Interview with Belinda Barker, Chief Executive of World Media Group who was speaking at the launch of their report What's Next for Content-Led Marketing

We begin by discussing what's meant by content-led marketing - essentially revolving around the story of the brand. The report is in its third year and addresses many trends in content-led marketing including the factors that respondents felt added impact and effectiveness to brand storytelling around ESG issues for international audiences. Asked to predict the most exciting trends in content-led marketing over the next two years respondents provided a fairly balanced mix of forecasts around tech platforms, formats, and creative approach. The most frequently cited trend was the continuing growth of podcasts and audio formats. Clubhouse and the rise of other online communities were mentioned – how can brands make a play in this space? The pandemic has seen events of all kinds shift online and respondents envisage a continued exploration of brand activations in this space. And there was a divergence of opinion with respondents mentioning the need to “humanify” marketing and make it more personal, and others mentioning AI generated content.

A fantastic discussion on #retailmedia on last week's show with Colin Lewis who is the leading writer on this topic, and has recently penned the WARC Retail Media Platform Primer Series -- a great range of topics covered ...What exactly do we mean by Retail Media? What is the catalyst for the explosion in Retail Media? How important is it actually in overall retail revenues? What are the brands that are taking advantage of this? Leveraging Retailer's first party data. #AmazonMarketingCloud #AmazonFlywheel #WalmartConnect #retailmedia 

Interviews from the expo area of the Dublin Tech Summit 2022 held in June 2022 at the RDS expo area in Dublin.

Although the event had continued in a virtual format, the opportunity to network face-to-face was one that the 8,000 delegates relished. There was a palpable buzz in the exhibitor halls and hospitality spaces as the attendees digested some of the content of the keynote speakers, and looked to foster linkages with potential partners and investors. The weather obliged also which helped showcase the enduring appeal of Dublin as a location for technology events. There was also a strong social dimension to the event with the city centre meet-ups giving delegates the opportunity to network long into the night.

There were several interesting Irish start-ups that caught our attention. Averil Power, co-founder of Gist, described the company’s technology which helps companies repurpose long-format video. It helps revisit corporate content to increase engagement more fully. At the core of the technology is an AI algorithm which identifies the key points and creates a bespoke video. The company was among those who made it to the last five on the start-up main-stage competition. Power’s sense of the DTS was that it did allow a good mix of meeting potential customers and investors. Another Irish start-up was recruitment specialists, Search Talent People. Established in 2019, they focus on tech companies‘ full hiring needs. Business Development manager Skai Morkeliunaite was of the view that AI, Cybersecurity and Automation were the sectors that were showing most promise at present. There was a very strong presence of international exhibitors at the event this year, testimony to its growing reputation on the European tech conference circuit. Among the exhibitors start-ups were to the fore. One such company is TravelPerk, headquartered in Barcelona. Chief Revenue Officer Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo outlined that their technology allows individuals to bypass traditional corporate travel agencies. He was able to confirm that their systems were strongly orientated around corporate compliance; they had done Series D funding and achieved unicorn status – they had been extremely aggressive in acquisitions over Covid and had grown five times. They were also of the view of business travel was changing – people are traveling less than pre-covid but more people are traveling. While the overall travel costs remained the same what was evident was that companies are exchanging office costs for travel costs – bringing them together for team-building purposes rather than the traditional road warrior purposes. He also felt that events such as Dublin Tech Summit are changing considerably with a lot of focus now on networking with more tightly defined teams in attendance than heretofore.

Mary-Rose Lyons, from Irish consulting company BrightSpark Consulting was the MC on the Horizon Stage over both days, and as such was well placed to give a reflection on the conference –she was of the view that Dublin was established in its tech-cred and an emerging eco-system. For her own business she has seen a switch from social media specific consulting to a more rounded strategic input to digital strategy. Among the first-time exhibitors this year was Guy Sear, Commercial Director of PayHawk – the first Bulgarian unicorn. This company helps management efficiency visibility and compliance in employee spend. One of the biggest problems remains visibility of spend and whether it’s in compliance with policy. Their 3% paypack system was one that offered the potential for paying for itself for some clients. He said Ireland was a market they wanted to get into, and as an exhibitor the event facilitated this.

Listen here to interviews with all the above mentioned companies. 

An extended interview with James Chappell, Global Business Director, Horwarth HTL and Global Chairman of  Horwarth HTL, John Fareed. Both men were visitors to Dublin recently and I got the chance to talk hotel market trends with them as we emerge from the worst of Covid....also in this podcast ( 19'58" ) an interview with Killian Stokes, founder of Moyee Coffee and incoming CEO of Proudly Made in Africa

In this podcast an interview with the founder of start-up in the Augmented Reality space Imvizar, Michael Guerin, plus Kevin Rowe tells me about a new outdoor light extravaganza that his company will be running in a Wexford #augmentedreality #immersivetechnology