Audience Connection

In this episode of Audience Connection, Lydia Chan sits down with Kristen Berke, VP of Entertainment and Branded Content Partnerships at LA Times Studio, to unpack a campaign that on paper shouldn't have worked, and absolutely did. The campaign, Diaries of Transformation, was produced for enterprise AI company Publicis Sapient, a brand whose website talks about agents, production-grade software, a...

  Lydia Chan sits down with Tori Jackson, Senior Manager of Partnerships and Commercial Strategy at Sundial Media and Technology Group — home to Essence, Refinery29 and Beauty Con — to explore how brands earn real loyalty from multicultural audiences they've historically underinvested in and misunderstood. Tori's central argument is a refusal to flatten: a Black woman from Harlem and a Black woman...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with media pioneer Bill Harvey, creator of Resonance Media Theory (RMT), to explore why understanding human motivation beats chasing attention, and how a breakthrough audience measurement system is reshaping the future of marketing, media and AI. Bill shares the remarkable story behind a lifelong quest that began when he experienced flow state as a child performer and led...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with speaker, consultant and author Jenni Field to explore why so many people inside organisations have quietly stopped believing their leaders, and what it actually takes to earn that belief back. Drawing on her book Nobody Believes You, Jenni traces how trust erodes not through one dramatic moment but through small broken promises that accumulate over time. She explains...

What if the biggest mistake brands make isn't saying the wrong thing, but not understanding the story their audience is already living? Oliver Atkinson sits down with Kristian A. Alomá, PhD, Founder & CEO at Threadline, whose work on narrative economy explores what's really being exchanged between brands and the people they serve: not information, not value propositions, but identity, meaning...

In this episode, co-hosts Lydia Chan and Olly Atkinson recaps his talk at AdFest 2026 in Thailand titled "Making People Care: Storytelling in the Age of AI,” where he strapped biometric trackers on 50 unsuspecting audience members and measured their brain activity in real time. What happened next revealed something most marketers don't want to admit: the content we think is working, often isn't. F...

In this episode of Audience Connection, Lydia Chan sits down with Jordan P. Kelley, Director of Content and Editor-in-Chief at Aivanta, to explore what it truly means to do brand storytelling right and why so many brands are still getting it wrong. With nearly a decade of reviewing brand-funded films and curating the programming for the Brand Storytelling Conference, Jordan shares what separates c...

Oliver Atkinson continues his conversation with Sandra Gaudenzi to ask a tougher question: once a story moves someone, how do you turn that moment into real change without slipping into manipulation? Sandra reframes impact storytelling as intentional storytelling, mapping every layer from who makes the work and how the interface is designed to the conversations, communities, and campaigns that fol...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with interactive documentary pioneer Sandra Gaudenzi to explore why stories become more powerful when audiences stop being spectators and start becoming participants. From the childhood moment a speck of dust made her realize perception is constructed, Sandra traces how language, culture, and media shape reality. She breaks down interactivity from branching paths to parti...

Lydia Chan is joined by Sabrina Talma, CEO and Co-Founder of Human Made Machine, a creative intelligence platform that helps global brands test and refine creative work before it goes to market. With clients spanning Google, the NBA, and The North Face, Sabrina brings a rare, data-backed perspective on what actually resonates with audiences — and what quietly falls flat. Sabrina shares why most br...

To mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Oliver Atkinson sits down with Oliver Markeson,  CEO and Co-Founder of Neurohaus, to explore why neuroinclusive design is not a niche fix but a smarter way to build calmer, clearer audience experiences that work better for everyone. Oliver's starting point is personal. A late diagnosis made him look differently at the world around him, at the way people sho...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with behavioural science researcher Will Leach, founder of MindState Group and author of Marketing to MindStates, to reveal how “hot states” (MindStates) shape decisions, and how targeting the moment can lift your B2B messaging.  Will maps his MindState model, goals, motivations, regulatory fit, and triggers, showing how nine core motivations and 21 decision shortcuts can...

This podcast episode features Michael Sternoff, Global Creative Director at Amazon Leo (Amazon's low-Earth orbit satellite network). Michael shares his diverse background, spanning Emmy-winning filmmaking and video game trailers, highlighting how these experiences shaped his approach to making technical concepts feel human and authentic. The discussion centers on the launch of Amazon Leo's brand f...

