CES 2027 product video: a short film for the booth, the press and the feed

Three places the film has to work

A booth screen is watched from two metres away, a press email by someone with forty others to read, and a social post on mute. All three reward the same thing: one clear idea, large type and captions.

• The booth: loop a 16:9 film with large type that can be read from a distance.
• The press: link the film in the first lines of the email and the press page.
• The feed: use short cuts in 9:16 and 1:1 with captions burned in.

What to show for a hardware or software product

Open on the problem a person has today, show the product doing its one main thing, and give the three specs people ask about as real type. Keep the brand and the address for the end. Anything you cannot yet show, such as a feature that is still being finished, should stay out of the film, because a CES film is quoted by others.

Make it before you travel

The weeks before a trade show are crowded, and the booth is not the place to edit a film. Paste your product page's address, add up to 6 product photos, and read the brief and the storyboard while the first cut renders. If a spec changes at the last minute, pin the shot that carries it and rewrite that line; the rest stays as it was.

What it is not

It is not a 3D render and not live-action footage. It is motion design around your photos and your words, a short explainer that sits next to the footage and renders you may already have. For the structure see the product launch video template, and for a physical product the page on hardware gadget videos; the use-case pages cover other kinds of product.

A checklist for the booth loop

Before the file goes on the booth screen, watch it once the way a visitor will: standing, from a distance, with the room noise on.

• Every word can be read from two metres away.
• The first shot says what the product is without any narration.
• The loop restarts cleanly, with the address on screen at the end.
• Specs match the product page and the press kit exactly.

Where the film is linked from after the show

A CES film keeps working after the show closes. Link it from the product page, the press kit and the follow-up emails to the people you met, and keep a short cut for the social posts that recap the week. Because every version is kept, you can update the film when the product ships and still have the version you showed in January.