Dave Delaney and his company, Griffin, put on quite a great little project with CESBound. They took an old VW bus, after hours, and restored it, and then drove it from Nashville all the way to Las Vegas for CES. Along the way, they made media, met friends, told stories, shot photos, froze a bit, played music, and had a blast.

When they arrived at CES, the thing they kept hearing (and I heard it when I visited the booth, too) was, “Man, it’s so cool that you restored this bus and took it on a huge road trip. That’s so much more genuine than renting a nice car and putting it in the booth.

The side of the van was covered in little Polaroid photos from the road trip. The back of the van was playing some of the CESBound TV episodes. Everyone around the bus, whether they were from Griffin or not, seemed really happy.

Dave and the whole rest of the team (we know Dave because he’s one of us, but there’s also Melanie Pherson and tons of other names that Dave or someone will add when they see this post) really did a lot to make the >Griffin Technology CES story into more than just a company selling iPhone and iPod accessories.

They made a special site, CESBound.com. They befriended the VW community via some forums, where they were told that, when the bus breaks down, someone will come and help them out, no matter where they are in the country. They did all kinds of gatherings and other on-the-road relationship building on the way to the event.

Here’s what I saw from the CES Bound experience:

• Tell a story and tell it well.
• Capture the story in multiple types of media.
• Involve people by communicating and relationship-building.
• Tie it to your core theme and beliefs (Griffin is a lot about art, design, expression).
• Build a meaningful online presence around the experience. Don’t call CESBound a microsite.
• Do it inhouse. Near as I can tell, they had no external agency help with the project.
• Share the spotlight. Griffin also partnered with Threadless to create a special CES iPhone case, with BrightKite for location services, and more.
• Bring it all home. The team did a great job of telling a story that also strengthened the brand.

There’s more to how Griffin told the story, but you can see it all at CESBound.com.

As for us, let’s just think about how heartfelt marketing delivers, and what you can do with this kind of information.

Here’s an episode of CESBound’s TV show:

Additional photos by griffintech.

(Quick note: None of these folks are clients. Some of these folks have been clients.)

I wanted to share a few snaps with you from the event, and a cool video down at the bottom. From my perspective, here’s what I took away from the event:

• Tablet computing is back and hot, only now it’s mostly in single-purpose e-readers. Is this going to be really true? I have my doubts. Of them, the coolest I saw was the Hearst Skiff.
• Personal video cameras to compete with Cisco’s Flip camera are all the rage. I saw Kodak’s new camera, as well as Sony’s Bloggie. Sony gave me an evaluation copy of the new Bloggie, so you’ll get a review soon (Thanks, Sukhjit!)
• TVs will be 3D. I’m still not sold on this, but that seemed to be the big feature I saw. Oh, and widgetized TVs that let you tweet.
• Cars are now extensions of computing platforms. Ford made some big splashes about this. It was interesting to consider.
• The Minority Report is coming. The video at the very bottom of this post shows the amazing Intel Info Cube (or whatever they called it). The wall was basically just a way to demo their new something-something-7 chip (hey, this isn’t Engadget), but I was blown away by the wall. Pair it with Microsoft Surface and you’ve got something. (I’m really serious, Bryan and Ken, about licensing the tech).
• The show is just to big and crazy to see everything. Perhaps not exactly a point about technology, but CES is overwhelming in its size. Getting a printed paper map is no longer good enough to attend this event. We need some kind of interactive planner that lets us map the event according to topics of interest. (Please?)

  And the show is much more a media show than a buyer’s show, at least for the bigger companies.

Where do I think the consumer electronics space is going? Beats the heck out of me. I think it’s pretty amazing how the show seemed stuffed to the gills with attendees and that the technology companies were there in full force. Nothing felt skimped on, so that’s something.

And now, for a few snaps and the cool Intel wall video.

Sony Bloggie (one of two or three configurations

Great Art Made at the Speck Booth

Evidently iPhone/iTouch accessories are popular.

Chevy Volt Looking Slick

Very Much a Media Show

Any place that boasts Dr Dre, Lady Gaga, Brent Spiner and Levar Burton and more isn’t really just about the gadgets any longer.

Please, Santa: Bring me THIS Next Year?

Simply, I need this wall. Okay?

Did you go? What’d you think? What do you think in general about the state of consumer electronics? Are you getting more and more interested in gadgets, or where are your interests going instead?

Please, if you’re coming to Las Vegas for CES, make SURE you check out Social Media Jungle with Jeff Pulver and friends. It’s going to be a great event.

Photo credit Doug Haslam

And then you see who’s going on the same tour with you:

• Steve Garfield – friend and video superstar and professor.
• Stacy DeBroff – just hugged her yesterday, and this would be a chance to talk parenting-blogging stuff.
• Melissa Pierce – filmmaker of the moment right now.
• Cliff Ravenscraft – who I’ve met at a few PodCamps now.

You discount the fact that Verdino’s going, as is Joseph Jaffe (Oh, I’m kidding. They’re both fun to have a beverage with, and I think they’re doing some smart work in the space.)

All in all, it’s a chance to go see some cool stuff, to speak at Jeff Pulver’s Social Media Jungle event (and maybe find some new clients), and that’s good enough.

What Panasonic’s Doing

I’m not sure what they’ve got up their sleeve, but here’s what they say I can do while hanging out there at CES as their guest:

• Watch some announcements and see what strikes my fancy.
• Play with their toys, like digital cameras, camcorders, and stuff.
• Be part of a CES Tweet-Up on Thursday night. (EDITED)
• And everything else people do at CES.

I’m not obligated to talk about anything specific, but I’m sure that I’ll kick the tires on their toys, as well as other products while I’m out there. CES is all about the gadgets if you haven’t gone, and while I don’t do a lot of gadget reporting directly here at the site, I use all kinds of things to make media. I will look at it from that perspective, and be able to report back on it.

If you’re going to CES in Las Vegas this coming January 8-11, I’ll be there for the above-mentioned, but also to talk with companies about their social media business strategies for 2009. If you want to have a meeting along those lines, drop a line to kathryn@chrisbrogan.com and let’s try and schedule a quick meeting.

If you’re going and just want to hang out, I’ll be there. Easiest way to get to me, probably, is to send a direct message via Twitter. If we’re friends, I’ll give you my cell for texting at the event.

So, let’s see what fun I can stir up with that above-mentioned crew at CES, thanks to Panasonic and Crayon.

Was that enough disclosure?