Amazon’s former chief creative officer, Simon Morris, has been named chair of new audience insight platform DiO, which provides information on audiences’ emotional responses to ads, TV shows, films and games.

Morris is the founder of LoveFilm and has held roles at Sky and Sega. He also co-founded digital publishing company 365 Corp.

In the new role, he will work alongside Ade Shannon and Rick Curtis.

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DiO has partnered with Molinare Creative Group, a post-production firm. It has also named film distribution company Picturehouse Entertainment and the Hartree Centre – a research hub for AI and digital technology – as early clients.

Molinare chief executive Nigel Bennet said: “This partnership will allow our clients and creatives to leverage DiO’s transformative approach to audience insight, ensuring testing is no longer seen as a necessary evil but a valuable addition to their creative toolkit.”

Ade Shannon added: “Within any creative endeavour there is a tension between art and commerce, but I have never believed they are mutually exclusive. The problem has been the tools used to guide creative decisions. I get lots of feedback that this process has often felt like creatives are ‘having their homework marked’ with their work being given a ‘score’.

“DiO solves this by decoding the silent emotional reactions we all make, validating a creative’s intuition to maximise commercial success. Whilst our roots are in film and media, we’re on a mission to empower creativity everywhere.”