Season 2 opens with hosts Lydia Chan and Oliver Atkinson looking back at the biggest lessons from Season 1 - how behavioral science and culture shaped their understanding of why certain stories connect. What began as a response to the AI wave became a deeper exploration into cultural specificity, “audience of one” thinking, and why brands are finally investing in storytellers as they move from tra...

Lydia Chan speaks with Kristen Souders, Senior Director of Global Brand and Content Studio at Hitachi Vantara, to explore what it really takes to create standout storytelling in B2B tech. Kristen breaks down the evolving IT audience landscape, explaining why data leaders and IT professionals are allergic to fluff but still crave compelling narratives that make them feel seen rather than sold to. T...

Lydia Chan sits down with Angela Siddall, Global Lead for Culture, Employer Brand and Experience at Veeam, to explore what tech professionals really want from employers today. Drawing from over 20 years of global experience, Angela shares her perspective on what drives technical talent, revealing that impact, cutting-edge technology, continuous learning, and autonomy matter more than traditional c...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with Dr. Gemma Calvert, Professor of Consumer Neuroscience, Nanyang Technological University and Co-Founder of Split Second Research, to decode how always-on dopamine loops, “digital amnesia,” and story structure shape attention, memory, and action, so your content sticks and drives behaviour. Calvert maps three rewired systems, attention, memory, emotional regulation, an...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with behavioral-science heavy hitter Richard Shotton to unpack the simple nudges, concreteness, distinctiveness, and smart pricing frames that help your ideas get noticed, remembered, and bought in B2B and consumer campaigns alike. We dig into Richard’s new book, Hacking the Human Mind: The Behavioral Science Secrets Behind 17 of the World's Best Brand, referencing well-k...

Lydia Chan is joined by Braden Dragomir, filmmaker, story strategist, and founder of Untold Storytelling, to explore the intersection of authentic storytelling, brand strategy, and the science behind what makes stories stick. Braden shares how he bridges authentic documentary storytelling with brand objectives and reveals why his team dedicates 60 percent of project time to strategy before filming...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with neuroscientist and ad veteran Christopher Demetrakos to unpack “Gen 3” marketing, how aligning creative to cognitive traits sparks dopamine, cuts through the brain’s ad-blocker, and drives action, not just likes. Chris breaks down why 95–99% of decisions happen non-consciously and how the brain’s natural ad-blocker (the reticular activating system) bins generic ads w...

ICYMI: Lydia Chan sits down with award-winning documentary filmmaker and commercial director Eternal Polk to discuss brand storytelling, emotional marketing, and authentic audience connection. Eternal shares insights on cultural marketing strategy, building diverse creative teams, and why brands need a "Chief Curiosity Officer" to create campaigns that resonate. Essential for marketers, filmmakers...

Oliver Atkinson sits down with Dr. Imran Rashid, physician, author, and adviser to Denmark’s prime minister on digital well-being, to explore how brands can shift from chasing clicks to designing for intention, and why feelings, not claims, drive real behavior change. Imran says authenticity has to be felt: trust lives in the body (think oxytocin), and one face-to-face moment lets the brain “fill...

In Part 2 of this two-part episode, Oliver Atkinson sits with Phill Agnew, host of UK's #1 marketing podcast Nudge, to unpack the behavioral science tricks that keep us hooked, whether it’s binge-watching, endless scrolling, or unforgettable branding. Hear why a single shout of “polar bear!” jolts wandering minds back on track, and how Waitrose’s rainbow-stacked veg aisle proves the contrast effec...

In this two-part episode, Oliver Atkinson is joined by behavioral-science storyteller Phill Agnew, host of UK's #1 marketing podcast, Nudge Podcast, to show how psychology-laced narratives can supercharge your pitch and keep audiences glued. Agnew proves the power of costly signaling with his now-legendary 60-kilometre trek, blisters and all, to keynote a conference, instantly elevating his messag...

Oliver sits down with Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Officer at System1 Group and author of Lemon and Look Out, to unpack how advertising has shifted from right-brain showmanship to left-brain salesmanship, and why that’s costing brands attention, memorability, and growth. From Yorkshire Tea’s witty, character-led “Everything’s Done Proper” to the unsettling “stare” creeping into modern branding,...