How Olly wowed the crowd at Adfest

How Olly wowed the crowd at Adfest

From Audience Connection by Casual

May 1, 2026 · 18 min · Season 2 · Episode 9

About this episode

Olly Atkinson discusses his AdFest 2026 talk on storytelling and neuroscience in marketing.

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. From a curiosity gap that spikes immersion in 30 seconds flat, to corporate messaging that tanks it just as fast, Olly unpacks what the neuroscience actually says about why some content sticks and most gets filtered out. Plus, a whiskey brand that ditched their assumptions, rewrote their entire creative strategy, and saw a 56% revenue jump in three months with no extra media spend. If you create content, brief it, approve it, or sit in rooms talking about it, this one will change how you think about all of it. Follow Audience Connection Podcast: Website: https://www.casualfilms.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casualglobal/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/casual-films-international BlueSky: @casualglobal.bsky.social Subscribe now and join the conversation about…

People in this episode

Host: Lydia Chan

Guest: Olly Atkinson

Topics covered

  • storytelling
  • neuroscience
  • content marketing
  • audience engagement
  • corporate messaging

Keywords

  • biometric trackers
  • brain activity
  • content effectiveness
  • curiosity gap
  • revenue jump

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: whiskey brand

Books & works: Making People Care: Storytelling in the Age of AI

Places: Thailand

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