From storytelling to AI celebs: Humain comes to Mumbrella360
Bruce Ryder returns to Humain
The intersection of media, marketing, and artificial intelligence will take stage at this year’s Mumbrella360, as the former Unmade conference series Humain (styled humAIn) is integrated into the three-day program.
Humain events began in 2023 as Unmade’s dedicated forums exploring the impact of AI on creative work, decision-making, and industry practices.
As part of Mumbrella360 in Sydney from 26–28 May, Humain will deliver a series of sessions featuring case studies, research, and practitioner perspectives.
The program will bring together senior marketers, creatives, researchers, and technologists to explore how AI has already transformed marketing—and what still depends on human judgment, craft, and storytelling.
The Humain stream sessions are built around case studies for major brands, best practice and real-world work, examining how AI is being used across creative production, brand storytelling, influence and organisational design.
The program includes: The Future of Marketing Is Here, a session examining how AI is already embedded across marketing teams at some of Australia’s leading brands.
The discussion will focus on how AI is influencing the development of ideas, the production of work, decision-making, and team structure, drawing on practitioner experience rather than predictions.
Speakers include Lauren Dawber, senior director media, operations and performance at Optus; Yasmina Pinto, head of brand at AGL; Aimee Dixon, general manager, enterprise brand and retail marketing at Australia Post; and Marty Hungerford, co-founder and chief innovation officer at BRX.
The session is designed for senior marketers and agency leaders looking to understand how AI is changing marketing practice now, and how organisations are responding in real terms.
Another headline session, The Human Signal: What Hundreds of AI Films Reveal About Craft, Judgement and Creative Quality, draws on insights from Disrupt, Australia’s first dedicated GenAI film festival.
Lucio Ribeiro, chief AI and innovation officer at TBWA Australia, will unpack patterns emerging from hundreds of Australian AI-made films, examining where creators invest time, where they compromise too early, and why intent and judgement remain stronger predictors of quality than prompts or models.
The session features a panel discussion with Jessie Hughes, senior creative technologist at Leonardo.Ai, and Alex McLean, general manager of marketing at BMW Group Australia.
L-R: Hughes, McLean, Pinto, Du Chenne, Barlow
New data from Kantar will inform Marketing Department 2030: Humans Optional?, a session comparing the brand-building impact of human-made advertising versus AI-generated work.
Karin Du Chenne, group executive director at Kantar Insights Australia, will explore what the findings mean for trust, creativity and the future structure of marketing teams, including how organisations may evolve as ecosystems of humans, algorithms and creators.
The program also features a provocative session, I Created Australia’s First AI Celebrity: Here’s What Bruce Ryder Taught Me About the Future of Influence, led by Emma Barbato, creative director at Miss Em AI.
Part case study, part exploration of digital performance, the session examines the real-world impact of “Bruce Ryder”, an AI-generated personality, and what it reveals about parasocial relationships, influence, IP, and ethics when AI becomes the talent rather than the tool.
Storytelling remains a central theme throughout the stream. Once Upon a Time in the Age of AI: Why Storytelling Is Your Most Effective Strategy will present analysis from Ipsos, based on 15,000 video ads and 2.25 million consumer responses.
Daren Poole, creative excellence lead at Ipsos, and Lucinda Barlow, head of international marketing at Uber, will outline why narrative, humour and human-centred storytelling continue to drive memory and behaviour change, even as automation accelerates.
Early bird tickets for Mumbrella360 are on sale now. Past Humain delegates are entitled to a special discount: please contact the events team to redeem it.
