Something important is happening in search right now. 

People are still searching, but they are doing it differently. Instead of clicking through pages of links, they are asking platforms like OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini to summarize information for them. In a recent interview with BBC News, Kipp Bodnar, Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot, shared that queries that trigger AI overviews see a 60-70% lower click-through rate. Users are getting what they need without leaving the interface.

For years, digital visibility was mostly tied to rankings and traffic. A brand published content, optimized it for search, and tried to earn the click. Now there is another layer in the middle. AI systems are deciding which companies, sources, and perspectives deserve inclusion in the answer itself.

And those systems lean heavily on trust signals they can verify across the web.

That is one reason earned media now matters in a much bigger way. 

Why Earned Media Carries More Weight in AI Search

AI systems are built to recognize patterns.

They look for information that appears consistently across multiple trusted sources. That includes media coverage, expert commentary, interviews, reviews, research, and public conversation. A 2025 analysis by MuckRack found that nearly 89% of citations in AI-generated responses originated from earned media sources. Most of what AI references isn’t brand-created, it’s journalist-validated.

If a company continuously  shows up in credible places, AI systems are more likely to associate that brand with authority in a category.

This is where the idea of AI citation share starts to matter. In simple terms, it is how often a brand appears in AI-generated responses and recommendations.

That visibility is not coming only from owned content. In many cases, it is shaped by what others are saying about the brand online.

A company might publish dozens of blog posts about its expertise, but a strong article in a respected publication can carry more influence because it acts as third-party validation.

PR, SEO, and Content Are Starting to Overlap

The old boundaries between communications, SEO, and content marketing are getting blurry.

A website and search optimization are still significant considerations, but AI systems also evaluate whether a brand’s messaging holds up across external sources and broader online discussion.

That means earned media, owned content, and community conversation are all feeding the same ecosystem.

One weak or inconsistent area can affect the overall picture that AI systems build around a brand.

This is part of why so many marketing teams are rethinking how they operate. PR can no longer sit in a separate lane from search and content strategy because all three now influence how brands appear in AI-generated answers.

AI Systems Reward Structured Content

There is also a practical side to this shift. For example, research from a 2026 study by Kevin Indig found that 44.2% of all large language model citations come from the first 30% of a piece of content. This implies that structure is now the primary driver of visibility in brand copy.

AI systems also favor information that is easy to interpret and summarize. Clear headlines, direct language, strong sourcing, and consistent messaging all help. 

Content written for humans still wins, but clarity matters more now because machines are reading it too.

That applies to media coverage as much as brand-owned content.

A well-placed quote, a clearly stated point of view, or consistent positioning across interviews can reinforce how AI systems categorize and describe a company later on.

What Marketing Leaders Should Pay Attention To

The bigger issue here is not traffic loss alone, even though declining click-through rates are already becoming a concern across search.

The larger shift is influence. According to eMarketer, when an AI chatbot recommends a brand, nearly half of users indicate they would try it.

If more buying decisions take place within AI platforms, brands need to consider whether they are accurately and consistently showing up in those environments.

That changes the role of earned media.

Coverage is no longer just about awareness or reputation. It also contributes to the broader body of information that AI systems draw on when generating recommendations and summaries.

Companies that build strong visibility across trusted publications, industry conversations, and owned channels are likely to have an advantage because their signals are easier for AI systems to recognize and reinforce.

The Bigger Shift

This does not mean SEO disappears or that websites stop mattering. People will still research brands directly. They will still visit websites before making decisions.

But discovery is becoming more layered and the impact of getting this right is already measurable. After implementing a focused AEO strategy, HubSpot saw a 433% increase in AI citations, according to AdWeek’s AI Power 50 2026. 

That is why earned media is becoming more strategic. It helps shape how brands are understood before a customer ever clicks anything.

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Creators, Commerce, and Controlled Chaos: Trends From POSSIBLE

In late April, Miami Beach became the epicenter for marketing leaders, creators, tech companies, and media executives, all eager to discuss where the industry is headed next.

