Marcus Johnson: [00:00:00] Hey, gang. It's Monday, July 20th. Ross, Marisa, Suzy, and listeners, welcome to Behind the Numbers: The EMARKETER Podcast. I'm Marcus. And joining me for today's conversation we have three New York state people, just north of the city. Senior analyst, Ross Benes, joins the show.

Ross Benes: Hey, Marcus.

Marcus Johnson: Hey, fella. We're also joined, uh, in the city by, uh, newsletter analyst, Marisa Jones.

Marisa Jones: Hi, Marcus. Thank you for having me.

Marcus Johnson: Of course. Thank you for being here. And also in the city, VP of content, host of the Reimagining Retail show, Suzy Davidkhanian.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Hello. Thanks for having me.

Marcus Johnson: Why, of course. Uh, today's fact.

Marcus Johnson: Okay, the fact of the day is presented by my mother. Uh, so she told me today every year... Well, she told me this last week. Every year on July 8th at 11- you guys heard this one. At 11:15 [00:01:00] AM Greenwich Mean Time, which is UK time, don't know why we have to get fancy with it, uh, 6:15 Eastern, 99% of the world's population experiences some degree of sunlight all at the same time.

Marisa Jones: I believe that.

Marcus Johnson: Okay, not so impressed. Tough crowd. No. I thought this was amazing. I b-

Marisa Jones: I believe it. I just would like... I wanna hear her sources of it, but like

Marcus Johnson: Unbelievable. Question is my mother. I questioned it too, and so I went digging. So the reasons b- the reason, uh, I trust her implicitly, but I have to dig for this so I got more of an explanation, 'cause I can't leave you with just that.

Marcus Johnson: So this is because of a unique alignment between the tilt of the Earth's axis during the Northern Hemisphere's summer, its point in orbit around the sun, and the, uh, highly, uh, concentrated distribution of the human population across the globe, AKA 90% of people live in the Northern Hemisphere. India somehow is in the Northern Hemisphere, which is shocking [00:02:00] until you look at a map and then you're like, "Oh, yeah."

Marcus Johnson: All right, nothing? Fair enough. Today's real topic. Good.

Marcus Johnson: I thought this was amazing. Sorry, Mum, did my best. We made some very specific but highly unlikely predictions for 2026. Okay, here's how this episode works. Ross goes first. He gets about 30 seconds or so to pitch a what if prediction. What if something crazy happens? Um, something he thinks, uh, could come true this year, um, or thinks that, um, would be an interesting thing to, to happen this year.

Marcus Johnson: We discuss. Marisa goes next, then Suzy, the end. Uh, at the very, very end I will decide, uh, whose I think is the most interesting what if.

Marcus Johnson: Russ, you're up

Ross Benes: So mine is what if sports ratings started to decline, how doomed are major media [00:03:00] companies?

Marcus Johnson: This is huge. This is huge. Tell me. Tell me more. Why, why did this one come to mind?

Ross Benes: Well, because the amount that media companies are paying for sports rights continues to climb. It's gonna be about $70 billion a year by 2030, and it's taking away from what they do otherwise.

Ross Benes: So like NBCU or Disney, the, what they spend on sports means that's, there's less money to spend on films and TV shows. So they're really invested in making sure people watch this stuff. Like when NFL or NBA rights go up significantly, you have pressure to deliver on that because otherwise you're gonna lose a lot of money, and there's only, you know, so many people who are interested in sports.

Ross Benes: Hmm. How do you keep that going without having a bubble that pops and decimates your content budget and drags the rest of the company downward?

Marcus Johnson: This one is, I did not see this coming. This is one that's fascinating. We have numbers on how many Americans watch sports, live sports. [00:04:00] It is about half the country, I believe- Mm

Marcus Johnson: and it's pretty flat. We have numbers, new numbers on viewership, uh, live sports, uh, time spent with watching live sports, and, um, that fluctuates year to year based on what events are gonna be happening. If there's a Olympics, is there a World Cup? Um, but mostly that is flat. And so it never crossed my mind that ratings might go down.

