The Director Behind the World's First AI Film at Tribeca Has a Message for Every Marketer
From The Marketing Companion by Sandy Carter
March 31, 2026 · 51 min · Season 13 · Episode 337
About this episode
Michaela Ternasky-Holland discusses compassionate storytelling and its implications for modern marketing.
If your ads are being skipped, your emails are going unread, and your campaigns are blending into the noise, this episode is your wake-up call. What do Disney, a pool full of sprinkles, the United Nations, and the world's first AI film at Tribeca Film Festival have in common? Michaela Ternasky-Holland. And every single one of those experiences holds a lesson for how you market your brand. Michaela is an award-winning immersive experience director and film producer whose work has transported audiences across some of the most iconic and unexpected stages on the planet. She helped bring the legendary Museum of Ice Cream Sprinkle Pool to life. She has created experiences for Disney and Meta. She has worked with the United Nations on some of the most emotionally charged storytelling on earth. And then she walked into Tribeca Film Festival and made history as one of the first directors to premiere a film made with OpenAI's Sora. She is not just watching the future of marketing evolve. She is building it. In this episode of The Marketing Companion, Michaela introduces her concept of compassionate storytelling, an ethical framework that builds genuine trust rather than manufactured…
People in this episode
Host: Sandy Carter
Guest: Michaela Ternasky-Holland
Topics covered
- AI in marketing
- compassionate storytelling
- experiential campaigns
- generative AI
- immersive design
- brand marketing
Keywords
- AI film
- marketing strategies
- storytelling
- experiential marketing
- brand trust
- creative teams
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Disney, Meta, United Nations
Products: OpenAI's Sora
Books & works: Museum of Ice Cream Sprinkle Pool
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