Innovation accelerator HorizonOS Labs debuts with Orkin and Tropical Smoothie Cafe as founding members and inaugural tech partners spanning data & identity, planning & activation, creative & brand experiences, and analytics

As holding companies race to automate their way to efficiency, Horizon Media is betting on a fundamentally different model: one where human expertise remains the irreplaceable core of marketing intelligence, amplified not replaced by tech advancements and AI. Today, Horizon Media unveiled HorizonOS, the first open operating system designed for client growth. This launch signals a different path than the automation-first strategies which dominate the industry.

Why Open Beats Closed

The distinction matters. Open systems spur innovation. They create velocity through interoperability, shared progress, and transparency. They make it easy for intelligence to move across teams, partners, models, and data—so the entire system gets smarter and moves faster all in service of the client.

As boundaries between insight, execution, and optimization dissolve, what used to be sequential becomes simultaneous. In this environment, “closed” stifles innovation and is structurally rigged against the client. The architecture of HorizonOS operates as an interconnected system bringing together three aspects of intelligence:

• Blu is the AI-native innovation ecosystem that translates strategy into action. It enables Horizon to deliver on enhanced “speed to insight,” where data plays a role in audience-centric strategies, informed and agile activation approaches, and closed-loop measurement.
• Agent Q serves as the internal thought partner, built on Google Gemini Enterprise and connected to Horizon’s collective knowledge.
• Human Intelligence is the critical differentiator—the layer that competitors are systematically dismantling in pursuit of automation. At Horizon, this includes Client Architects who understand business challenges and competitive landscapes; Marketing Sciences experts driving experimentation with predictive modeling and advanced segmentation; Advanced Analytics teams creating measurement currencies that account for market signals; and Product Foundry builders who harvest innovation from the Labs pipeline.

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“Holding companies are focused on building self-service platforms and automations to benefit their own operational efficiency—which drives agency profits,” said Bob Lord, President of Horizon Media Holdings. “They’re building closed systems of machines talking to themselves, eventually delivering the most reductive solutions. We’re taking the opposite approach: HorizonOS is designed to bring human expertise and the latest technology to the forefront, creating conditions for co-creation and client growth.”

HorizonOS Labs: The Innovation Accelerator

Horizon concurrently announced HorizonOS Labs, an innovation accelerator that systematically and continuously converts emerging technology into client value by testing, validating, and scaling new capabilities. The launch establishes a new architectural standard for how agencies can evolve in the marketing landscape — one built on an open ecosystem and collaboration, and the conviction that the most sophisticated algorithms still require human judgment.

For clients, Labs offers early access to proven innovations with less risk, and a co-creation model where specific business challenges shape what gets built. John Koenigsberg, EVP Head of Product Partnerships and Asmau Ahmed, a former GoogleX executive and Innovator-in-Residence at Horizon will lead the Labs, which will function through three models:

• Pilot to Platform – Systematic sprints with cutting-edge partners—15+ active in flight, testing everything from GenAI creative tools to advanced measurement systems. These are structured pilots with clear ROI metrics that prove integration potential into Blu’s ecosystem.
• Bespoke Client Solutions works directly with brands to architect solutions to specific challenges, turning a client’s challenge into a partner pilot and potentially future platform capabilities.
• Curated Marketplace establishes the foundation for approved developers to build on Horizon’s infrastructure and open protocols, with published APIs, SDKs, and emerging standards.

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Early client engagement with Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Orkin and inaugural technology partners—each a leader in their domain—include:

• Data & Identity: ID5 and ZeroToOne, providing solutions to navigate the complex identity landscape
• Activation & Planning: Kargo, Sightly, The Trade Desk, and Vurvey Labs, offering bid, cultural, and audience intelligence and robust planning capabilities
• Creative & Brand Experiences: Firsthand, Kerv, Smartly, and Vidmob, scaling and optimizing creative development, scoring, and delivery
• Analytics: Newton Research, delivering advanced measurement and real-time intelligence

Tropical Smoothie Cafe and ZeroToOne’s pilot is centered around building predictive QSR audience models in Blu. This initiative will leverage daily refreshed signals to identify new consumers with the goal of driving profitable growth and market share.

Orkin and The Trade Desk’s new pilot, integrated into Blu, directly links media investment to strategic business outcomes. Their custom bidding solution uses real-time signals and first-party data to predict and optimize long-term customer value and retention.

“HorizonOS Labs is the connective tissue that makes the vast universe of AI-native marketing capabilities work together intelligently and responsibly for our clients,” John Koenigsberg said. “By bringing together marketers and premier technology partners to create an innovation flywheel, this is about de-risking early adoption for our clients and providing them with a first-mover advantage.”

The Stakes for the Industry
Converging forces make this a defining moment. AI has reached the orchestration era, new industry standards are emerging, and the window for leadership is closing. For Horizon, the bet is clear. An open ecosystem of partners, ideas, and intelligence drives client growth, which beats closed systems that benefit the holding company.