How Synthetic Audiences Are Changing Consumer Research
Today • 40 mins
Synthetic audiences are changing the way brands approach consumer research, offering new ways to test ideas, accelerate learning, and generate insights. But as these tools evolve, questions remain about their accuracy, their ability to capture cultural nuance, and where human research is still essential.
In this special compilation episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch brings together marketing and insights leaders to explore the opportunities and limitations of synthetic audiences. From grounding AI models in real consumer data to identifying potential bias and preserving the unexpected insights that emerge from human conversations, our guests share how brands can experiment with synthetic audiences without losing sight of the people behind the data.
Takeaways:
- Synthetic audiences can help researchers accelerate early-stage learning, test messaging, and explore creative options, but they shouldn’t replace foundational research.
- Grounding synthetic audiences in years of real consumer data can make them more relevant and differentiated than models built on generic information alone.
- AI can help automate time-consuming research tasks, scale consistent studies, and generate initial hypotheses, giving insights teams more time to focus on analysis and strategy.
- Synthetic audiences can introduce bias and overlook cultural differences, outliers, and long-tail perspectives that may reveal important consumer insights.
- Human conversations can uncover unexpected observations and emotional reactions that lead to meaningful creative ideas and stronger consumer understanding.
- Synthetic data can be useful for applications like forecasting and predictive modeling, but it needs to be validated against existing models before being trusted for consequential decisions.
- The most effective approach is to combine AI-powered tools with real consumer data, cultural understanding, and experienced human judgment.
Quote of the Show:
“It’s not about replacing existing processes with AI, but it’s actually much more about what can AI enable us to do that we were never able to do because we were just a small team or we have limited resource and time.” — Tobias Puehse
Ways to Tune In:
Today • 40 mins
AI can give marketers and researchers access to more information than ever before. But more information doesn’t automatically mean better consumer understanding.
Kajoli Tankha, Senior Director and Head of Consumer and Reputation Insights at Microsoft, believes the real opportunity with AI goes far beyond efficiency. It’s about giving people better tools to uncover insights, connect knowledge across an organization, and ultimately make better decisions.
In the newest episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, Kajoli joins David Wellisch to discuss:
- Why cultural intelligence is becoming even more critical in an AI-driven world
- What tech companies often misunderstand about what consumers actually want
- Where AI can strengthen consumer research and where human judgment still matters
- How synthetic audiences are changing the insights process
- Why fearlessness, curiosity, and storytelling will matter in the future of research
Quote of the Show:
“Your defaults have got you this way, but they’re not gonna get you to the future.” — Kajoli Tankha
Ways to Tune In:
Today • 40 mins
AI is transforming the way marketers understand consumers, process data, personalize experiences, and bring ideas to life. As these capabilities expand, the ability to interpret meaning, context, and cultural nuance becomes an essential layer in making that intelligence truly effective.
In this special compilation episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, marketing and insights leaders explore what happens when AI is paired with human curiosity, empathy, creativity, and cultural understanding. From understanding the “why” behind the data to recognizing the values and experiences that shape consumer behavior, our guests share why the best marketing happens when technology and human insight work together.
Featuring insights from:
- Catherine Pinkham Berger (Bimbo Bakeries)
- Koley Corte (MetLife)
- Mark Anthony Edmonson (formerly with Materne North America – GoGo squeeZ)
- Tobias Puehse (Mastercard)
- Reshma Dhati (Lipton Teas and Infusions)
- Natalie Wills (Expedia Group)
Key takeaways:
- AI can help marketers process massive amounts of data and turn consumer understanding into action faster, but it shouldn’t replace human curiosity or critical thinking.
- Data tells us what people do, but human stories, emotions, and lived experiences help us understand why they do it.
- Cultural fluency means looking beyond customers and buyers to understand people—their voices, values, behaviors, and the cultures that influence their choices.
- AI can identify patterns and predict what is statistically probable, but culture is often messy, emotional, unpredictable, and deeply human.
- The strongest creative work still needs human strategy, empathy, and insight, even when AI helps scale the creative process.
- As AI agents become more involved in consumer decisions, understanding people’s values and priorities will remain critical to creating relevant experiences.
- The future of marketing isn’t about choosing between human insight and AI. It’s about bringing the two together to create more meaningful, culturally relevant work.
Quote of the Show:
“Human meaning and machine measurement…it’s really bringing those languages together that unlocks new capabilities” — Tobias Puehse
Ways to Tune In:
Today • 40 mins
After years of algorithms and individual screens, Ciara Dilley sees a shift coming, back to real people, in real rooms, together. On this week’s episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch sits down with Ciara Dilley, Senior Vice President of Growth Portfolio at PepsiCo, for a masterclass in turning cultural intelligence into measurable brand growth. Ciara has spent her career across Diageo, Kellogg, Campbell Soup, and now PepsiCo, and she brings a rare cross-cultural lens shaped by her own path from Ireland to Germany to Texas.