The energy was intense in the best way possible, somewhere between inspiring and overwhelming. One moment, you were in a session about AI and creators, and the next, a helicopter was dragging a digital billboard over the ocean. People kept calling it the American version of Cannes, and honestly, it felt pretty close.

There was a lot of noise, a lot of hype, and more panels than any human could realistically process in three days. But underneath it all, a few ideas kept surfacing again and again.

The biggest one? Everything is becoming retail.

1. Everything Is Retail

Not retail in the old sense of the word. Not just ecommerce or shopping ads. Today, every screen, platform, and experience is expected to create a path to purchase. For example: TikTok, YouTube, connected TV, in-store screens, creator content, and social feeds are all now considered forms of commerce.

The old marketing funnel is gone. Discovery, validation, and purchase now happen almost simultaneously, sometimes in a single video.

That shift is changing expectations for brands in a major way. Awareness alone does not carry the same weight it used to. Every touchpoint is expected to deliver measurable results.

2. The Role of the CMO

That pressure is also reshaping the CMO’s role.

Session after session highlighted how CMOs are no longer just storytellers. They’re expected to drive growth and speak as fluently about revenue and data as finance teams.

Creativity matters more than ever, but now must directly drive business outcomes with measurable impact.

3. AI’s Evolving Place in the Industry

Another inescapable topic was AI. It came up in every conversation about changing workflows, production, targeting, personalization, or content creation.

But what stood out most was that people were not talking about AI replacing humans nearly as much as they were talking about the need for a human perspective.

The sentiment in many creator and influencer conversations was surprisingly grounded. AI can help brands move faster. It can make content production more efficient. But human storytelling still hits differently. People still connect with personality, taste, humor, vulnerability, and perspective in a way machines cannot fully replicate.

That idea kept coming up in conversations about creators.

Some of the most interesting sessions focused on how brands are learning to loosen their grip creatively. Companies like E.L.F. and Crocs were repeatedly cited as examples of brands succeeding by trusting creators to communicate in their own voices rather than forcing overly polished brand messaging into creator content.

That matters because younger audiences trust the creators they follow for more than entertainment. In many cases, creators have become stronger drivers of affinity than traditional advertising. For Gen Z and emerging Gen Alpha audiences especially, creators increasingly shape not only purchasing decisions, but also cultural relevance, brand perception, and long-term loyalty.

The brands that are succeeding seem to understand that authenticity cannot be overly manufactured. The more scripted creator content feels, the faster audiences tune out.

4. The Social Shift

In addition to creator trends, there was a noticeable shift in how people talked about social media overall. Social is no longer treated like an extension of a campaign. For many brands, it is the campaign. It is the first screen, the first impression, and often the place where culture forms around a product in real time.

This shift transforms creative, media strategy, and response speed.

In fact, POSSIBLE itself embodied this larger shift happening across the industry. The entire event was built around attention. Big experiences. Big personalities. Big activations. Constant stimulation. It felt like a live reflection of the media landscape we are all operating in right now.

A little chaotic. A little exhausting. But also exciting because you could feel how much change is happening all at once.

The Biggest Trend? Commerce Convergence.

The biggest takeaway from the week was probably this: the lines separating media, commerce, creators, entertainment, and technology are disappearing fast. They are all blending into one another, and brands are trying to figure out how to move with it rather than against it.

Also, Miami in April is not for the faint of heart. The humidity alone deserves its own panel discussion.

#POSSIBLE #Marketing #CreatorEconomy #RetailMedia #AI #BrandBuilding #DigitalMarketing #AMP #FullVolumeImpact

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Many marketers assume sweepstakes are a relic, something tucked away in the dusty corners of the promotional playbook between instant rebates and mail-in offers. But the reality is the opposite. In today’s marketplace, where attention is scarce and shoppers are increasingly price-conscious, sweepstakes are quietly doing something many higher-cost tactics can’t: they make people feel something.

They promise a dream.

