Marketing science inspiration
for all marketers

Dr. Karen Nelson-Field is a Professor of Media Innovation at The University of Adelaide, and Founder and Executive Director at Centre for Amplified Intelligence.

Karen is a globally acclaimed researcher in media science, is a regular speaker on the major circuits and has secured research funding from some of the world’s largest advertisers.

Her work has been noted in The New York Times, Bloomberg Business, CNBC, Forbes, Fox Business, Wall Street National and Huffington Post, and she is a regular media writer for the Australian Financial Review.

Her current commercial work focuses around the concept of intelligence amplification where human intelligence is amplified with technology; specifically, where leading-edge AI removes bias from research design.

Laura is the CEO of Host/Havas.

She originally joined Host in 2006 as the Head of Account Management after roles in both Australia and the UK.

Between late 2010 and early 2013, Laura re-located to New York where she was a board member at Anomaly NYC, named by Fast Company as one of the fifty most innovative companies in the world. She returned to Host as Managing Director, and became the agency’s CEO before taking the helm of a new venture which brought together Host with Havas Sydney to create one of Australia’s largest and most progressive agencies.

Over close to twenty years, she has worked with some of the world’s most famous brands resulting in a significant body of creatively and strategically awarded work.

She was recently recognised in Campaign Asia’s 40 under 40 list (just in time) and is currently a board member of The Communication Council.

With 18 years of experience across three continents, Seamus is an Executive Creative Director at Host/Havas Sydney. Over the last two years he has helped lead a creative resurgence that saw them win Agency of the Year at the 2018 AWARD Awards, nine D&AD pencils, including a coveted black pencil, and three Cannes Lions Grand Prix, including Titanium.

Seamus has also lead the Australian Defence Force Recruiting account, with 2017 seeing them achieve the most successful year in their history.

Seamus’ inspiration lies in creating ideas that have the power to change things, and over the years he’s developed an unhealthy obsession with the craft of their delivery.

Julian has worked as a television producer for 30 years starting in 1988 on Beyond 2000. His background is in investigative journalism and he was a senior producer at 60 Minutes for a decade before moving into reality television as co-creator of The Block in 2003. He has worked for all three commercial networks and been Executive Producer of 14 series of The Block winning 5 Logie awards along the way. Working alongside David Barbour, he is a co-creator of several successful formats both in Australia and the US. Julian is also the founder of e-commerce site theblockshop.com.au, charity app shout and a founding investor in influencer marketing app tribe digital.

Adam Ferrier is the Founder of Thinkberbell, and one of Australia’s better known consumer psychologists (can you name another?) . Adam has previously worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, and co-founded Naked Communications in Australia.  Adam is also author of ‘The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour (Oxford 2014), and curator of Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange (MSIX), Australia’s largest marketing sciences conference.

Thinkerbell is a communications agency that brings together hard core creativity with marketing sciences delivering what we like to call Measured Magic.

Melissa Mullins, director of strategy of Nine’s client solutions division 9Powered, bridges the gap between clients and content creators – helping brands overcome marketing challenges harnessing the power of Nine’s content.

John trained in the field of relationships and has been working in private practice for over 20 years. He focuses on giving out practical advice to singles and couples. In terms of media, he has provided commentary on a number of TV shows most recently being one of the experts on the hit series Married At First Sight

Trisha has worked as a training consultant, psycho-synthesis and Clinical neuro-psychotherapist and executive coach for over twenty-five years. She has a background in developmental psychology and the media and has completed a PhD (Neuroscience) on the brain and relationship.

Her Post- Doctoral research was in establishing the part of the brain responsible for the AHA moment and how we can generate this visionary mechanism. She is a registered clinical neuro-psychotherapist and mediator and is interested in the neuroscience of relationship and its application in the role of leadership, relationship and change. Trisha’s PHD looked at the connection between well-being and the brain. Trisha is currently the neuro-psychotherapist on the hit Channel 9 Show ‘Married at First Sight.’

Shelly Horton’s high school guidance counsellor said she was too opinionated and warned her to tone it down. She ignored him and turned it into a career. Now Shelly’s opinion can be heard nationally a number of times each week with regular segments on Channel 9’s Today, Today Extra and Weekend Today, and online at 9honey.com.au.

