-glasses that have been very well-liked by people collected last The month of the month of january. To produce a champion, the tech product must be excellent, industry audiences mentioned, much spoken about representative or else. As well as the association between star and gadget must appear sensible to clients. Because way, technology is equivalent to sports drinks or clothing brands.Also secret weapon to success may be the celebrity's hands-on participation inside the product, once the tech customers are shilling it "created byInch or "produced byInch the star.This is why 50 Cent (born Curtis Jackson) scrapped his prior earphones deal and made a decision to produce their very own product via SMS Audio, a company through which lucrative has a large part stake and may serve as Boss."Clients know when somebody's stuck a title around the product or when they're really devoted to it," mentioned John Nohe, leader of SMS Audio, which recently released the wireless earphones, Sync by 50, and wired version, Street by 50. "50 is invested personally and financially."Because the earphones category remains growing around 20% percent yearly throughout the final a long time, Nohe mentioned he isn't worried about oversaturation. More youthful crowd mentioned he thinks 50 Cent's global appeal -- in addition to his 3.8 million Twitter fans -- will separate the completely new product within the relaxation in the pack.In line with Jackson's charitable efforts, there's a tie between SMS and Feeding America, using the organization giving portions of comes from headset sales for the domestic food bank.The rapper will probably be signing autographs Thursday within the SMS Audio booth (LVCC, South Hall, #20818) and discuss his wireless earphones with editors of TechCrunch within the America online Studio and CNET today.Stars attending CES this weekBOOMDIZZLE: LL Awesome JHAIER AMERICA: Robert Horry, John Salley, Allison FishmaniCONNECTIVITY: Jordan RudessONSTAR: Greg Grunberg, Wayne BradyPALTALK: Dennis RodmanPANASONIC/last century FOX: John Glen, Martin Campbell, Michael Apted, Olga Kurylenko, Caterina MurinoQUALCOMM: Alistair OvereemROBOTICS TECHZONE: Justin BieberSMS AUDIO: 50 CentSONY: Will Cruz, Craig Sonnenfeld, Ron BakerSPIKE TV: Eliza Dushku (CES celebrity ambassador)SPORTS AND FITNESS TECHZONE: Jillian MichaelsYAHOO: Tom HanksZEIKOS/iHIP: Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Jose "Hyde" Cotto, Carl Banks Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com