Think about the ones you’ve seen out in the wild or maybe even built into your own programs. A trip of a lifetime. A million-dollar jackpot. The ultimate home makeover. Or one of my favorites, the “dream job for a year” genre of prizing. Get the gig and spend a year making social content while holding a title like Chief Taco Officer. Sí, por favor.

These prizes work because they create a moment of possibility. And in a crowded retail environment, the moment that inspires the shopper’s imagination may be what earns a pause, a click, and a spot in their cart.

What Sweepstakes Are Designed to Do

At their core, sweepstakes reward engagement at the moment of choice. The mechanics can be very simple. Invite the shopper in with an attention-driving enticement, give them a reason to act now, and make the interaction feel worth it. The return on that for brands can take different forms:

• Trial or conversion at the point of purchase
• Re-engagement from lapsed buyers
• Growth in email or social audiences

What Makes a Sweepstakes Actually Work

The difference between a sweepstakes people ignore, and one that drives results usually comes down to how well it reflects real consumer behavior.

• Entry mechanics should feel natural, not like a task. Complexity is a killer. Go for light lift (to weed out the bots) and high relevance.
• Lean into existing behaviors such as texting, scrolling, and quick mobile actions like QR code scanning.
• Match the mechanic to the audience so participation feels intuitive. For example, Gen Z is more likely to engage with text and social follow, comment, or share requirements. 

Make the prize something people talk about

Audience understanding is key. What’s the particular stuff of their dreams? And how does the prizing reflect the broader promise of the brand? 

• Big, aspirational prizes grab attention.
• Ongoing or themed prizing sustains engagement.
• Experiences tend to outperform cash because they’re more shareable, even if ultimately, winners opt for cash. 
• The best prizes feel less like rewards and more like stories waiting to happen.

Make winning feel possible

Perception plays a big role in participation. It’s often a careful balance of attainability and attention. Big, splashy prizes are great for PR extensions, but they may dissuade participation. 

• Multiple prize tiers or frequent drawings build momentum.
• Longer programs with repeated chances encourage re-engagement
• Smaller wins balance out the long-shot appeal of a grand prize and create more opportunities to understand participant behavior over time

Make it part of something bigger

Sweepstakes perform best when they connect to a broader moment and other brand activities. Consider how the sweepstakes reinforces other brand storytelling and world-building.

• Tie them to sponsorships, cultural events, or seasonal behaviors.
• Use them to support launches of new products or services or key retail windows.

Plan earlier than you think

Timing has a direct impact on performance, both in planning and execution. 

• Map programs to annual planning cycles.
• Align with tentpole moments across sports, entertainment, and retail.

Measure what matters

• Just counting entries is a common mistake, especially in the age of bots. Instead consider:
• Engagement rate (shares, comments, UGC)
• Conversion or downstream behavior
• Incremental lift in brand perception or consideration

Execution Drives Success

Most brands don’t struggle with the idea of a sweepstakes. Of course, it’s fun to imagine the stuff of your shoppers’ dreams. But they can struggle with everything required to run one well.

Legal, fraud prevention, platform build, prize fulfillment, the nitty-gritty details add up quickly, and it’s often why the tactic gets underused or oversimplified.

AMP approaches sweepstakes as scalable programs rather than one-off activations. We handle everything from concept through compliance and fulfillment. 

Just as importantly, we ensure the data captured is structured, compliant, and actionable, so participation translates into long-term value, not just a short-term spike. Your sweepstakes can build your brand.

The result is less friction, stronger performance, and an experience that holds up at scale, all the while associating your brand with that dream of a prize just right for your consumer. 

Why Consider Sweepstakes Now

As competition intensifies and shoppers become more selective, it’s not enough to show up. Today, with gas prices spiking and the multiplying gremlin of inflation pressuring brands, you have to give people more reasons to choose.

Sweepstakes help create a reason. They add a layer of escapist aspiration to the brand experience, differentiate at shelf and at the point of decision-making, and give people something beyond price to respond to.

And in that moment when they inspire the imagination, spur the mind to dream, they make the shopper’s choice feel a little less routine.

The post Sweepstakes: The Stuff of Dreams and Brand Building appeared first on Amp Agency.

