Experts & Opinion

Discover the opinions that matter and the ideas shaping our future, including on-demand webinars, videos and podcast discussions with innovative thinkers on how we can collectively shape a more positive future.

RSVP: Culture-coded Retail Online Event

Join us on 19 June 2025 for an online event introducing our new retail macro trend report.

What’s New on LS:N Global?

From shifting definitions of value to TikTok-fuelled commerce and hormone health retreats, our analysts unpack what’s new and next on LS:N Global.

Viewpoints

The Wellness Reset

Energy fields, somatic sensing and spiritual technologies are resetting elite approaches to wellness, according to Carlos Urrutigoity, general manager of London club Grey Wolfe.

Viewpoints

Compostable Cosmetics

Wildsmith is setting a new standard for sustainable luxury with Vivomer, a compostable, microbe-made packaging material designed to disappear into the earth without a trace.

Viewpoints

Regenerative Olive Oil

Citizens of Soil, an innovative olive oil brand, is championing provenance transparency, healthy soils, gender equality and sustainable packaging at a fair price.

Viewpoints

Should brands re-assess how they target minorities?

In an increasingly globalised world, marketing targeted at niche demographics fails to recognise the true nature of diasporas.

Branding : Marketing : Culture

Viewpoints

Is the future of cities female?

Urban anthropologist Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman explores how women in urban planning could change the shape of the city.

Female Futures : Architecture : Smart Cities

Viewpoints

Are we the new Luddites?

The current war on technology by politicians and experts on both sides of the isle is as dangerous as it is misguided.

Technology : Digital

Viewpoints

Should we start taking QR codes seriously?

Once consigned to internet history, the iconic squares are finally ready for their revival.

Packaging : Retail : Advertising

Viewpoints

Should we welcome more workplace surveillance?

Could systems that analyse the tone of our workplace conversations be key to achieving gender equality?

Workplace : Digital : Female Futures

Viewpoints

Is feminism fit for the future?

Why feminism needs to define new metrics of achievement if it is going to truly suceed.

Female Futures : Advertising : Workplace

Viewpoints

Why is the rhetoric around women’s sexual health still so skewed?

As accessibility to medicine for male sexual health problems improves, why are brands still reluctant to offer women the same treatment?

Health : Wellness : Female Futures

Viewpoints

Are self-driving cars on a collision course with humanity?

In the aftermath of the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle, The Future Laboratory co-founder Martin Raymond argues that human interfere...

Automobile : Technology : Far Futures

Viewpoints

What is the future of moral business?

Brands must proactively shift priorities to meet the demands of the ethical consumer.

Marketing : Technology : Workplace

Viewpoints

Zing Tsjeng explores why women deserve a legacy

The UK editor of VICE’s women’s interest channel Broadly and author of Forgotten Women shines a spotlight on unsung female leaders.

Female Futures : Gender : Zing Tsjeng

Viewpoints

Nicola Temple on changing the narrative around processed food

The author of Best Before: The Evolution and Future of Processed Food explains why vilifying processed foods could be detrimental to consumers and ...

Food : Technology : Processed Foods

Viewpoints

Why are we infantilising women when it comes to talking about finance?

With research showing that the way the media speaks to men and women about money varies greatly, brands need to help initiate a more constructive c...

Female Futures : Finance : Fintech

Viewpoints

What happened to the serendipity of Airbnb?

With its push into the mainstream market, Airbnb risks losing the very elements of home-sharing that led to its success.

Hospitality : Travel : Luxury

Viewpoints

Do we need a new social contract for consumer data?

GDPR represents an opportunity for brands to own the conversation around data rights, argue Rosamund Picton and Kourosh Newman-Zand.

Digital : Data : Social Media

Viewpoints

Why can’t we move past bookmark brand campaigns?

On International Women’s Day some brands favoured opportunist campaigns over structural change.

Branding : Female Futures : Food

Viewpoints

What we can learn from the creation of digital supermodel Shudu

To create avatars that resonate with consumers, brands need to first champion diversity in their workforce.

Technology : Beauty : Fashion

Viewpoints

Do women change when they become mothers?

Beth Bentley, global vice-president of strategy at Virtue Worldwide, contemplates why brands changed the way they spoke to her once she became a mo...

Female Futures : Motherhood : Advertising

Viewpoints

Why American Apparel’s latest campaign misses the point

Brands should be wary of using female empowerment as a marketing claim.

Female Futures : Advertising

Viewpoints

Are digital payments luring us into debt?

Retailers are increasingly offering point-of-sale loans to pay for non-essential goods.

Retail : Finance : Apparel

Viewpoints

Paul Priestman puts caveats on our self-driving future

The chairman of transport design agency PriestmanGoode outlines his concerns about the potential applications of autonomous vehicles.

Mobility : Auto : Wellness