Dr. Scott Garner, Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Scott Garner is a senior programming and brand strategist, with 25 years of experience in content curation, marketing and research for leading Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Garner uses a data-driven approach to build competitive and strategic business plans that define, differentiate and accentuate a brands platform to successfully connect with consumers. He currently runs his own consulting firm, Conqueror Media, focused on helping both large and small clients navigate the rapidly evolving media and entertainment industry. Dr. Garner specializes in consumer insight and primary research, trend tracking, competitive landscape analysis, content library management, domestic and international program strategy and content acquisitions and management.
Dr. Garner is a consultant for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, overseeing Primary Custom research for the networks. He recently launched an intensive primary and quantitative political tracking study over a period of five months to determine the political ideology and key issues that matter to young female African American voters to inform the #OWNYourVote campaign. Additionally, he created a persona-based audience engagement study where he crafted exacting profiles of the Oprah viewer base. Most recently, Dr. Garner has been engaged as Program Strategy Consultant for VENN (a newly launched digital network) which targets gaming audiences. Garner has been working with the company on establishing their launch schedule, building out global programming, and generating best practices for metrics assessment for their long-term strategy.
From 1992-2017 Dr. Garner served as a senior research executive for some of the top female and children’s entertainment brands. From 2011 to 2017, Mr. Garner served as executive vice president, program planning and acquisitions for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Between 1999 and 2011, Dr. Garner served as a senior executive at Lifetime Networks and Disney Channel Worldwide where he was involved in the successful planning and launch of multiple content franchises. Scott started his career in qualitative, quantitative and media research, with posts at Sesame Workshop, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon/Nick Jr.
Mr. Garner is currently working on numerous research projects examining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as well as the LGBTQQIA projects with the American Psychological Association (APA). His focus within his doctoral pursuit of Media Psychology examines audience engagement with diverse audiences across traditional and newer media platforms.
Dr. Garner received his Ph.D. in Media Psychology from Fielding University in Santa Barbara. In 2020, Mr. Garner was a Fielding Michael R. Neal Award recipient. Dr. Garner holds a Master of Arts degree in Communication from Columbia University (New York City) as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and French Studies from Emory University (Atlanta). Find Dr. Garner on LinkedIn.