Brands often default to generic messages, but the key to winning this high-stakes moment lies in better decision design, not just better messaging. 

In our white paper, The Psychology Behind Getting Mother’s Day Right, we introduce our proprietary Nudgenomics™ methodology, which blends behavioral science with strategy design to reframe marketing as a system of nudges. Using implicit testing, we developed the Nudge Impact Score™ to measure real-time decision-making signals like speed and purchase intent, bypassing conscious opinions to find out what truly moves consumers to act.

We reveal that two key psychological triggers—narrative transportation and elevation—consistently outperform others by dramatically reducing shopper doubt and promising a successful outcome. Download this paper to learn the four critical implications for CPG brands, and start replacing endless options with the confidence-building signals shoppers are desperately seeking. 

Download the full white paper to get all the insights.

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By Kelly Ravestijn, SVP Behavioral & Cultural Intelligence

In many homes, the shift from spring to summer doesn’t just bring better weather. Instead, it ushers in a full-on month of madness. Let’s explore this new season that your brand teams may be snoozing on unless they, too, seem a little distracted right about now. 

What exactly is “Maycember,” and why should brands care?

Like a lot of internet-born terms, Maycember stuck because it’s accurate. It’s the end-of-school-year sprint marked by graduations, recitals, proms, sports banquets, all stacked on top of already busy lives. Think December-level chaos and commitments, just without the spiked eggnog.

For brands, it means showing up in a moment of real cognitive overload for the consumers affected by these demands. We know from many surveys that Americans’ stress levels are running high (permacrisis, anyone?), which means these consumers aren’t just busy. They’re probably mentally tapped out.

When that happens, the brain starts filtering hard. Anything that feels like effort, extra steps, too many choices, unclear value, gets ignored. And being ignored is the antithesis of successful marketing. 

Why does traditional marketing often fail during this time?

Most brands respond to a distracted audience by pushing harder. But during Maycember, many of your customers are deep in decision fatigue. 

If your marketing asks them to think, compare, or navigate a complex path, it’s not getting done. At that point, you’re not just competing with other brands. Now, you’re competing with their need to parse their mental energy. 

How does Nudgenomics™ change the approach to Maycember marketing?

Nudgenomics™ starts with how people actually behave when their mental battery is at 1%.

At that point, no one is carefully weighing options. They’re defaulting. The goal isn’t to be louder. It’s to be the easiest, most obvious choice in the moment.

What are the key “Mental Shortcuts” or nudges brands should use?

To win this month, you need to align with how a stressed brain functions. We focus on three specific behavioral triggers:

The path of least resistance

When the brain is exhausted, it’s drawn to what’s easiest. Your job is to make your brand feel less like a new decision and more like the natural next step. When was the last time you followed the purchase journey for your own products or services? Audit your brand CX and UX. 

The power of simplicity

This goes beyond clean design. It’s about reducing effort across the entire experience with fewer steps, clearer choices, and less to figure out. This may not be the time to relaunch your loyalty program or field feedback surveys.

The signal in the noise

When people don’t have the energy to research, they look for shortcuts: reviews, popularity, trusted cues. These tools do the heavy lifting. Spotlight them. For example, beauty brands have an opportunity to lean into prom make-up tutorials while folks hosting graduation parties are apt to be looking for simple recipes that please teens and adults. I recommend dips. 

What is the “Golden Rule” for Maycember marketing?

Ask yourself one question: are you helping your customer succeed and enjoy the season’s celebrations, or adding to their to-do list?

If your brand acts like an “easy button” in the middle of Maycember chaos, you’re more likely to win the moment and their long-term loyalty. Don’t be complex. Give them guides. And sand away the friction in choice. Perhaps you’re dealing with your own Maycember madness, so you’re both marketer and consumer. Where could you use a hand right about now?

Key Takeaway

Recognizing this particular season in many people’s lives, a season filled with brand decisions to make, is the first step to making your marketing more effective. In a world of high stress and decision fatigue, the brand that demands the least amount of “brain power” during Maycember is the one that wins the sale.  