In this conversation, she breaks down what cultural relevance actually means (hint: it’s deep and penetrating consumer understanding, not surface-level data points), tells the story of how a “little kid on the block” snacking portfolio found massive growth in an unexpected place, and gets candid about where AI, synthetic audiences, and human empathy fit together in modern marketing. She also opens up about risk-taking, mentorship, and why she believes the world is moving from individuals in virtual spaces back to communities in real life.
Key cultural relevance takeaways:
- Cultural relevance requires three things: a deep and penetrating understanding of consumer needs, applying that understanding to what your brand specifically stands for, and using it to drive real business growth.
- Ciara’s biggest lesson in humility came from Dollar General becoming her fastest-growing customer. The data pointed to lower-income and rural consumers making small, affordable health tradeoffs, an insight that reshaped Ciara and her team’s entire approach to permissible snacking.
- To tell a passing food fad from a lasting cultural shift, ask three questions:
- Is it solving a real consumer need or tension?
- Can it travel across multiple markets and consumer groups?
- Is it just a spike or does it have staying power (her dill pickle and protein trend examples bring this to life)?
- AI and data can accelerate understanding, but they are only as good as the human empathy and consumer insight that feed them. Ciara sees synthetic audiences as a tool to test and prototype, not a replacement for real consumer understanding.
- Brands that personalize successfully at scale start by knowing exactly who they are. Ciara points to Nike’s consistency and Walker’s Crisps’ hyper-local work across England, Scotland, and Wales as proof that strong brand identity is what makes nuanced, local marketing possible.
- Scaling innovation inside a massive organization comes down to agility, a genuine appetite for failure, frameworks like Stage-Gate used the right way, and staying connected to startups and the outside world.
- Looking ahead, Ciara believes the biggest cultural shift is a move from individuals in virtual worlds back to communities in real life, and she sees the FIFA World Cup as a preview of what that means for brands.
Quote of the Show:
“The brands that are most set up for success to optimize personalization are those who know themselves, and know themselves really well.” – Ciara Dilley.
Ways to Tune In:
Today • 40 mins
AI is transforming how organizations collect, analyze, and act on data, but technology alone cannot explain people. In this episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch welcomes Pankaj Chopra, VP and Head of Data, Analytics and Strategy at Edgewell Personal Care, for a conversation about the intersection of cultural intelligence, analytics, and artificial intelligence.
Drawing from leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Mondelez, and Edgewell, Pankaj explains why understanding consumers requires more than dashboards and algorithms. He shares how organizations can distinguish lasting cultural shifts from temporary trends, where AI creates the most value in marketing and innovation, and why storytelling remains one of the most valuable skills in a data-driven world. The discussion also explores synthetic data, consumer trust, and the balance between machine intelligence and human judgment.
Takeaways:
- Cultural intelligence begins with recognizing that today’s consumers cannot be understood through one-size-fits-all segmentation. Brands must account for cultural backgrounds, generational differences, and evolving consumer expectations.
- The greatest challenge for established organizations is often not adopting new technology but embracing the mindset needed to rethink decades of established processes.
- Data has become more fragmented than ever. Success depends on connecting insights from social conversations, search behavior, reviews, and consumer interactions to build a complete picture rather than relying on a single source.
- AI excels at optimizing creative execution, identifying patterns, and accelerating analysis, but it cannot replace the empathy and firsthand understanding that come from engaging directly with consumers.
- Not every popular trend signals a lasting cultural shift. Businesses should look beyond short-term excitement to identify the underlying behavior changes that will shape future demand.
- Synthetic data has significant long-term potential, but organizations should validate it carefully before relying on it for major strategic decisions, particularly in areas that require nuanced consumer interpretation.
- Technical expertise alone is no longer enough. Professionals who can communicate insights clearly and tell compelling stories will have a lasting advantage as AI becomes increasingly accessible.
Quote of the Show:
- “It doesn’t matter what you know. What’s very critical is how you bring that, simplify it, communicate it, influence, and then make sure you drive change.“ — Pankaj Chopra
Ways to Tune In:
Culture moves at the speed of a social feed. Corporate innovation rarely does.
In this episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch sits down with Reshma Dhati, VP of Marketing, North America at Lipton Teas and Infusions, to discuss how brands can stay culturally fluent in a rapidly changing consumer landscape. Drawing on experience across Lipton, Tazo, Absolut, Malibu, PepsiCo, and Unilever, Reshma shares how marketers can identify meaningful cultural shifts, build authentic consumer connections, and innovate without chasing every trend.
