Deanna Elstrom is the founder and president of Somi Insights, a Tokyo-based market research and strategic insights agency. With more than 15 years of experience living and working in Japan, Deanna is a seasoned brand marketer and consumer researcher with expertise in innovation and positioning workshopping. Deanna holds an Economics degree from Duke University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Erina Honda is senior research manager at Somi Insights, a Tokyo-based market research and strategic insights agency. She brings eight years of qualitative research experience from Ipsos K.K. across projects in the entertainment, FMCG, and healthcare industries. Erina completed her undergraduate studies at J.F. Oberlin College in Tokyo.

Dr. Jenna Drenten is an associate professor of marketing at Loyola University Chicago and serves as associate editor at the Journal of Advertising Research. Her work focuses on internet discourses, influencer marketing, celebrity branding, pop culture, feminism, gender, social media platforms, monetisation, memes, and more. Her research has been published in over 20 leading academic journals, and her expertise has been featured in several media outlets, including The Washington Post, Financial Times, and BBC.

Evan E. Lambert is a journalist, travel writer, essayist, and short fiction writer with bylines at Thought Catalog, Business Insider, Mic, People, Queerty, BuzzFeed, Going, The Discoverer, and many more. You can check out his other work at https://evanlambert.journoportfolio.com/.