Forget New Hampshire…Who will win at CES?

With the Iowa caucus behind them, the Republican candidates are vying for a win in New Hampshire. CNN will once again have John King and the wonderfully bearded Wolf Blitzer analyze Twitter chatter to understand how the public feels about the candidates, using tweets from the masses as a crystal ball to predict the outcome.

But in Las Vegas, Nevada, another primary of sorts will be taking place on January 10. That’s the start of the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), when more than 2,700 exhibitors from 140 countries will attract nearly 150,000 attendees to experience more than 20,000 product launches. For the tech companies that participate, CES is the key time to make stump speeches, roll out their 9-9-9 plans and dazzle media, retailers and the public with their amazingly innovative solutions.

Like Vegas itself, CES is a gaudy, inflated, all-you-can eat buffet of delights. Anyone who has attended the tradeshow can attest: it’s exhausting. Not just because walking the enormous space wears out your soles, but because the information overloads your system.

That’s why Mullen banded together with JetBlue Airways and leading social media analytics provider Pointslocal to develop CE Pulse. It’s a real-time, interactive gauge of online public opinion that helps consumers and marketers filter through the overwhelming hype to understand how consumers actually feel about brands and products. CE Pulse tracks and ranks social sentiment so you can see what’s important to the masses. Which brands and products are leading the pack? What gear do I want to blow my paycheck on in 2012?

CE Pulse is the latest in a series of social media monitoring and analysis projects from Mullen. For the past three years, we’ve held BrandBowl to gauge consumer sentiment surrounding Super Bowl TV commercials. Working with Pointslocal, we’ve also measured consumer sentiment related to major sports teams with The Pulse/Boston Red Sox and The Pulse/New England Patriots.

We think that brands that listen to how consumers talk about them are in a better position to engage in a dialogue with those consumers. Social media monitoring tools like CE Pulse enable consumers and brands to truly understand how the public perceives new products and to filter through the noise to uncover valuable information. As the candidates would say, and brands should learn to say, “It’s not about me—it’s about you!”

For a play-by-play report from our own Wolf in the field, follow @CE_Pulse on Twitter and visit the site.