The conversation explores the difference between cultural relevance and cultural fluency, how to distinguish macro shifts from short-lived fads, the growing role of functional wellness in consumer behavior, and where AI can, and cannot, replace human judgment in marketing.
Takeaways:
- Don’t build your innovation pipeline around what’s trending on social media today. Instead, focus on the underlying consumer behaviors and cultural drivers that reveal whether a trend has lasting staying power.
- Use AI to accelerate analysis, research, and execution, but keep humans responsible for interpreting culture and emotion. The strongest marketing strategies combine machine efficiency with real-world consumer empathy.
- Move beyond demographic segmentation and focus on cultural rituals. Understanding how consumers use your product in meaningful moments will uncover stronger innovation and messaging opportunities than broad audience targeting alone.
- Build systems that combine social listening with direct consumer conversations. Trends become more actionable when you can connect online behavior to real-world needs, frustrations, and motivations.
- Evaluate new growth opportunities through the lens of brand authenticity. Just because a macro trend is growing doesn’t mean your brand should participate; focus on the shifts that naturally align with your brand’s role in consumers’ lives.
- Treat cultural fluency as an organizational capability, not a marketing tactic. The brands that win are embedding consumer and cultural insights into product development, innovation, creative strategy, and go-to-market planning.
- As AI reshapes search and discovery, rethink how consumers find your brand. Monitor how your products appear in AI-generated answers and begin optimizing for visibility beyond traditional search engines.
As marketing teams race to adopt AI, Catherine Berger argues that human curiosity and cultural understanding matter more than ever. In this episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch sits down with Catherine Berger, VP of Marketing Transformation and Services at Grupo Bimbo, to explore what it really takes for legacy brands to stay culturally relevant in a rapidly evolving consumer landscape.
From building emotionally resonant brands to balancing AI-powered efficiency with human creativity, Catherine shares a candid look at the future of marketing transformation inside one of the world’s largest food companies. The conversation dives into cultural intelligence, consumer listening, experimentation, AI-enabled storytelling, synthetic audiences, and the mindset required to drive innovation at scale.
Catherine also reflects on leadership, curiosity, failure, and why the best marketers still need to stay deeply connected to real human experiences.
Takeaways:
- Cultural relevance means mattering, not just being known. Awareness without purchase is a warning sign. Being part of the cultural conversation is what separates brands that survive from brands that fade.
- Listening is a superpower and it has to be literal. Data is useful, but physically putting marketers in the room with real consumers creates a depth of insight no spreadsheet can replicate.
- AI should do the processing so humans can do the thinking. Let the machines handle efficiency and scale, but protect the curiosity and critical thinking that drives great marketing.
- Story first, technology second. AI can bring a story to life in more powerful and scalable ways, but you have to know what you are saying before you reach for the tools.
- Transformation requires ingenuity, ownership and the freedom to fail. Companies that reward independent operators, normalize failure, and think like scientists are the ones that actually evolve.
What does it take for a 150+ year-old global brand to stay culturally relevant in an AI-
driven world without losing its authenticity?
In this episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, Koley Corte, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, MetLife Investment Management and Retirement Income Solutions at MetLife, shares how authenticity, curiosity, and deep customer understanding continue to drive meaningful growth in an increasingly complex landscape. A marketing and growth leader shaping the future of financial services, Koley brings strategic depth across investments, retirement, insurance, data, and digital transformation, along with a reputation for building trust quickly and leading teams through change with clarity and confidence.
Throughout the conversation, she explores how MetLife balances global consistency with local relevance, why cultural intelligence starts with listening, and how AI is transforming personalization, insights, and customer engagement — while reinforcing the importance of keeping humans at the center of every decision.
Takeaways:
- Cultural relevance is authenticity in action, not just in words. Cultural relevance isn’t about saying the right things. It’s about building authentic relationships rooted in a clear purpose.
- Understanding customers means going beyond what they say. Koley’s team uses neuropsychology-based research to uncover intrinsic motivations, what actually drives behavior, not just what people report. By combining first-party data, behavioral observation, and third-party data, they build a fuller, more honest picture of the customer and what is driving decision making.
- AI’s real power is accelerating the journey from insight to action. AI’s biggest opportunity is in personalization that adds value, rapidly converting customer signals into relevant, customized outreach and solutions.
- Curiosity is the engine of impact. Whether in business or personal life, staying curious is the foundation for adding value and driving growth. She uses AI tools to build accountability systems and explore what’s possible and advocates for putting these tools in her team’s hands to experiment.
