CULTURAL EFFECTIVENESS COUNCIL PODCAST SERIES

Topics covered include:

• How Americans define their identities in the 21st Century
• The role and value of music in reaching and persuading diverse audiences
• How to increase engagement with communities of color on healthcare campaigns
• The importance of representation in advertising creative
• The language(s) of the 21st Century US consumer.

These sessions are currently available:

March 30, 2023 — Episode #12: Women & Intersectionality, a conversation with Brandi Rand, VP Group Account Director for Digitas North America and Amber Coleman-Mortley, Senior Director of Community and Culture at The Female Quotient.

Marketers often look to target customers, though few people fit into just one category. For example, women are multifaceted, and womanhood is complex. Race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, nationality, age, and even ability impact how women navigate life, work, and society at large. On this Women’s History Month episode of CultureConnect, we explore womanhood and intersectionality.

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March 1, 2023 — Episode #11: Health Equity, a conversation with Peter Rodney, VP of Nursing and Patient Care Services at Langone Orthopedic Hospital at NYU Langone Health and Miriam Browning Nance, VP at Horizon Media.

The CDC defines health equity as the state in which “every person has the opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.” Yet disparities in our healthcare system persist. In this episode, we discuss how diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives can impact and improve health equity. As well as what all brands should know about wellness in minority communities.

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January 30, 2023 — Episode #10: Making DEI Efforts Stick, a conversation with Nyasia Sarfo, Global Diversity and Inclusion Program Lead at Microsoft and Singleton Beato, Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer at Mccann Worldgroup

Over the years, organizations have increasingly engaged in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. But efforts only go so far unless there’s a long-term commitment and continuing efforts to make DEI stick. We discuss insights and strategies for organizations to continually improve operational inclusion.

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December 21, 2022 — Episode #9: Year in Review, a conversation with, Barbara Leflein Founder of Leflein Associates and Cochair Of the Cultural Effectiveness Council, Dana Sparber, Vice President of Insights and Research at NBC Universal and Kiko Restrepo, Lead of Inclusive Ad Sales Strategy at Warner Brothers Discovery.

Over the last year, CultureConnect has addressed how diversity, equity and inclusion are driving growth in businesses and marketing companies. These discussions have sometimes led us down surprising paths and given us food for thought. As 2022 draws to a close, some members of the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council join moderator Janelle James, Co-Chair of the CEC and Senior Vice President at Ipsos UU, to reflect on and celebrate our podcast.

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November 18, 2022 — Episode #8: Leading with Inclusive Insights, a conversation with Isaac Mizrahi, CEO of Alma, Aneessa Steilen, VP of Media And Distribution At Vevo, and Kimberley Mcarthur, Brand Experience Manager, Multicultural, At General Mills.

Whether you’re building a company or sustaining the power of a legacy brand, understanding demographic shifts is vital. Moderator Janelle James, Co-Chair of the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council and Senior Vice President at Ipsos UU, leads a discussion on ways brands have gained an edge by focusing their insights and subsequent marketing on what perhaps used to be considered niche markets.

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October 28, 2022 — Episode #7: Using More Inclusive Terminology in Research, a conversation with Adriana Waterston, Chief Revenue Officer and the Strategy and Insights Lead at Horowitz Research and Bryan Miller, a Senior Director of Product and Content at The Collage Group.

As media and brands seek to learn more about their audiences, the language that members of those audiences use to identify themselves needs to be reflected in research questionnaires. Moderator Janelle James, Co-Chair of the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council and Senior Vice President at Ipsos UU, leads a discussion on the challenges of inclusive identity terminology with experts in multicultural market research.

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September 29, 2022 — Episode #6: The Future of Qual, a conversation with Alexa Blechman, Senior Director of Cultural Insights at A&E Networks, Tony D’andrea, Multicultural Marketing Manager at General Mills, Danielle Hemsley, Director Of Research Strategy at Cassandra.

Qualitative research alone or with other forms of research has proven valuable to marketers and businesses who want to better understand their customers and target audience. The Cultural Effectiveness Council has been working on original research on today and tomorrow’s qualitative approaches. Moderator Janelle James, Co-Chair of the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council and Senior Vice President at Ipsos UU, speaks to her council colleagues on this initiative.

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June 17, 2022 — Episode #5: Contending with Algorithmic Bias pt 2 , A conversation with Kalinda Ukanwa, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Amanda Bower, a machine learning researcher at Twitter.

