Turning a $9,000 media table at CES 2025 into half a billion views

When Brazil’s CESAR Innovation Hub and Grupo Boticário approached us to help them launch their groundbreaking Smart Lipstick® prototype in the U.S., CES 2025's Pepcom media showcase made perfect sense to us - and we pushed them to do it. Then, we leveraged AI to help speed and improve content.

We knew we were about to witness something extraordinary. Not because of the technology alone – though teaching AI to recognize diverse ethnic features is remarkable – but because of the grand vision behind it. It’s the kind of innovation that gets mass-media attention from the likes of the AP.

By 8:30 PM at the Caesar's Palace Conference Center, the night before the world’s biggest tech show opened on January 7, our modest table had become Pepcom's epicenter. AP photographers elbowed for position while Agence France-Presse reporters scribbled notes.

The crowd around the demo table at Pepcom wasn't there for Vegas glitz. They watched, transfixed, as the world's first AI-powered lipstick system performed its precision ballet – scanning faces, mapping lips, and applying color with robotic grace in under two minutes.

Enhanced storytelling using Anthropic's Claude (AI)

We partnered with Claude, Anthropic's AI - our favorite writing co-pilot/chatbot, to craft pitches that cut through the noise. We positioned the story not as another beauty gadget, but as a watershed moment in smart, accessible design. For A F-P's Glen Chapman, the news story hook was "Age Tech" – a solution for the World Economic Forum's "silver tsunami" of aging global consumers.

Seven years. Forty-two designers, engineers, and DEI experts. One mission: make beauty truly accessible. While the tech world chases viral TikTok trends, this Brazilian powerhouse collaboration chose a different path. They saw past the obvious to recognize an overlooked truth – innovation isn't always about creating something new, but about making existing experiences accessible to all.

The massive marketing ROI tells only part of the story

Yes, $10,000 for a Pepcom media event table turned into half a billion global impressions across tier-one media. That's huge. But the real measure of success wasn't just the metrics.

It was in the faces of beauty industry veterans and tech journalists alike as they realized they were witnessing more than a product launch. They were seeing the future of inclusive beauty innovation.

DEI initiatives are "alive and kicking" in Latin America

"This is just the beginning of how AI will transform beauty accessibility," said Giordano Cabral, CESAR's Board Chairman and a leading GenAI expert. Coming from a center that's delivered 135 projects across 20 industries in the past year alone, those words aren't hype – they're a roadmap.

In a tech media industry obsessed with the next big thing, CESAR and Grupo Boticário remind us that true innovation often means looking where others aren't. Sometimes, the most revolutionary act isn't disrupting an industry – it's making sure everyone can participate in it.

###

MORE HERE VIA MY STORY | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY GRIT DAILY