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The default role of alcohol has shifted. Nights are smaller, more intentional, and built around connection first. With drinking often no longer the centerpiece, it’s a choice, shaped by mood, moment, and context.

That creates a growing gap. While many brands still rely on scale, spectacle, and sameness, Gen Z is operating with a different calculus, one that blends moderation, selectivity, and a sharper definition of what’s actually worth their spend.

In Reaching Today’s Gen Z Drinkers, we explore four dynamics reshaping the category—and what it takes for brands to stay relevant.

Download the full white paper to see what comes next.

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Last week, close to 80,000 conference-goers descended on the Anaheim Convention Center for the 45th edition of Natural Products Expo West. Three days. Over 3,000 brands. 130 countries represented. A $342 billion industry flexing in every aisle. My step count looked like a phone number. My suitcase came dangerously close to incurring an extra fee what with all the samples—including a block of unpasteurized cheddar that I couldn’t say no to. By the time I flew back to Dallas, I had consumed enough functional mushroom products to now legally register as a National Forest.

If you haven’t been, get to the 46th edition knowing that you’ll be a little high on it all in the end. Reminds me of another gathering…

Expo West is the Coachella of natural products—if Coachella headlined gummy vitamins and tallow-fried tortilla chips and asked you to rate both on a scale from one to life-changing.

Here’s what I saw. And more importantly, here’s what I think it means for anyone in the business of building brands.

1. Everyone Will Be Putting Protein in Their Protein

We need to talk about protein. Not because it’s new — it was everywhere last year too — but because of where it showed up this year. Protein in soda. Protein in pretzels. Protein in candy. Protein in ramen. Protein in ice cream. Someone at New Hope reportedly started photographing every protein-branded product on the show floor and had to stop because it was literally every other booth.

The twist? Animal protein staged a comeback. Whey was printed on packaging nearly as often as the word protein itself. Meat sticks had a serious moment, with chicken emerging as the new star — apparently capturing only about 1% of sales in the segment so far. Bone broth showed up in drinks, soups, and standalone formats. Plant-based isn’t going anywhere, but the pendulum swung hard toward animal sources this year.

The brand lesson: When a macro-trend becomes this saturated, the differentiator stops being the claim and becomes the story. Thirty grams of protein per can is a data point. What makes someone reach for yours over the other seventeen options on the shelf? That’s where brand building and storytelling lives.

2. Beef Tallow Is the New Black

Beef tallow — your great-grandmother’s cooking fat — is having its rebrand moment. Tallow-fried potato chips. Tallow tortilla chips. Tallow french fries. Tallow skincare. There were so many tallow chip booths that multiple attendees reported losing count within the first hour of walking the floor.

This isn’t just a health trend. It’s a positioning statement. Brands cooking in tallow are actively distancing themselves from seed oils and leaning into a narrative of traditional, whole-food fats. Something that was considered old-fashioned or even off-putting five years ago is now a premium differentiator. If that doesn’t make you rethink your assumptions about what consumers will embrace, nothing will.

The brand lesson: The most powerful ingredient stories aren’t always about what’s new. Sometimes they’re about what’s old — reclaimed, reframed, and told with conviction.

3. The Natural Power of Simple Ingredients

Dates were everywhere. Candy-coated dates. Chocolate-covered dates. Sour dates (yes, sour date candy is a thing now). Date syrups, date gels, date-sweetened sodas. Brands like Harken Sweets are making date caramel candy bars that reportedly rival a Snickers — no added sugars, plus prebiotics. The date hoopla had me all the prouder of our work on Joolies, a pioneer in the deliciousness of dates universe.

The positioning is smart: all the indulgence cues of candy with the clean-label appeal of whole fruit. Dates are emerging as the most versatile natural sweetener on the market — one that lets brands tell a story about minimal processing, real ingredients, and zero compromise on taste.

The brand lesson: Don’t underestimate the power of a single-ingredient narrative. When a humble ingredient gets elevated with imagination and craft, it can anchor an entire brand platform.