Marcus Johnson: You see dips every, you know, now and again. When the Super Bowl, people check the numbers, the NBA finals, how did it do? But to think that they might just start going south, slowly perhaps, um, I don't think you're expecting a, a, saying there might be a huge dip, Ross, but even a slow degradation would be quite alarming.

Ross Benes: Well, just because the a- amount of budget that is having to go towards sports now, um, basically is based on the assumption that they'll keep rising. And you can't just look at- Mm-hmm ... reported ratings 'cause Nielsen's changed their methodology several times. Like, I see that in these World Cup comparisons.

Ross Benes: If you compare 2022 [00:05:00] versus 2026, anything that is less than a 10% increase is probably an actual decrease because, like, Nielsen now has co-viewing and out-of-home viewing, and they use a big panel. I mean, they use big data on top of their panel, so more people are just measured even if the number of people aren't watching hasn't changed.

Ross Benes: But what I'm saying is just if, if you take out all of the ad measurement stuff and you just look at absolute number of people and the time that they're spending with it, what if people just become disinterested, like especially young people? Mm-hmm. And, and you start to, you, you start to see a flattening and then a decline of sports watching, even though there's more games, there's more playoff games, there's more marketing being put to it, more games in primetime than there ever have been before.

Ross Benes: Regular seasons always expand. They never contract. Um, but, like, if people are turned off by the gambling or just, like, that there's 16 minutes of ads in it and every lo- every, you know, there's a logo everywhere you look. Um, clearly I'm a sports fan. Uh, anyone who listens to this podcast knows that, but, like, a lot of people aren't, and if those [00:06:00] people, um, become more prominent, it- media companies are more leveraged on sports now than they probably ever have been.

Ross Benes: It, it, it's just such a giant part of content spending, and that it'll affect advertisers too because sports are more expensive than, like, everything else. Um, our ad spending numbers rise a lot more on sports than they do on time spent. Mm-hmm. Um, that's all predicated on a lot of people watching. Um, everything, the calculus around sports investment for advertisers, for media companies, all that changes if you even start to see a consistent flattening, let alone, uh, a shrinkage.

Marcus Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Can I... This is not my world, so I just have a clarifying question. Are you saying there could be a chance where, I mean, this is your what if Say 100 people watch World Cup now and in three or four years, let's call it real, four years it'll only be 80 people, and what does that mean for All of, all of the networks [00:07:00] advertising, branding.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Or is it that people won't enjoy it as much, or maybe they'll be going to the stadiums instead of watching it on TV, so there'll still be the same number of people that are interested and will hear about the sponsorships and all these other things, just maybe not watch it-

Ross Benes: Hmm ...

Suzy Davidkhanian: on regular TV?

Ross Benes: I, I, I meant more the consumption of it, whether it's on TV or, or even all the shoulder content you get- Oh, really

Ross Benes: um, on, on social media and elsewhere. Um, you know, the, the leagues obviously are, are fine for now e- even if they have declining, uh, viewership because they have other revenue streams, and those rights are locked in for, like, 10 years. So if you get a massive- Hmm ... you know, the NBA could have, like, shrinking ratings.

Ross Benes: Well, that's not gonna really hurt their bottom line for a while 'cause they just locked in a new, um, 11-year deal. So y- that's a good question. I, I'm looking at, like, just the media component of it, of people watching mostly on TV and streaming services.

Marcus Johnson: FIFA said that they expect five billion people to engage with.

Marcus Johnson: They've even [00:08:00] stopped saying view- view. They said engage with the World Cup this year. And so yeah, when you dig a bit deeper, what does that mean? What does that engagement look like? Obviously, certain engagement is more, um, uh, appealing to advertisers in particular than, than others. I wonder as well, Ross, if how long it will be before people realize this is an issue, because similar to the Super Bowl, viewership could go down.