- Legacy brands stay relevant by evolving through innovation, not chasing trends. MetLife’s longevity comes from continuously finding new ways to help customers build more confident futures while staying anchored in a consistent purpose.
- Personalization only matters when it creates genuine value. The goal isn’t personalization for the sake of looking innovative, but delivering the right support, insight, or solution at the moments that matter most.
- Human judgment still matters in an AI-driven world. While AI can accelerate research, synthesis, and engagement, these tools can introduce bias. Therefore, it’s important to keep “humans in the loop” to validate insights, reduce bias, and maintain authentic customer relationships.
What if the most important marketing skill isn’t creativity or data fluency, but the ability to genuinely understand people who are nothing like you?
Natalie Wills has spent her career building brands that feel native to the cultures they serve. As SVP of Marketing and Creative at Expedia Group, she oversees a portfolio spanning Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo, managing brand strategy across dozens of markets, with a philosophy rooted in local insight, diverse teams, and the courage to actually listen to consumers.
In this episode, Natalie joins host David Wellisch to explore what it really means to do global marketing well. It’s not by applying a “matching luggage approach” to creative across markets, but by digging deep into what makes each culture tick. They cover the role AI should and shouldn’t play in creative strategy, why a focus group comment about “homework” became a campaign revelation, and how brands need to rethink their entire channel mix in the age of agentic AI.
Takeaways:
- Designing only for lead markets leaves the rest of the world behind. A campaign built for the US or UK cannot simply be adapted for global audiences. Local media habits, cultural nuances, and consumer trust require genuinely localized thinking from the very start.
- Subculture marketing is where real resonance lives. Especially in a market as vast and diverse as the US, reaching consumers means going deeper than broad demographics by partnering with creators who speak directly to specific communities and earn trust that mass advertising cannot.
- Brand differentiation must be rooted in real product truth. Marketing can only amplify what is genuinely there, so before investing in creative, teams need to clearly define what each brand actually offers and why a consumer would choose it over every alternative.
- AI accelerates creative teams, it does not replace strategic thinking. AI tools help marketers scale faster, prototype quicker, and cut through laborious research tasks, but the creative strategy, consumer insight, and human judgment behind the work still require brilliant minds in the room.
- Synthetic audiences are a supplement, not a substitute. Real focus groups still surface the kind of unexpected, unguarded human moments that unlock great campaigns — the offhand comment or honest frustration that no algorithm could have predicted or produced.
- Agentic marketing is already changing the channel map. As AI assistants begin making decisions on behalf of consumers, brands need to rethink where they show up, with review platforms, community forums, and trusted content ecosystems becoming as critical as traditional search.
Daryl Butler has spent his career doing one thing exceptionally well: helping brands show up in ways that feel real. As VP of Marketing Global Brand Partnerships at Google, he leads at the intersection of technology, creativity, and culture, but his roots run through some of the most community-driven brands in the world: Nike Jordan, Beats by Dr. Dre, and HP.
In this episode, Daryl joins host David Wellisch to unpack what cultural fluency actually looks like inside one of the world’s most powerful tech companies. He digs into why today’s consumers are harder than ever to reach, how Google is positioning Pixel as a challenger brand, and why the best marketing still comes down to a simple question: does this brand get me? Tune in for a masterclass in what it really means to build brands that people actually invite into their lives.
Takeaways:
- Consumers are multi-hyphenate, and that’s only growing. Today’s audiences defy single-category labels. Brands that try to fit consumers into tidy boxes will always be a step behind.
- The Picasso vs. Einstein tension is real. Great marketing requires both data (Einstein) to identify the right consumer and storytelling artistry (Picasso) to earn their attention. The mix shifts depending on the product, but abandoning either one is a recipe for mediocrity.
- Think like a consumer. Daryl’s consistent advice to his team: look at your brand through the lens of the person you’re trying to reach. If you wouldn’t invite it into your own life, why would they?
- Operating as a challenger brand is a mindset shift, not just a strategy. For Pixel, leaning into challenger brand thinking and showing up differently unlocked a more authentic and resonant brand story. It also required real courage to walk away from the playbook the category leaders had already written.
- Real human interaction can’t be fully replaced by synthetic data. Daryl regularly visits high schools and shows up in community spaces to feel the pulse of culture firsthand. No AI system can fully capture the electricity of genuine, in-person cultural exchange.
- Curiosity is the foundation of cultural fluency. From his finance days browsing Foot Locker shelves to sitting down with Dre and Ice Cube to uncover NWA’s real origin story, Daryl’s superpower has always been asking why. The best marketing breakthroughs, he’ll tell you, start long before anyone opens a brief.