4. Functional Fatigue Is Real

Here’s the most interesting tension at this year’s show: while 52% of beverages now carry some kind of health and wellness claim, a growing number of brands are pushing back. One non-alcoholic beverage founder put it perfectly when he told the Food Institute that his brand’s function is simply that it tastes amazing.

Snack brands followed suit — organic marshmallows, cookie dough gelato bites, low-sugar peanut butter cups. No macronutrient call-outs. No functional stacking. Just delicious things made with clean ingredients.

Meanwhile, a Whole Foods category merchant cautioned that brands tend to overestimate how much knowledge or time consumers have when shopping in-store. You can stack all the benefits you want on a label. If it takes a nutrition degree to decode it, you’ve already lost.

The brand lesson: Not every product needs to be a multivitamin in disguise. Sometimes the most radical move is simplicity. Know when to stack and when to strip back.

5. You Can Actually Taste Nostalgia

One of the more surprising threads: the bright, nostalgic fruit flavors of Japanese and Korean convenience stores — known as konbini — are inspiring a new wave of functional drinks. Lychee, melon, concord grape, soursop. These aren’t random exotic flavors. They tap into a very specific cultural nostalgia rooted in travel, anime culture, and the global rise of Asian food trends.

Korean and Japanese flavor profiles were showing up in sauces, frozen meals, and snacks, too. Global flavors have been “trending” for years, but what’s new is the specificity. We’re past the era of generic “Asian-inspired.” Brands are now anchoring in particular regions, particular traditions, particular taste memories.

The brand lesson: Flavor is a storytelling device. The best brands at Expo West didn’t just borrow global ingredients. They created entire narratives around them.

6. Dry January through December

Non-alcoholic beer quietly surpassed ale in beer sales last year. Let that sink in. Only lager outpaces it now. At Expo West, the category showed up with force — especially canned cocktails and wellness tonics. But the real story is the evolution. We’ve moved past simple mocktails that merely remove the alcohol from traditional drinks. This year, booths were built around adult flavors: bitter, savory, herbal. Drinks designed from the ground up for people who want the ritual, the sophistication, and the social moment — without the hangover.

Celebrity-backed beverage brands continued to proliferate. The line between wellness, culture, and entertainment keeps blurring.

The brand lesson: The sober-curious consumer doesn’t want a watered-down version of drinking culture. They want their own culture. The brands that build that world — rather than just subtract alcohol from the existing one — will own this category.

#ExpoWest #NaturalProducts #CPG #BrandBuilding #AMPagency #FullVolumeImpact #ChallengerBrands #FoodAndBev

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The era of relying solely on brand equity is over. With consumer sentiment at historic lows, inflation a stubborn drag, and private labels gaining ground, today’s shoppers are laser-focused on value.

Your promotions need to do more than just offer a discount—they need to reinforce value, nudge choice, and create a reason for repeat consideration.

This exclusive white paper from the AMP Promotions Center of Excellence reveals a proven framework for success, treating promotion planning like a successful event.

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Our latest white paper explores the five shifts redefining the industry—from omnichannel integration to the rise of agentic commerce—to help you identify how to capitalize on one of the most important investments brands can now make to reach their audiences.

Five Shifts Redefining Retail Media

1. Navigate the Fragmentation: Understand how the expansion of Paid Social is increasing complexity, and where consolidation is inevitable.
2. Achieve True Accountability: Get ahead of the curve on evolving Incremental Measurement frameworks that will force you to look beyond last-click attribution.
3. Influence the Future of Commerce: Learn how Agentic and Generative Commerce is shifting the point of influence upstream, and how to future-proof your product content.
4. Drive Full-Funnel Performance: See why Connected TV (CTV) is moving from a test budget to a primary driver of both demand creation and demand capture.
5. Optimize the Physical Store: As in-store media scales into a measurable, high-intent line item that complements digital spend, consider how to leverage this opportunity.

Download The Next Phase of Retail Media: Five Shifts Defining 2026 to get the clear roadmap you need to drive measurable impact for your brand.