Professor Kennedy is a founder of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, which discovers and disseminates knowledge on how brands grow. 

Rachel was recently acknowledged as one of “Advertising’s Big Thinkers” by the Advertising Association (UK); she ranks globally in the top 1% of advertising researchers; has been awarded a number of prestigious awards (e.g. Incorporated Society of British Advertisers for paper which best increases understanding of the way in which advertising works); is a speaker on the global stage (e.g. Cannes Lions, ARF and WARC events) and regularly advises the world’s biggest advertisers.



Rachel’s role as Director (Product Development) sees her overseeing the translation of the Institute’s R&D into products and services to help industry be evidence-based.



As a young researcher Rachel ran advertising pre-testing projects. Since then she has moved to testing the validity of advertising measures especially competing pre-testing measures/approaches including biometrics. She loves a good debate so is looking forward to MSIX!

Professor Kennedy is a founder of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, which discovers and disseminates knowledge on how brands grow. 

Rachel was recently acknowledged as one of “Advertising’s Big Thinkers” by the Advertising Association (UK); she ranks globally in the top 1% of advertising researchers; has been awarded a number of prestigious awards (e.g. Incorporated Society of British Advertisers for paper which best increases understanding of the way in which advertising works); is a speaker on the global stage (e.g. Cannes Lions, ARF and WARC events) and regularly advises the world’s biggest advertisers.



Rachel’s role as Director (Product Development) sees her overseeing the translation of the Institute’s R&D into products and services to help industry be evidence-based.



As a young researcher Rachel ran advertising pre-testing projects. Since then she has moved to testing the validity of advertising measures especially competing pre-testing measures/approaches including biometrics. She loves a good debate so is looking forward to MSIX!

Daren leads the creative solutions business for Kantar’s Insights Division, and thought leadership in the communications space.

Daren’s work focuses on creative best practice. He speaks around the world about building meaningfully different brands with great, effective content. He has judged the Effies and B&T awards and has spoken at Cannes Lions.

Daren was educated at the University of Reading (UK) and l’Institut d’Etudes Commerciales Supérieures Strasbourg (France). He is a lapsed long-distance runner, but will get his running shoes out again, one day.

Bio coming soon…

With one foot in academia and one in market research, Cassie brings a unique perspective that comes from the combination of academic theory and real-world practice.

She has a PhD in Psychology and she completed her Post Doc at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (where she also ran the Behavioural Lab). She is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Melbourne and owns boutique research consultancy Empirica Research.

One of her major passions in research is taking the science of attitude and behaviour change and combining it with her love of advertising and communications (yes, she really loves it – she used to get in trouble as a kid for channel surfing to watch the ads).

Cassie heads up the Master of Applied Psychology at the University of Melbourne – a new course that is creating the next generation of psychology graduates with a passion for real-world applications.

Away from work, Cassie and her husband have three kids under three… and no sleep.

Adam Ferrier is the Founder of Thinkberbell, and one of Australia’s better known consumer psychologists (can you name another?) . Adam has previously worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, and co-founded Naked Communications in Australia.  Adam is also author of ‘The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour (Oxford 2014), and curator of Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange (MSIX), Australia’s largest marketing sciences conference.

Thinkerbell is a communications agency that brings together hard core creativity with marketing sciences delivering what we like to call Measured Magic.

Arron uses insight from neuromarketing (neuroscience, behavioural economics and psychology) to guide branding and market strategies. Without this insight Arron believes that marketers are swinging away at a piñata with a blindfold on. Sure, the piñata will eventually get hit but there is a lot of swinging and missing along the way!

Arron has worked on multiple award-winning and breakthrough campaigns, notably ‘The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator’ and Airtasker’s “Like A Boss”. He is an internationally awarded marketer and has received individual accolades as a marketer: Marketing Society Young Marketer of the Year Finalist, Marketing Week Rising Star finalist, Next Generation: Power 100 and is a Marketing Academy alumni.