Technology is an essential part of our everyday life. We rely on it to help us navigate our finance, employment, housing, health care and purchases, among other things. But, perhaps unknowingly, we may be impacted by algorithmic bias, in which systematic repeatable errors in AI treat members of some groups differently than others. In part two of our look at algorithmic bias, we delve further into what consumers and companies can do about it.

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May 5, 2022 — Episode #4: Contending with Algorithmic Bias, a conversation with Janelle James, SVP, Ipsos IUU (Council Co-Chair), Kalinda Ukanwa, Assistant Professor of Marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Amanda Bower, Machine Learning Researcher at Twitter. Hui Wang, VP/Director of Global Data Intelligence – Analytics Service, at Publicis Media. Kathy Sheehan, Senior Vice President at Cassandra. Ilinca Barsan, Data Science Director at Wunderman Thompson.

We’re increasingly dependent on algorithms in a variety of areas. This has led to problems with algorithmic bias, in which statistical and econometric models or a programmed set of instructions systematically treats members of some groups differently than others. This can be due to the unconscious biases of engineers who build the models, biases in the data they are trained on, biases inherent in the models themselves or algorithms’ treatment of human attributes as single, isolated components rather than intersectional identities. We look at the ways in which models, programs, and algorithms in the media, marketing, and advertising industries can unintentionally favor majority populations and ignore or even discriminate against minority segments and how to overcome this problem.

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April 4, 2022 — Episode #3: The Great Resignation, a conversation with Janelle James, SVP, Ipsos IUU (Council Co-Chair), Pepper Miller, Founder & President of Hunter Miller Group, Joanna Lara, US Multicultural Brand Partner & Strategy Lead at Google and Co-Founder of Latinos in Tech, and Carla Ebola, EVP, DEI Lead at Energy BBDO.

The ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council Co-Chair’s Janelle James led an examination of the media, marketing, and research industry’s effort to face capacity issues due to record departures, and how many Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies (DEI) are likely to shift as a result. This dynamic discussion ultimately highlighted the industry’s opportunity to implement inclusive hiring practices by bringing in a more diverse talent pool in response to a once in a generation shake up in the world of work.

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March 7, 2022 — Episode #2: Deconstructing Diversity Today with NBCU Magna and Identity, a conversation with Dana Sparber, Vice President of Insights and Research at NBC Universal, Kara Manatt, Senior Vice President of Intelligence Solutions at Magna. and Oscar Allain, Senior Vice President of Cultural Research at Identity and head of International Research at UM.

We’re living in a time when the way people identify themselves is constantly evolving. Not only do Americans live in a multicultural society, but many embrace communities that go beyond their own heritage. So, if marketers want to connect with consumers and stand out from the competition, they need to reflect this cultural reality. This episode features a discussion surrounding a recent study by NBCU and two ad agencies (Magna and Identity) which identifies steps marketers can take to reach a polycultural society, including having a culture first mindset.

Guests: A conversation with Dana Sparber, Vice President of Insights and Research at NBC Universal, Kara Manatt, Senior Vice President of Intelligence Solutions at Magna. and Oscar Allain, Senior Vice President of Cultural Research at Identity and head of International Research at UM. Hosted by, Barbara Leflein of Leflein Associates (Co-Chair, Cultural Council) and Moderated by Janelle James, SVP, IUU Ipsos (Co-Chair, Cultural Council)

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February 11, 2022 — Episode #1: How Brands Can Leverage the Cultural Relevance of Music Videos, a conversation with Laura Vanison, Director of Consumer & Artist Insights and Robert Velez, Senior Director of Multicultural Ad Sales at Vevo.

If you’ve watched music videos from artists like the Weeknd, Shakira, Justin Bieber or Olivia Rodrigo, chances are you watched it on Vevo, the world’s leading music video network. Vevo reaches over one billion daily viewers globally, and 150 million US viewers monthly. Music videos represent a unique form of premium content. More than entertainment, they’re very much the soundtrack to our lives. This episode looks at how Vevo provides opportunities for brands to connect with hard-to-reach, diverse groups in authentic ways and how corporate engagement can go beyond ads.

Guests: A conversation with Laura Vanison, Director of Consumer & Artist Insights and Robert Velez, Senior Director of Multicultural Ad Sales at Vevo. Hosted by, Barbara Leflein of Leflein Associates (Co-Chair, Cultural Council) and Moderated by Janelle James, SVP, IUU Ipsos (Co-Chair, Cultural Council)