Floor 9

Welcome back to Floor 9! This week, host Ryan Miller is joined by Chelsea Freitas, the Lab’s strategy maven, and Tom Trudeau, our partnerships maverick, to chat about a shared passion topic — sports! Specifically, how the shifting sports audiences and viewer behaviors have impacted sports as a media business, the movement of women’s sports and the brand opportunities it brings, and the rise of next-gen alternative sports such as pickleball and drone racing. Together, they take a deep dive into the evolving landscape of sports media, and how brands can best reach sports fans.Some key segments of this episode, with corresponding timestamps, include:The impact of changing sports audiences and behaviors – 9:12Sports media entering the streaming era and its implications – 12:34Women’s sports gaining momentum and brand opportunities – 21:19The rise of next-gen alternative sports and their advantages – 27:10Capturing value beyond game day via cross-media companion content - 30:28For more insights into this topic, you can also read the companion post on our Medium blog here.If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to Floor 9. As usual, we kicked off the year with an Outlook report to forecast some emerging trends in media and consumer behavior that we think will be crucial to brand strategy in 2025 and beyond. In this episode, your host Ryan is joined by Adam Simon, the Lab’s managing director and the author of the Outlook, and Chelsea Freitas, SVP of the Lab’s Strategy team, to take a deep dive into the key trends outlined in this report. Titled “Ports in a Storm,” this year’s Outlook is centered around the idea that consumers are increasingly seeking out “havens” in the face of an increasingly chaotic and stressful world. Together, the team discusses the rise of post-text, hyper-personalized media diets, the reshuffling of social media audiences, the impulse-driven consumer behaviors, the deployment phase of AI, and the opportunities and challenges they bring for brandsFor deeper insights into the discussion, you can also read the full 2025 Outlook report on our Medium blog: https://bit.ly/IPGLabOutlook2025If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to Floor 9. As always, we are kicking off the new year with a CES episode featuring the entire Lab team. Together, we recapped the highs and lows of CES 2025, shared our personal favorites, and voiced some skepticism towards some potential "vaporwares." From smart home and smart cars to cutting-edge food and health tech, we saw a lot of interesting, innovative products across categories from the show floor this year that could, down the road, shape consumer expectations and enhance brand experiences. If you're curious about the latest and hottest in consumer tech gadgets, this episode is a must-listen!For more insights into this year's CES, please visit our Medium blog for our in-depth trend recap and analysis.If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

Closing out this remarkable year of innovations, the entire Lab team came together for our annual recap of the biggest trends that defined the tech and media landscape in 2024, and look ahead to see what 2025 may bring. Together, the team discussed:The maturing deployment of AI and the long-term prospect of the AI hypeThe future of search and the impact that AI-driven challengers could have on Google’s dominance The shifting landscape of social media—more media, less “social”—and how creators navigate evolving platforms and parasocial dynamics. The major developments in mixed reality, esp. in hardware, and how its user cases might evolve The streaming landscape in the post-streaming wars era, doubling down on live sports and battling subscription fatigueJoin us for this year-end roundup as we celebrate our team, our guests, and you—our listeners—and head into 2025 with fresh insights and excitement.If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

‘Tis the season again, and the Lab is here to discuss the latest shopping trends that we think brands should keep an eye out for this year. From a renewed emphasis on experiential in-store shopping to interesting loyalty plays, not to mention the new entrants like Amazon Haul and metaverse shopping, there’s no shortage of interesting things for Adam and Chelsea to talk about. Listen now to learn more about the latest trends in retail and shopper behaviors. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to Floor 9! This month, we welcome long-time host and director of partnerships, Ryan, back from his paternity leave to chat with Adam, the managing director of the Lab, to round up all the recent news around mixed reality headsets. From the Orion AR glasses prototype that Mark Zuckerberg showcased earlier this month, or Meta’s Ai-infused Ray-Ban smart glasses, to the developer-oriented Snap Spectacles, as well as the headset that kicked off this wave of spatial computing hardware, Apple’s Vision Pro, we covered them all! In addition, Adam and Ryan also analyzed the current competitive landscape among the tech companies trying to crack the MR hardware market and prognosticated how things might shake out over the next five to ten years. Listen now to hear our take on this potentially revolutionary emerging category. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to another episode of Floor 9. This week, Tom Trudeau from our partnerships team chats with our managing director Adam Simon about everything that marketers should know coming out of the Apple event on Monday. Together, they discussed various new Apple products, the upcoming Apple Intelligence features, as well as these AI-driven features will change consumer expectations and reshape brand interactions. Topics covered include:The new iPhones’ surprising hold on pricing, and what it means for the smartphone market (0:58)Analysis of the upcoming suite of Apple Intelligence features (2:23)The new “visual intelligence” features coming to iPhones, and what it means for marketers (5:30)The ability to capture immersive spatial video and images, and what it means for Vision Pro (7:13)Updates to AirPods and additional support for contextual audio (8:32)New hearing health features coming to AirPods Pro (11:47)New health & fitness features to Apple Watch and Apple’s sustainability goals (14:41)What brands should do to prepare for the new era of AI search (17:42)How Apple is positioning Apple Intelligence and where the company stands in the AI competitive landscape (19:51)Why spatial computing remains a key focus in Apple’s strategic roadmap (21:28)The long-term prospect for Apple Intelligence and large language models in general (22:05)Closing thoughts on Apple’s latest products and what they mean for a new deployment phrase of consumer-facing AI (25:30)If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

In this special bonus episode of the month, the Lab’s strategy team assembles to discuss the highlights from the results of our latest Futurecaster survey! Futurecaster is the Lab’s proprietary innovation tool that identifies how your audience is engaging with the tactical areas of innovation across emerging technologies and media channels.In partnership with Dynata, we survey 2,500 smartphone owners aged 16-74, asking them about their awareness, past and planned usage, and perception of emerging technologies and media channels. That survey data is fused with our Acxiom data stack, allowing us to identify which tactical areas of innovation your audiences engage with.With each new edition of the survey, we gain interesting new insights into how consumers are adopting and interacting with new technologies. This year, the results showed noteworthy developments across a wide range of innovation territories, including generative AI, augmented reality and mixed reality, retail and lifecycle loyalty, smart city and mobility solutions, the experience economy, and the creator economy. For example, awareness of generative AI tools continues to grow, with 55% of respondents saying they have heard of them, up from 36% who said so last year. Listen now to learn more about Futurecaster and the key insights we learned from this year’s survey!If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!

This week on Floor 9, the Lab’s managing director Adam Simon welcomes two senior UM executives, Dan Chapman, Global Chief Strategy Officer, and Andy Littlewood, Global Chief Product Officer, to Floor 9 for an insightful discussion on the impact of the over-reliance on AI within the media landscape, how agencies can work with clients to avoid becoming “bland brands” and lead the Renaissance of Media. Specifically, they took a deep dive into the following topics:The shifting landscape of the media industry and the end of digital ad triopolyThe impact of generative AI on the ad & media industry, and the best strategies to deal with itThe role AI in brand-building, and how to increase brand differentiation in an era of homogenizing digital platforms and ad toolsThe “brand vs. agency” dynamic and what agencies can do to help clients navigate AI’s impactHow to avoid becoming a “bland brand” and being commoditized by AI by rediscovering nuanced brand patternsHow marketers can lead a renaissance of creativity in this new eraIf you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!