Brent Coker is author of “Going Viral” and presenter of the doco-info series “Virology”. He has a PhD in online consumer psychology and is developer of the bump algorithm that predicts the spread of memes and video ads. Coker’s research has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Scientific American, to name a few. He lives and works in Melbourne Australia (University of Melbourne), where in his spare time he enjoys cycling for fitness and motorcycling for fun.

Technologist and entrepreneur Jamie Skella has spent 20 years in the design, building and advising of businesses across blockchain, esports, machine learning, and even future food. Formerly Executive Director at MiVote, Jamie is Co-Founder of Horizon State, a company securing votes and redesigning how societies collaboratively make decisions using distributed ledger technology.

Tom is a content creator and publisher with a background in digital strategy and marketing. His unique mix of creativity, technical knowhow and commercial instinct has proven successful in building online channels and telling brand stories in an authentic way across Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and editorial content.

Pitney purchased former Fairfax youth publication TheVine in 2015 and tripled the website’s audience and social media reach in 18 months before Junkee Media acquired TheVine in 2016. Pitney is now the Managing Editor behind Junkee’s new Gen Z title, Punkee. He is analytics-obsessed, loves dreaming up forward-thinking ideas and putting them in to action to get results.

Raen is an experienced media & marketing professional with 10+ years’ industry experience and advanced digital media skills across publisher and brand operations. With an approach that balances creativity, strategy, technical ability and style, Raen creates innovative solutions that deliver results for brands and audiences.

Brent Coker is author of “Going Viral” and presenter of the doco-info series “Virology”. He has a PhD in online consumer psychology and is developer of the bump algorithm that predicts the spread of memes and video ads. Coker’s research has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Scientific American, to name a few. He lives and works in Melbourne Australia (University of Melbourne), where in his spare time he enjoys cycling for fitness and motorcycling for fun.

Technologist and entrepreneur Jamie Skella has spent 20 years in the design, building and advising of businesses across blockchain, esports, machine learning, and even future food. Formerly Executive Director at MiVote, Jamie is Co-Founder of Horizon State, a company securing votes and redesigning how societies collaboratively make decisions using distributed ledger technology.

Tom is a content creator and publisher with a background in digital strategy and marketing. His unique mix of creativity, technical knowhow and commercial instinct has proven successful in building online channels and telling brand stories in an authentic way across Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and editorial content.

Pitney purchased former Fairfax youth publication TheVine in 2015 and tripled the website’s audience and social media reach in 18 months before Junkee Media acquired TheVine in 2016. Pitney is now the Managing Editor behind Junkee’s new Gen Z title, Punkee. He is analytics-obsessed, loves dreaming up forward-thinking ideas and putting them in to action to get results.

Raen is an experienced media & marketing professional with 10+ years’ industry experience and advanced digital media skills across publisher and brand operations. With an approach that balances creativity, strategy, technical ability and style, Raen creates innovative solutions that deliver results for brands and audiences.

Adam Ferrier is the Founder of Thinkberbell, and one of Australia’s better known consumer psychologists (can you name another?) . Adam has previously worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, and co-founded Naked Communications in Australia.  Adam is also author of ‘The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour (Oxford 2014), and curator of Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange (MSIX), Australia’s largest marketing sciences conference.

Thinkerbell is a communications agency that brings together hard core creativity with marketing sciences delivering what we like to call Measured Magic.

Eaon Pritchard is Head of Strategy at UM in Melbourne. A former Creative Director who switched to Planning his when he found out who Tessa Pollitt’s dad was.

His first book ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong – Adventures at the Dunning Kruger Peak of Advertising’ came out in January of this year and is already fast becoming a cult classic among discerning ad types.

Don Marti is Open Source Innovation Strategist at Mozilla in San Francisco.

He is the former editor of Linux Journal and has spoken at Ogilvy Nudgestock and other events.

Don has worked in software development, technical marketing, and media, and has served as President and Vice President of the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group.

Wiemer frequently speaks and writes about marketing science and buyer behaviour. He graduated (with honours) from both University and the Academy of Arts. He is a partner at The Commercial Works where he offers research and advisory services centred on using the fundamentals of buyer behaviour to make marketing more effective – and simpler. He works with clients in direct and indirect channel consumer goods and services in a variety of countries.