The New Media Playbook: Ireland’s marketers cut through the AI noise

Marketing leaders discuss ROI, relevance and the reality of AI adoption

Photo of panel discussion at The New Media Playbook event hosted by Buymedia and Deloitte Digital in Dublin. From left: Peter McPartlin (MC), Lynda Vance (Stena Line), Stephen Williams (Windward Management), Laura Plunkett (CeADAR Ireland) and Graham Kinsella (Deloitte Digital).

More than 50 senior marketers gathered at Deloitte’s Dublin offices on Monday for The New Media Playbook, an event hosted by Buymedia and Deloitte Digital exploring how artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation to practical implementation across marketing organisations. Irish Tech News attended the event.

New Media Playbook

Representatives from sectors including financial services, healthcare, tourism, education, charities and the public sector came together to discuss how AI is changing marketing, media planning and customer engagement.

The session was chaired by Peter McPartlin, who set the tone for the discussion by highlighting the growing pressure on marketing leaders to embrace AI while continuing to deliver measurable business results.

“Every CMO in Ireland is under pressure to make a move on AI. But pressure without direction is just noise. That’s what this event is about: cutting through the noise. The tools are changing faster than the thinking,” said McPartlin.

The AI adoption gap

One of the recurring themes throughout the event was the gap between interest in AI and successful implementation.

According to figures presented during the event, 80% of marketers feel pressure to adopt AI, while just 6% say they have successfully made it work within their organisations. Gartner research cited during the session also suggests that one-third of organisations have yet to see measurable returns from their AI investments.

The discussion focused less on future possibilities and more on practical examples of where AI is already delivering value.

Reducing the cost of relevance

Dylan Cotter, Managing Director of Deloitte Digital and its creative agency ACNE, argued that generative AI is reducing the cost of relevance rather than simply reducing the cost of content.

His presentation explored how brands can move beyond broad campaigns and create more personalised communications for different audiences, locations and customer segments.

Cotter noted that around 60% of the imagery and film production undertaken by ACNE now involves generative AI. He suggested that organisations are moving from a scarcity mindset around content creation towards an abundance mindset, enabling greater personalisation at scale.

“Generative AI is cutting the cost of relevance, not just the cost of content,” he said.

The shift, he argued, is changing how brands structure and deliver their communications. Rather than producing a single campaign aimed at a broad audience, marketers increasingly have the ability to tailor content for specific segments, channels and customer journeys.

AI and media planning

Fergal O’Connor, Founder and CEO of Buymedia, focused on the role of AI in media planning and advertising decision-making.

He argued that AI can process thousands of data points across multiple channels, helping marketers make better-informed decisions and reducing bias towards channels that are easiest to measure rather than those that may deliver the strongest results.

Much of the discussion centred on how marketing leaders can demonstrate value to CFOs and executive teams, and how AI investments can be linked to measurable business outcomes.

O’Connor suggested that the phrase “AI-powered” is becoming increasingly commonplace and that organisations need to focus on demonstrating real business value rather than simply adopting new technology.

“The marketers who win will not be the ones who adopted AI earliest, but the ones who put it to work most intelligently. For us that means powering the precision behind every media decision, while keeping human judgement in charge of the strategy,” he said.

Practical implementation

A panel discussion brought together speakers from Windward Management, Stena Line, CeADAR Ireland and Deloitte Digital.

The conversation centred on practical adoption rather than experimentation, with discussion ranging from customer engagement and campaign localisation to operational efficiency and responsible AI deployment.

Laura Plunkett represented CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for AI and one of the country’s four European Digital Innovation Hubs. Through the EDIH network, Irish SMEs and public sector organisations can access support for AI adoption, digital maturity assessments, training, testing and innovation projects.

Plunkett highlighted the importance of understanding the business problem being addressed before selecting an AI solution. The panel broadly agreed that AI is best viewed as a tool to improve decision-making and efficiency rather than an objective in itself.

Human judgement, governance and oversight remained recurring themes throughout the discussion.

Beyond generative AI

The event also looked beyond content generation and media planning.

Stephen Barnes of the Walton Institute and ENTIRE European Digital Innovation Hub outlined practical applications of extended reality technologies across healthcare, tourism, hospitality and retail.

His presentation focused on examples where immersive technologies are already delivering measurable outcomes, including training, visitor experiences, customer engagement and retail applications. The examples served as a reminder that the digital transformation conversation extends beyond generative AI alone.

Looking ahead

While AI continues to evolve rapidly, the discussion in Dublin suggested that the conversation among marketing leaders is also maturing.

The debate is increasingly moving away from whether AI should be adopted and towards how organisations can apply it effectively, responsibly and in ways that deliver measurable business outcomes.

For the marketers gathered at The New Media Playbook, success will ultimately be measured not by the technology itself, but by the results it helps achieve.

About Billy Linehan

Billy Linehan is a freelance writer covering innovation, tech for good and entrepreneurship, and a regular contributor to Irish Tech News.

Further reading: Billy Linehan’s previous coverage of artificial intelligence and digital transformation

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