Marcus Johnson: I mean, it's not, it's kind of flat and depends on, you know, it fluctuates year to year. Depends on who's the halftime show. If it's starting to tick down, people see the view- Super Bowl as, well, it's still the biggest show in town, and so the amount for a spot continues to go up, and you have these two- Yeah

Marcus Johnson: kind of diverging trend lines. So I wonder if it will, like, in 10, 20 years is when we really start to notice, oh, there's a problem here because, um, we weren't noticing it back then because it was still the biggest... Sport's still some of the biggest audiences that you can get.

Ross Benes: I, I think that's the case right now even.

Ross Benes: Hmm. Um, that's why, like, the, the time spent doesn't rise like the, the ad spending [00:09:00] does 'cause it's all relative to anyth- everything else. Sports is still the biggest, like, consistent live audience that you get. Yeah. So the, the CPNs will just, they keep growing, um, even though the audience isn't necessarily growing, at least for most leagues.

Ross Benes: Yeah. Um, so you know, you, it, it just kinda seems like a, we're on a never-ending treadmill right now of expecting increases that I don't know how sustainable you can keep them going. Yeah.

Marisa Jones: I do wonder just kind of on your point you made about advertisers, and I don't really have an answer for this. I wonder where they pivot that budget if something like this- Hmm

Marisa Jones: were to happen. Like, where do they go to next? Because, uh, streaming services, yeah, um, but viewership on, like, everything is really gonna plateau at some point. We see things like social media kind of plateauing in our forecasts. Um, and sports just is kind of to your point The easiest way, not the easiest, but one of the simplest ways to really access an audience that large all at once.

Marisa Jones: Um, so yeah, I don't really have an answer for it, but I'm [00:10:00] interested, I guess, where advertisers would shift their budgets in

Ross Benes: that event. Mm-hmm. That is a good question, and I don't know.

Marcus Johnson: Me neither.

Ross Benes: No

Marcus Johnson: idea. Well, like- What? ... I wonder if some of the other up-and-coming sports can take some of that- Yeah ... um, can help carry, like WNBA, there's so m- much growth there, um, but still from a small base.

Marcus Johnson: Maybe something like the MLS, um, especially with the changing dynamics. Mm-hmm. I was looking at some numbers that were showing that in the last 50 years, the Hispanic population's gone from 4% to 20%, a population much more interested in something like soccer, as well as other folks in America. So I wonder if that can pick up some of the slack.

Suzy Davidkhanian: I also wonder, like, we talk a lot about with clients around performance marketing versus marketing with a capital M, and maybe it's gonna end up being all one budget 10 years from now or even five years from now, and then it won't matter as much if they're seeing the ripple effect in sales. So maybe there are less people watching, but all of those ancillary, I don't remember what you called it, but I liked what you called it, like the bodega that [00:11:00] has the information about Michelob or, you know, Pepsi or Coke doing other activities and activations may- Oh, the shoulder

Ross Benes: programming

Suzy Davidkhanian: Yes. Thank you. The shoulders, shoulder programming. The, all the different activations, right, that get people thinking about brands that might not have been in their consideration set, and maybe there's a sales lift, and then it sort of it's a wash.

Ross Benes: Yeah, it could be. There, there's a lot of ways, um, that this could go.

Ross Benes: Money could just also be put into other entertainment that has nothing to do with live TV or creators or, you know, ba- basically anywhere else marketers, um, spend their budget. And I don't know how probable this is because, like, sports have had consistent viewers in, in, in some cases, um, like the World Cup right now has a pretty good increase.

Ross Benes: Um, but if you don't show considerable increases over the next 10 years as you pay for these rights, um, you could pay for the NFL and, like, if it doesn't continue to be the most popular thing in the country, you could, [00:12:00] like, really lose yourself-

Marcus Johnson: Yeah ...

Ross Benes: in that investment.

Marcus Johnson: The value of that. Yeah. It, it becomes riskier.

Marcus Johnson: Yeah. The value of that starts to go down. Damn it, Ross, this could've been a whole episode.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Well, what I'm thinking is that everybody should be investing in NFL. Uh, no, no, not NFL, just I'm taking that back. What's the hockey one again? NHL.

