Dan Monheit is CEO and cofounder of Hardhat, Australia's foremost creative agency built around Behavioural Science. Since 2005, Dan and the Hardhat team have been called upon by many of Australia’s most innovative organisations and brands, including DocuSign, Virgin, Lite n’ Easy, Kogan.com, TAC and Visit Victoria.
Dan is on a mission to help more business leaders, marketers and challenger brands understand why people do the things that they do. He is regarded as one of the industry’s leading thinkers on behavioural science, brands, communications and decision making. Dan’s insights have been published in major publications including The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, CEO Magazine, Yahoo Finance, news.com.au, CMO Magazine, Smart Company, Mi3 and Inside Retail as well as content series for the likes of Meta, Google and CarSales.
Dan’s expertise in this space has seen him present on behavioural science to thousands of people, in Australia, and at major international events, including SXSW in Austin Texas. His ‘Bad Decisions’ podcast regularly features in the 'top marketing podcast' charts and draws listeners from over 100 countries. His first Behavioural Science book, ‘The Why, the Book’ was released in 2022 and became an instant Amazon #1 Best Seller.
Talking Points
Behaviour Change (Or Not?) in 2022
So much of what we’re taught about business and marketing makes complete sense, provided our audiences are perfectly rational human beings. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. In truth, humans are a surprisingly irrational species, subconsciously driven by emotions and blindsided by cognitive biases. Yet brands often base their strategies on the opposite assumption and then wonder why their approach falls short.Behaviour Change (Or Not?) in 2022
In this action-packed presentation, Hardhat CEO and Behavioural Science Expert Dan Monheit uses core concepts from Behavioural Science to explain why following logical, well-intentioned advice can lead to catastrophic outcomes for brands. Drawing on research from Nobel Laureates, Monheit will provide a short introduction to Behavioural Science before debunking a range of terrible traditional marketing advice with the help of peer-reviewed research studies, real world examples and actionable takeaways.
Terrible Advice for Excellent Marketers
When it comes to growth, Challenger Brands can’t afford to run the category playbook. Even if they have the same money to spend as their market-leading rivals, it's no secret that they'll make nowhere near the return. Terrible Advice for Excellent Marketers
Challenger Brands need to carve their own path with ideas that work over, under and around the category conventions. Monheit will provide Challenger Brands with the cheat codes to achieve this. In this presentation, he will explore how Challenger Brands use creativity to achieve reach, cut through, growth and most importantly, disproportionate return on their investment.
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Dan Monheit | Speaker Highlights
Dan Monheit is cofounder of Hardhat, Australia's foremost creative agency built around Behavioural Science. Founded in 2005 with childhood friend Justin Kabbani, Hardhat has grown to become one of Australia’s most in demand creative shops, with clients including the Victorian Government, Mattel, Lion Dairy and Drinks, Victoria University, Zip and Simply Energy.Knowing what our customers want and what motivates them has been an integral part of building out strategies to delight our customers. Being customer obsessed has meant we need to always hav ... keep reading Ruslan Kogan
Dan’s Behavioural Science evangelism is both compelling and contagious. He is a great storyteller, which helps bring theories to life. I’ve really enjoyed co-presenting with him on a number of topics, and find his deep knowledge inspiring.
Dan is my go-to guy on all things behaviour change and if there’s something he doesn’t know - (although I’m yet to encounter this) - it probably isn’t worth knowing. He takes often complex theories and ideas and applies a practical and accessible lens to them, which makes him a Marketer’s best friend. An incredibly engaging speaker, he leaves everyone in the room feeling inspired and motivated. Everyone needs a bit of Dan in their life.
I’ve spent the last 18 months learning from Dan while working at Tigerair. In that time, Dan has helped us to go beyond what our customers are doing to understanding why they make the decisions that they do. This has brought a whole new, and more effective, approach to overcoming our business challenges. I have not come across a personality like Dan that is able to successfully educate and influence across all levels of the business through his sheer authenticity, enthusiasm and positivity. Importantly, Dan makes the connection between his work and commercial outcomes and I look forward to working with him far into the future.
