In the technology product space, there are rarely truly “innovative” products, but each year we submit our newest and most exciting products for consideration for a CES Innovation Awards. While we’ve earned many honoree awards for our clients over the past 20+ years, we won the 2020 Best of Innovation award, the top award in the Computer Peripherals & Accessories category for Zyxel Communications.
The CES Innovation Awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. The program recognizes honorees in a multitude of consumer technology product categories and distinguishes the highest rated in each.
The Product – The Zyxel Communications Halo Light System
Zyxel Halo Light is a powerful whole-home mesh Wi-Fi6 system that combines a robust portfolio of intelligent security and usage features with machine learning to provide a unique, home WiFi solution that truly redefines the capabilities and utility of the connected, smart home.
Halo Light revolutionizes the home WiFi by incorporating intelligent tracking using Wi-Fi signals (patent pending). Using machine learning technology, Halo Light learns and maps WiFi signatures and behavior of devices at home enabling it to detect out-of-normal activity and send alerts for applications such as monitoring children or elderly family members. By mapping the known devices, Halo Light also recognizes unknown WiFi devices like a cellphone of an intruder and alerts the family.
Award Writing is Strategic
Winning an honoree award in the CES Innovations Award program is extremely difficult and winning the top award in the category requires both an innovative product and an award entry that strategically positions it as the best in the category.
The judges of this highly-competitive award program make their decisions almost wholly-based on written submissions that include:
- 250-word product description;
- Description of the engineering qualities of the product – materials, components, and processes used to fabricate the product and how their qualities relate to the product’s intended use;
- Description of the product’s aesthetic and design qualities, functions, and how they relate to user value;
- Description of why the product deserves and award and what makes it unique and innovative to the consumer technology market.
Creating an award submission requires our team to truly understand product differentiation, target audience benefits and use cases, and award selection criteria. We need to anticipate competitive products and judges’ perceptions. Writing awards is an art and is one of the capabilities that Integrity PR has become known for.