Ross Benes: NHL.

Suzy Davidkhanian: NHL. NHL. Everybody should be doing NHL. Canadian, she calls herself.

Suzy Davidkhanian: I know. I am. I got confused with the Super Bowl. Is this 'cause

Ross Benes: of heated rivalry?

Suzy Davidkhanian: Amongst many things. That's true, right? Like, that's an ancillary random thing that'll help- Yeah ... make something popular.

Marcus Johnson: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um-

Ross Benes: No, I think it's done more for the NHL than Gary Bettman has.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Yeah. Sad, but true.

Marcus Johnson: We, we actually, so on the In The Game sports marketing podcast, we're gonna be talking about, um, this very topic, the ancillary media world around sports broadcasting, what things like Heated Rivalry, the show Quarterback, Welcome to Wrexham, Drive to Survive, what ha- that has done.

Marcus Johnson: Um, Ross doesn't know it, we're gonna ask him to be on that episode in September, so, uh, look out for that one. All right. Thanks, Ross, for kind of half agreeing. [00:13:00] Uh, we have to move on, which breaks my heart 'cause we could talk about this for the whole episode. Um, it's a fantastic one to start with. Marisa, what do you have for us?

Marisa Jones: Okay. Um, I don't know if I'm gonna beat Ross's, but- ... mine is- Oh ... what if Meta has to pay 1.4 trillion to California, New Jersey, Colorado, and Kentucky in youth safety lawsuits?

Marcus Johnson: A solid one here, too. Um, why is this top of mind?

Marisa Jones: Um, so Re- Reuters recently reported that litigation in these four states surrounding child safety lawsuits and claims that Meta has misled people about the safety of its apps would amount to about 1.4 trillion if all were to be successful and get the full amount, and that would be nearly the entire amount of Meta's market cap, which is 1.5 trillion.

Marisa Jones: Uh, so in a theoretical situation where- Yeah ... this goes through, they have to pay 1.4 trillion, that really wipes out Meta's business. Yeah. Combined with the hundreds of billions they're putting into AI investments right now, um, it would be a very, very [00:14:00] difficult situation for kind of one of the biggest companies in the world, really.

Marcus Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Marisa Jones: Yeah.

Marcus Johnson: This one, so I didn't tell you this, Marisa. I don't know if you had known this, but we had something similar to this, which I didn't tell you because- Mm-hmm ... I think it's so telling. Back in March, I think it was, when Max was on, or April, he said, "What if Meta keeps losing all these lawsuits?" I love that you've brought this one- Yeah

Marcus Johnson: because I don't think you knew that we had that one. But the fact that you said it, he said it then, you're saying it again now, I think m- makes people stop and say, "Actually, we should probably take it seriously." Back then we were saying that a California jury had found Meta and Google negligent for contributing to a woman's childhood social media addiction and resulting mental health issues.

Marcus Johnson: She was awarded $6 million. Uh, it was a small number for these, uh, trillion-dollar companies. Um, but, uh, we were saying that the ruling is significant 'cause it treats social media as a defective product, harming young people. A day earlier, there was another jury ordered Meta to pay nearly $400 million for failing to protect young users from predators.

Marcus Johnson: I think this is, [00:15:00] yeah, this is a really, really interesting one. Uh, Suzy, Ross, what do you think?

Ross Benes: Well, I, I, I say hers is actually probably m- more interesting than mine, just that amount of money, uh, involved at the top really got my attention. I think it'd get a lot of people's attention. Uh-huh. My, uh, what come, comes to mind for me is, like, what do you think, it, how likely it is that they lose, like, a particular portion of those lawsuits?

Ross Benes: 'Cause y- your, your assumption was, like, they're gonna lose- Yeah ... 100% to get to that. Uh, do, do you have any sense of, like- where things more probably will fall.

Marisa Jones: Yeah. Well, Meta is already really kind of doubling down and preparing to fight all these lawsuits that are happening, to appeal, to settle. Um, so I don't think in a realistic situation they would ever have to pay this much.

