ON SECOND THOUGHT/2026
Scaling a Creator Series Across Every MSR Channel
THE SITUATION
On Second Thought was Microsoft Research's first real bet on long-form, human-led video. It came together during a critical moment for AI in the public conversation, when questions about ethics, application, and where the technology was actually headed needed a voice outside Microsoft itself to ask them credibly.
Sentiment was at a low. This needed to be something to reshape audience opinion with a trusted external voice.
Initial Thoughts
My cross-functional partners and I on the comms team identified Sinead Bovell, a futurist with genuine external authority and audience trust, as the right creator to pair with MSR's researchers and leaders to ask those questions directly rather than have Microsoft answer them unprompted.
That pairing became four roughly 15-minute filmed conversations covering AI in health, inclusion, scientific discovery, and the future of work, released biweekly from mid-January through March 2026 called ‘On Second Thought’ with Sinead Bovell
It was a comms-led original series and I needed to prove that MSR's channels could carry longer, more produced content without losing the audience.
SIDEBAR THOUGHTS
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I owned the social strategy, copy, and asset production for the series across every channel it touched, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and the cross-post to Brand Social's main Microsoft channels.
That meant writing the copy for every clip and full-episode post, producing the edited social assets, and running the release cadence in step with Sinead's own native content drops.
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The series became a genuine proof point across channels that video was king for Microsoft Research. In my MSR case study, this format was what drove a lot of positive change for the organization, especially as it correlates to the new all-up strategy I developed. Video-and-human centric storytelling to drive change.
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This series was the most collaborative I’ve worked in whilst hand-in-hand with a large-scale creator. It proves my ability to provide guidance to a creator while they do work they would’ve done ordinarily for their audience, now with additional access and resources.
That work I believe is most effective when using external creators.
ON SECOND THOUGHT…
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
14.2 million
Total views across the series, primarily led by social posts. Even full-length episodes hosted on social channels I owned outperformed YouTube channels with millions of followers with ease.
74%
Positive sentiment received on OST-related posts. For comparisons sake, our average positive sentiment on posts prior to this series hovered around ~20%.
45,000
Total engagements across channels with an average engagement rate of 2.4% which exceeded the established social benchmark of 1%
9,000
Net-new followers gained as On Second Thought was the content anchor of a new video-centric strategy as well as a newly launched channel on TikTok.
FINAL THOUGHTS…
This is the case study that shows range beyond channel-building and newsletters.
I produced and wrote and collaborated for an external creator-led series with outside talent, coordinating across a comms team rather than owning a channel solo, and proving that MSR's audience would show up for long-form video once the content and copy earned it.