Lea Karam

Lea Karam is a multi-award-winning behavioural scientist and the Founder & CEO of Mindscope. Globally and widely regarded as a pioneer of behavioural science, Lea founded and leads Mindscope, the industry's most trusted behavioural science innovation lab - one that brings industry-altering behavioural foresight to life, uncovering emerging human behaviours and translating them into cultural relevance, community reconnection, and strategies to boost commercial growth. Mindscope's client portfolio includes the likes of Google, Snapchat, TikTok, Canon, Amex GBT, ITV, BBC iPlayer. A sought-after keynote speaker, Lea also delivers sharp, engaging, future-focused talks on behaviours, trends, algorithms, identity, consumer psychology, and the rapidly evolving dynamics of modern audiences.

What do you think the biggest challenges are currently facing the industry?

The sharpest challenge is that marketing is being asked to deliver more with less, faster. And the easy answer has become automation. But the risk is that we optimise ourselves into sameness. When every brand uses the same AI tools, the same platforms, the same playbooks, the output converges. Distinctiveness, which has always been the engine of effectiveness, quietly erodes. Closely linked to that is a crisis of attention. Audiences aren't just distracted but more discerning. They filter ruthlessly for what feels genuinely relevant to them, and most marketing still isn't designed for that reality. And underneath it all sits a measurement problem. The industry is still over-indexed on short-term performance signals while the behavioural and cultural dynamics that actually build brands get treated as soft or unmeasurable. That gap - between what we can prove and what actually drives growth - is where a lot of great work is getting undervalued. The ones doing this well are the ones resisting the pull toward efficiency-at-all-costs and reinvesting in human insight, behavioural understanding, and genuine creative risk.