Marisa Jones: Um, if they faced a situation where they were asked to, they'll probably go through a years-long process of trying, um, to get that, you know, appeal to settle for a lower amount. I do feel they're probably gonna have to pay, uh, some [00:16:00] figure in the millions, um, to all these different cases. They have, I believe on a former podcast we noted that they have over 2,400, um, cases like this kind of in the US, I think, alone.

Marisa Jones: Uh, that might be incorrect. But 2,400 somewhere. Um, so that is kind of if they settle on all these cases or if the majority of these cases are successful, that's still a huge amount. Maybe not a huge amount to someone like Meta, but, um, it also does kind of raise questions on the brand safety of these platforms, how reliable they are, especially if they're going to have to do significant restructuring in how they target or, um, appeal to youth audiences, whether youth audiences will even be allowed on these platforms anymore.

Marisa Jones: Mm-hmm. Um, there's a lot that even if they don't have to pay a ton of money, if they don't have to pay 1.4 trillion, that they may still face a scenario where they have to do significant restructuring- Yeah ... to how their business operates.

Marcus Johnson: That's, that's the [00:17:00] really interesting part for me. Yeah. 'Cause, yeah, it will be fascinating, Ross, I think it's a brilliant question, you know, is this a 5%, 10%?

Marcus Johnson: Even if it's 10% of 1.4 trillion , that's still a lot- Yeah ... of money they have to pay. But to Marisa's point, if they, uh, if they're, if these courts are finding them guilty of addictive design and they have to get rid of autoplay, they have to get rid of algorithmic fe- feeds, what does that do to- Mm-hmm

Marcus Johnson: their business longer term in terms of keeping people on the platforms and then being able to charge advertisers more and more?

Marisa Jones: It also comes at a time when they're spending a ton of money, so ...

Marcus Johnson: Yes.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Yeah. Do we also think that because so many classrooms and some, some more local governments are banning phones, that that's gonna also have an implication on the rulings?

Marisa Jones: That's a great question, yeah. Mm-hmm. I haven't really thought about that, but I mean, it certainly could. I mean, I think- I mean,

Suzy Davidkhanian: setting the precedents, right? Yeah. Like, "Oh, this stuff is bad for you. Step one, we're showing it's bad so kids can't use it at school."

Marisa Jones: And it, I mean, litigate- not litigation. Um, like, [00:18:00] you know, laws a- about this are gaining a lot of traction globally.

Marisa Jones: Um, I wrote a piece the other day. US support from adults is almost 60% on social media bans, um, for- Mm ... um, youth audiences. Only about 20, a little over 20% don't support it. So it's already something that's gaining a lot of traction just in recent months, really.

Marcus Johnson: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the course of public opinion matters.

Marcus Johnson: Um, and I think it's in at least most states in the US there is some classroom bans, right, Marisa? Yes, yeah. Some form of classroom ban. A full ban, partial ban, something. And- We got 'em

Ross Benes: in many areas in New York.

Marcus Johnson: Yeah. Okay.

Ross Benes: Yeah.

Marcus Johnson: Um, and you can't stop reading about countries who are taking Australia's, uh, lead, uh, follow- I take, uh, following Australia's lead and looking to or slash have implemented some form of ban in their own country.

Marcus Johnson: Um- I

Suzy Davidkhanian: also think it's the, maybe they won't end up paying a lot of money, but people are so in [00:19:00] tune with what's happening and that it's bad, that to your earlier points, that people, people, especially kids, won't be on. And so time spent will tank- Livestream shopping will probably never take off. You know, like, it's the ripple effects of something like this.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Mm-hmm. Even if they don't end up paying a single cent will be really far and wide.

Marcus Johnson: Yeah. Um, a brilliant one. Suzy,

Suzy Davidkhanian: best of luck. Oh my God, the pressure's on. She is- I know. I don't even know what

Marcus Johnson: to do ... forever.

Suzy Davidkhanian: She

Marcus Johnson: steps to the free throw line.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Oh my God, I should've gone first. I... Okay, this is mine. What if AI turned every product placement or a prop in a TV show into ad inventory?

