The Digital Speaker Series returned with our second event of the semester as we welcomed Stephen Cleary, Brand Manager at The National Lottery and former Global Brand Marketing Manager at adidas to the TUS Athlone Campus.

Stephen gave great inspiration to our students about how he proactively chased his dream roles via an internship, telling stories about working with the likes of Leo Messi at Adidas and his work on good cause campaigns for TV and social with Irish National Lottery.

Our first Digital Speaker Series of the 2023-2024 term welcomed the Brand Manager for Lucozade and All-Ireland Young Marketer of the Year 2023, Pat Spillane.

Pat spoke about his own career journey and spent time highlighting the campaigns he has worked on to date. Pat also offered an insight into the role of social media within their strategy, focussing particularly on TikTok, Snapchat and Twitch.

Following the talk, he took the time to be interviewed by 3rd Year Digital Marketing student, James Carroll, for the Digital First Podcast.

Our Digital Marketing students traveled to Dublin in March 2023 for a special edition of the Digital Speaker Series at Croke Park with the Marketing Manager for the GAA, Niamh Gately.

Niamh spoke about Championship activation, always-on campaigns and the many facets of both the GAA and Croke Park, including Premium & Suits, GAA Museum & Tours, Sustainability, Meetings & Events and Community engagement.

We then went on a tour of Croke Park and learned about the history of the famous stadium, going through the dressing rooms to pitch-side and visiting the GAA Museum.

We were delighted to welcome Rebecca Stenson, AIM Awards Young Marketer of the Year 2022 to the Digital Speaker Series.

Rebecca spoke extensively around how Woodie’s have undergone a digital first transformation in recent years focusing their efforts on influencer marketing, Google advertising, social media marketing and dynamic product advertising.

Rebecca also provided an insight into their lower funnel marketing highlighting some of the remarkable results yielded by their specific and focused efforts.

We were delighted to welcome Shauna as our first Digital Speaker of 2023. Shauna spoke of her diverse background, including working for a number of years in Shanghai, China, and her journey to joining LinkedIn.

With LinkedIn, Shauna spoke of the various campaigns she has been involved with and the importance of localisation when launching products.

Lastly, Shauna spoke of the LinkedIn BLP Graduate Programme and gave students some useful tips to spruce up their profiles to help attract their dream jobs.

Sam joined us in November 2022 and spoke about his background in various industries including PR agency Wilson Hartnell, Bank of Ireland and IRFU. Sam gave detailed insight into the world of sports marketing what it was like to work on global campaigns such as the Rugby 7’s and Women’s World Cup tournaments.

Students learned a lot about the importance of TikTok for advertising as well as the importance of gaining relevant work experience while still in college and building connections and relationships in the industry.

Amy joined us in October 2022 to deliver a fascinating talk around the company’s social media strategy. This talk highlighted how Ryanair has grown and developed as a brand over the past number of years to become Europe’s largest airline.

Amy spoke about how Ryanair utilises platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to connect and engage with millions of followers from all over the world whilst also providing an insight into the brands social media strategy and fielded questions around plans for growth and expansion into the future.

Piers joined us in March 2022 to deliver a virtual guest lecturer to students across the University. Piers provided a fascinating insight into how a Premier League football club uses digital marketing for brand building, customer segmentation and event marketing to expand their global footprint.

Piers also gave a sneak peek into an upcoming jersey launch campaign for the club and spoke about the exciting work being carried out during their successful run in the UEFA Europa League.

Louise Cooney is a well known fashion blogger and Social Influencer who joined us for an online talk in March 2022.

Louise has over 220k Instagram followers and regularly posts about various topics including lifestyle, fashion and travel. Louise spoke of the importance of online content including video creation and blogging.

When we spoke to Louise, she had recently launched her new fitness clothing brand, CLOO Active and she discussed the process of establishing her new business.

Alison joined us in February 2022 to talk about how Gym+Coffee has become Ireland’s leading athleisure brand.

Alison highlighted how the brand has grown over the past number of years, communicating with their key target audience, utilising TikTok for business and the power of email marketing whilst also providing an insight into the brands digital strategy and the plan for growth and expansion into the future.

In March 2021, we welcomed Lisa Tully, Digital Marketing Manager with Life Style Sports to deliver a virtual guest talk to the Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing and BBs (Hons) in Digital Marketing Year 1 students.

Lisa provided a fascinating insight into the implementation of their digital marketing strategy, coping with the ever changing digital landscape and curating content for Ireland’s largest sports retailer, operating 53 outlets spread across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

In February 2021, we welcomed Shane Whelan, Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications with The British & Irish Lions Rugby team to deliver a captivating virtual guest lecture to our Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing Students.

This talk was packed full of insights into how the world of digital has transformed marketing one of the worlds biggest sports teams. Shane spoke about how success is measured off the pitch and how they have harnessed the power of social media to build long-standing relationships with their supporters, the ‘Red Army’.