The post The Next Phase of Retail Media: Five Shifts Defining 2026 appeared first on Amp Agency.

After the whirlwind of it all, the takeaway for our team was clear: we have officially entered the Execution Era for AI. If 2025 was about experimenting with what AI could do, 2026 is about how it’s poised to influence multiple facets of our lives—from infusing the shopping experience with ease, personalization, and predictive powers to empowering marketers and brands to act faster, smarter, and more cohesively.

With a big picture perspective, we looked at the show through multiple lenses. Here are the four macro-shifts that will influence the marketplace this year.

1. Agentic AI and the Evolution From Search to Agents
   If you aren’t thinking about “Agentic AI”—AI that can plan, order, and execute tasks on a consumer’s behalf—you’re already behind. From AI-powered stoves that manage grocery orders to tools that scrape PDPs for better optimization, we saw plenty of examples where machines are starting to do the heavy lifting.

The Agency Take: We’ve seen plenty of flashy “smart” appliances at CES before, and yet in reality, few of our homes are quite so Jetsons-like in 2026. Still, the promise of unleashing a complicated or mundane task on large language model tools is already shifting the definition of “search” and that is its own form of modern digital wizardry.

Success depends on ensuring brand content is LLM and “agent-ready”—structured and optimized so these systems select your brand when a consumer says, “Plan my meals for the week.” Now’s the time to ensure that brand data is structured, machine-readable, and “agent-friendly” so that our brands are the ones selected when the machine does the shopping.

Retailers like Target and Walmart are working through the kinks to move AI beyond simple data comparisons and into real-time, responsive audience targeting. The mandate is to test now or risk being outmaneuvered by faster competitors already exploring potential efficiencies.

2. Retail as a High-Tech Media Channel
   Stores still matter, and in some ways, they matter more than ever, as they’re being reimagined as technical powerhouses. The innovations we saw indicate that physical stores are finally getting the “full-funnel” data capabilities once reserved for ecommerce.

The Agency Take: The most impressive innovations were those that made the physical store feel like a high-tech (but human) media channel. Albertsons stood out here with shoppable end-caps and anonymized tracking that connects “dwell time” to the basket without feeling like a digital billboard. The goal is seamlessness: influencing the shopper journey without disrupting their experience.

Another manifestation of this trend is evident in the AI systems we saw showcased that use real-time signals—such as weather or local inventory—to allow brands to adjust in-store creative content instantly, a development we are already exploring and enthusiastic about.

3. Physical AI: Robotics Move into the Real World
   Further afield from the remit of marketing, the show also spotlighted robots moving past the “uncanny valley” into genuine utility. “Physical AI”—the marriage of LLMs with mechanical hardware—is poised to address labor and efficiency problems at scale.

At an industrial and product innovation level, companies like Caterpillar and Bosch are integrating autonomy into heavy machinery and appliances, while humanoid robots are being positioned as practical solutions for logistics and labor shortages.

Agency Take: We saw a “softer” side of robotics, too—companion bots for wellness and elderly care that felt less like machines and more like intuitive partners. Prioritizing the human in these innovations aligns with our own emphasis on centering innovation on real human needs and desires.

4. The Longevity Economy & Digital Health
   “Health tech” has evolved into “longevity tech.” Reflecting broader trends in the world of wellness, the focus has shifted from reactive monitoring (tracking steps) to proactive prevention and quality of life strategies.

From smart rings that monitor emotional well-being to digital health tools that help both humans and pets live longer, we saw examples of tech becoming a daily, seamless lifestyle-support system for the enhancement of health and wellness.

Agency Take: More than ever, consumers are open to tech that promises a systemic perspective on health. And they want efficiency and wellness in a combined package. Brands that can simplify daily tasks while promoting health will win, and tech is enabling this benefit.

The 2026 Summary for Our Clients:
Innovation is no longer about the gadget; it’s about the integration. Whether it’s an autonomous semi-truck or a shoppable recipe screen, the winners of 2026 will be the ones who use technology to remove friction and add value to the human experience, not just create more noise.

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