The Audiences Podcast

What if you could talk to your audience and ask what it thinks of your next product? What if you could test your ads or social content with a simulated version of 200 to 1,000 members of your audience in less than 1 minute? In this fascinating conversation, James He, founder of Artificial Societies, reveals how AI-powered audience simulation is transforming the way we experiment with ideas before...

Who’s the Audience of Magic? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🪄 From TikTok tarot readings to “manifesting crypto gains”, we explore how audiences are engaging with magic to reassert individual agency, reinterpret identity, and regain some level of control over systems trying to define them. In this episode, Fran has a magical conversation with hosts of the Five...

Who’s the Audience of Romance? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🌹🎬 Romance, Romance. Wherefore art thou, Romance? In this episode, Francesco D’Orazio talks with film analyst and industry researcher Stephen Follows to examine how the script has flipped on romantic storytelling in entertainment. From the big-screen romances that dominated the 90s to today's strea...

Who’s the Audience of Wrestling? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🤼‍♂️ In this episode, Francesco D’Orazio is tagging in Charlie Palmer, Marketing Director at Audience Strategies to pin down the dynamic, interactive, and evolving world of wrestling fandom. From wrestling's old school TV early days on to today’s global streaming phenomenon, Charlie and Fran explo...

Who’s the Audience of the Unhinged? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🤪🌀 In this episode, Francesco D’Orazio speaks with Annie House, Strategy Director at OK COOL, to unravel the phenomenon of unhinged. From the early days of unhinged marketing on Twitter to the rampant TikTok chaos of today, we explore how unhinged became a political and cultural force. We go i...

Join Fran and David Boyle, Director of Audience Strategies as they dive into the impact of AI on market research. David, ever a passionate advocate for AI-first strategies in insights, shares his vision for the future of research, emphasising how AI is transforming workflows, uncovering hidden patterns, and enabling faster, more impactful (and cost-effective) decision-making. The episode unpacks A...

Who’s the Audience of Horror? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🧟 Horror is experiencing a double boom: we've never produced as many horror movies as today and the horror share of all movies produced is also the highest that's ever been. What's going on? We talk to film analyst Stephen Follows to understand what's behind the rise of Horror and how the audience be...

Who’s the Audience of Nuclear? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? ☢️ Join us as we speak to Pablos Holman, General Partner at Deep Future - a Nuclear technology advocate who’s been investing in high-tech solutions that reshape the reality and the narrative around nuclear energy. We delve into the evolving public perception of nuclear energy, exploring its history,...

Who’s the Audience of Hollywood? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🎬 We speak with Diana Williams, CEO & Co-Founder of Kinetic Energy about the impact digital distribution has had on Hollywood audiences, how entertainment ‘content-culture’ is changing the way communities form and explore what Diana really means when she says that ‘bias is killing capitalism’....

Who’s the Audience of Cultural Intelligence? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 📚 We speak with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel, author of ‘Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy’ about the need for brands to produce inclusive and representative messaging that resonates with diverse audiences. In today’s globalized and diverse...

Who’s the Audience of AI? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🤖 For the inaugural episode of Audiences’ second season we’re joined by Deanna Tserkezie, Research Director at Pulsar, and Chris Stoker Walker, author of 'How AI Ate the World', to discuss AI's evolution from niche technology to widespread cultural phenomenon. In this bumper-length episode, we look at th...

Who’s the Audience of Sustainability? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🌱 What role does the personal definition of sustainability among consumers play in brands’ sustainability choices? We’re joined by Jess Francis, Senior Global Strategist, McCann Worldgroup Truth Central and Oliver Orlik, Global Sustainability Manager at McCann to explore the shift towards mak...

Who’s the Audience of Electronic Music? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next?  Over the last 40 years electronic music in the UK has gone from counterculture to mainstream with far reaching influences outside music and into domains like fashion and pop-culture. In this transition, electronic music has gone from being an identity for a specific community, to becom...

Who’s the Audience of Snapchat? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 👻 Discover how Snapchat fosters loyalty and community by addressing users’ most top concern on social platforms right now: authenticity. Ranked as the #1 happiest platform, Snapchat has been on the scene since 2011 and has since grown to 400 million daily and 800 million monthly active users. With...

Who’s the Audience of Fandom? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? 🤩 Discover how fandoms, uniting people online and offline through shared interests, have evolved into powerful, global networks. Join us as we chat with Andy Crysell, the founder of Crowd DNA and advisor at the Museum of Youth Culture, exploring the rise of fandoms into the mainstream. Learn how fand...

How do you build an Audience out of thin air or… dust? Following the publication of Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles, we speak to author Jay Owens, Head of Audience at the London Review of Books, about who exactly is interested in a book about dust. We talk about dust’s role in climate change, domestic situations and the Anthropocene as a whole. The unconventional subject matter of d...

Who’s the Audience of Generosity? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? In the run-up to world generosity super-event Giving Tuesday, we speak to Kathleen Murphy-Toms, their Director of Digital Strategy. Kathleen’s unique perspective into the biggest charitable event worldwide gives insight into the ways that audiences give, how they want to give and which specific af...

Who’s the Audience of Vogue? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? In this fashion-focused episode, host and Pulsar CEO Francesco D’Orazio speaks to Jenna Rak, Senior Director of Audience Development at Vogue, to explore how fashion audiences want to stray from linear time and traditional content timelines, and why creative industries need to take lead from their most...

Who’s the Audience of Misinformation? How has it evolved over the past few years? Where is it going next? In this live inaugural episode session, host and Pulsar CEO Francesco D’Orazio speaks to Sarah Brandt, the EVP of Partnerships of Newsguard, to explore industry perspectives on how misinformation works, how it spreads, the risks associated with brands and public organizations and the audiences...

The Audiences Podcast is the audience discovery show. We talk to guests who build audiences for a living. And as we discuss what it takes to build an audience, we explore new emerging audiences in fashion, tech, media and many other industries. Subscribe to never miss an episode. Hosted by Francesco D'Orazio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.