Suzy Davidkhanian: And so what got me thinking about that was everyone's talking about P&G and Albertsons and how they used data, consumer insights data, to try and make a micro-drama. So it's this whole idea of retail media data plus branded entertainment that we've been talking about for a long time, and it's been a, a trend for us.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Chick-fil-A did, uh, [00:20:00] sort of clips, uh, Lego movie, Barbie movie. I mean, there's so many different branded entertainment. Plus, AI virtual product placement makes scale so much easier so that one day down the line, maybe not this year, but one day down the line, I might see, like if you think about E.T. and the Reese's Pieces, that might have been for me because I like peanut butter and chocolate, but for Marisa, it might have been Kit Kat, and we wouldn't have known the difference, and it would have had zero impact to our experience.

Suzy Davidkhanian: But we would've had these subliminal product placement messages that were tailored to us.

Marcus Johnson: Oh, so you're talking about we're watching the sh- same show- Yeah ... but the product placement is-

Suzy Davidkhanian: Correct ...

Marcus Johnson: targeted to the individual.

Suzy Davidkhanian: That every, uh, and, you know, 'cause I'm on the retail side, so, like, it's all measurable, right?

Suzy Davidkhanian: So, like, if it's Kit Kat, and then all of a sudden Marisa's buying Kit Kat, 'cause the underlying data is retailed media, so now we know what she's usually doing. Because the P&G example was that they're using shopping trips and missions that comes from Albertsons data- Mm-hmm ... to [00:21:00] make these micro-dramas to show Bounty in the real world scenarios, I think in the hopes, especially if it's being shown at Albertsons and other sort of Albertsons properties, that they can tag, like, "Suzy bought Bounty after she watched this."

Suzy Davidkhanian: So that, for me, that next iteration of using all of the, um, retailed media that's available is that idea that every sort of prop and/or product, like cereal box, is, becomes measurable ad space.

Marcus Johnson: Mm-hmm. When I first read this, what I thought you were going for was gonna be everything in every product on a TV show you can buy from, direct from the TV show.

Marcus Johnson: Like, you see a couch in a T- you know, White Lotus, I don't know what the most popular show is, I'm so out of touch. But the most popular show. Heat, Heatred Rivalry. Yes, pop culture. Um, you see a couch and b- and you can buy that couch, you can buy, like, buy the- Yes ... hockey stick, like, everything.

Suzy Davidkhanian: So, shoppable media already exists.

Suzy Davidkhanian: There are lots, [00:22:00] like, Walmart's been trying it, Nev- the- Right ... people have been trying it. So, uh, you and I would see the same couch, and if we are, uh, Netflix customers, we could click to go and we would buy it. It's not every show. But that, that already sort of, shoppable media is not really new. I think the next layer, and product placement, we all know, is not new.

Suzy Davidkhanian: But it's that- Right ... next layer of customize. And this, this idea came together because at Commerce Next, when I was there, I talked to a vendor who was starting, that's kind of like they were starting this new-ish, I'm not sure, program that was around ad inventory of sitcoms like Friends, for example, where there is a little bit of change in what is there.

Suzy Davidkhanian: But it's all, uh, old sitcoms, not new scripted TV shows. But there is a world, or maybe even reality TV, I think there's a world with AI technology that we're able to use the retail media data, which is not what they're doing today, to really customize so that we can measure if it worked.

Marcus Johnson: Mm. Ross, what do you think?

Ross Benes: Well, do you expect this [00:23:00] to lead to differences in how shows are written? And I'll give you, uh, an example. So i- in Seinfeld, there's an episode where Kramer drops a Junior Mint into a, a guy who's having surgery, and it, like, saves his life. That, uh, meaning and the memory of that episode would be different if I saw a Junior Mint, you saw a Dorito, and Marisa- Mm

Ross Benes: saw a Kit Kat bar. Um- Mm ... when you have those big placements that, like, are part of the episode, they're not just background, how do you do that when, um, everyone's kinda getting everything?

Marisa Jones: Mm-hmm.

Suzy Davidkhanian: I, I think it's a really good question. Yeah. I think this becomes more, once it's filmed, and it becomes, think about it, more like programmatic, there are ancillary props and things, like a cereal box or Coke can, that are not integral to the storyline that can be switched out.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Like, does it really matter, uh, in most cases, the, that it's Life cereal or Cheerios? Not really, unless it, like, the kid is talking about heart saving, I, I bought into [00:24:00] Cheerios, right? Heart saving and Cheerios is good for your heart, and so now that's why they're eating that every day. I think it would still be in the right, I d- that, that is a little bit of, um, like a blocker is the entertainment companies who might not wanna sell the ad inventory, but it does become more dollars for everybody to share if you can prove, this is the key, uh, that you're not disturbing the experience.

Suzy Davidkhanian: So if it's written into the script, I think you can't switch it out. But any of the- Mm ... ancillary things, I think potentially with AI you can scale. And I don't think really, especially not in the next six months, it'll be like, "Ross, you're gonna get one, and Marisa's gonna get different, and I'm..." I think it'll be like, kinda like how they sell advertising by households, sort of like audiences to start with so that, y- you know, in Amish country, they'll never get a glass wa- a gl- a wine glass in their episodes.

Suzy Davidkhanian: It'll always be the regular water glass, right? And then- Mm ... I think over time they'll be able to do more one-to-one. You, but again, underpinned by retail media data. [00:25:00]

Marcus Johnson: Mm-hmm. Guys came in swinging. All right. I gotta choose. And the winner is

Marcus Johnson: Ross is today's winner. Yes.

Marisa Jones: I knew it. I knew it.

Marcus Johnson: Marisa in an extremely close second.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Of course.

Marisa Jones: Sorry, Suzy. Extremely close second. Yeah,

Marcus Johnson: of course.

Suzy Davidkhanian: I really thought it was a tie.

Marcus Johnson: Suzy-

Suzy Davidkhanian: You were taking so long ...

Marcus Johnson: third place

Suzy Davidkhanian: Next time I'm bringing on a sports theme .

Marcus Johnson: Some, some people call it last.

Ross Benes: Sports theme is the way to get to Marcus.

Marcus Johnson: This one maybe.

Suzy Davidkhanian: Congrats, Ross.

Marcus Johnson: This one ... Well, this one I've never really considered. That's what's so interesting about it, for me, is that you just expect more and more people to be watching. And we just did an episode with time spent with media last week on Friday, on the 17th, and if you listen to that you will know that people are just spending more and more time with media.

Marcus Johnson: Somehow it's still going up. It's changes below the surface, but by and large still going [00:26:00] up. And so the idea that people might be stepping back from something, and that something being sports, um, and what that does to the value of those contracts and those, those sports rights deals, um, I think is, is fascinating.

Marcus Johnson: Marisa, yeah, it's, it... to Ross's question, how much of this are they gonna have to pay, um, and, and how... And how quickly will this disrupt their business as well? Yeah. Like, these cases take years and years. Um, so this, this might evolve into the biggest one. But for now, um, still a long way to go. Suzy, solid effort.

Marcus Johnson: Uh- Watch out ... all right, that's all we have time for for this episode guys. Thank you so much. To my guests, thank you first to Marisa.

Marisa Jones: Thank you.

Marcus Johnson: And thank you to Suzy.

Marisa Jones: Thank you.

Marcus Johnson: And to today's winner, Ross.

Ross Benes: Thanks, Marcus.

Marcus Johnson: And to the whole production crew, and to everyone for listening to Behind The Numbers an EMARKETER Podcast.

Marcus Johnson: Suzy will be hosting the Reimagine Retail show this Wednesday, discussing the ripple effect of weight loss drugs. Thursday we'll have the Sports Marketing Podcast In The Game, talking about how to reach folks at spectacle events. And on Friday we'll have more what if predictions for you. Power packed week.

Marcus Johnson: [00:27:00] Yes, please.