Marketing is collapsing. That’s your chance.

AI is killing layers, shrinking timelines, and making average work infinite. The smart teams aren’t panicking. They’re rebuilding.

I help brands collapse complexity - and stay valuable in a faster world.

Not with buzzwords. With sharper thinking, brand systems that actually stick, and AI workflows that speed up the right things (and ignore the rest).

What I do:

  • Collapse bloated processes into faster, better ones

  • Use AI to sharpen judgment, not replace it

  • Help teams win on distinctiveness, not just volume

  • Lead brand teams through transformation - without losing the plot

Whether it’s a strategic role, a critical project, or a brand in transition - I help teams move faster, think sharper, and stay essential.

Fox principles

  • Marketing has always favoured those who can blend multiple approaches over one-trick ponies. AI makes this even more obvious. Teams that stay curious and flexible consistently outperform those who try to force-fit rigid solutions or hide from AI altogether.

  • Strategic judgment, creative direction, and cultural awareness aren't being replaced—they're becoming your secret weapons. Marketers who develop these alongside AI fluency aren't just surviving the transition; they're thriving because of it.

  • Too often, organizations respond to change by adding more specialized roles, tools, and processes—creating complexity and silos. The real opportunity with AI is to collapse the stack by integrating capabilities that previously required multiple specialists. This reduces handoffs, speeds execution, and improves outcomes while reducing costs.

  • I'm more interested in what AI can do today than speculating about tomorrow. Through practical frameworks and approaches, I help teams create systems that deliver measurable results without requiring everyone to become prompt engineers overnight

Experience & Recognition

I bring proven marketing expertise combined with practical AI implementation experience:

Ireland's Marketer of the Year 2022
Recognized for delivering €2.68 profit for every €1 invested at the National Lottery while growing revenue to record levels.

Head of Brand at Miro
Leading AI integration projects across brand and marketing while maintaining brand integrity and creative excellence.

Author of "Run with Foxes" & "The Year of the Fox"
My books explore marketing effectiveness and how teams can thrive with AI rather than be replaced by it.

20+ Years Leading Marketing Teams
From O2 and Indeed to the National Lottery, I've built high-performing teams focused on measurable results.

How I work with marketing leaders

  • Your people need to work with AI, not just around it. I develop teams that combine AI fluency with the human skills that actually matter - judgment calls, creative direction, and strategic thinking that no prompt can replace.

  • I've developed practical frameworks that give teams clear direction on integrating AI. These aren't just pretty slides - they're road-tested approaches that show exactly where you stand and what steps to take next.

  • Marketing structures designed for the pre-AI world break down fast. I help teams reorganize around what humans and AI each do best, without the usual months of painful restructuring and consultant-speak.

  • Most teams have a dozen AI tools that don't talk to each other. I build assistants that "collapse the stack" - doing the work of multiple specialists through one integrated system that doesn't require a PhD to operate.

AI Implementation Examples

Self-Serve Brand Studio

  • We were drowning in design briefs—hundreds per month—with 20% being simple requests that still required designer time and multiple handoffs. Seeing where AI was going, we revamped our brand guidelines, processes, and operations to use AI for creating artwork, images, and videos.

    This collapsed the traditional design stack, allowing marketers to create on-brand assets themselves. By year-end, this approach is projected to reduce costs by 20% while dramatically increasing speed to market and freeing the design team to focus on more challenging creative work.

Zero-Handover Video Production

  • Every year, millions of people search for ways to brainstorm better, run productive meetings, and other use cases that Miro products address.

    Traditionally, creating how-to videos required multiple teams—script writers, camera crews, production specialists, approval chains—and took weeks to complete.

    We reinvented this by changing processes, approval workflows, and implementing AI tools that enable one person to handle every task with zero handovers. Now we publish new videos every two days instead of every few weeks. This approach doesn't just increase speed—it empowers creators and eliminates the frustration of traditional production bottlenecks.

AI Marketing Assistants

  • Marketing knowledge was trapped in silos—deep expertise and insights accessible only to specialists across different teams.

    I identified this as an opportunity to democratize that expertise through AI assistants. We built and implemented assistants that collapse what were once high-skill specialist roles into accessible assistants anyone can use.

    These include marketing writing assistants that capture brand voice, brand guardianship assistants that maintain consistency, and metrics analysis systems that make data interpretation simpler.

    By embedding expert knowledge directly into AI systems, we've fundamentally changed who can create high-quality marketing content—eliminating dependencies on scarce specialist resources and enabling every team member to work at a higher level.

My track record

  • Jonnie Cahill. CMO at Heineken USA.

    “Paul is a strategic thinker, with world class creative capabilities. So he knows not just what to do, but how to do it. His unique talent is his ability to galvanise an organization”

  • Peter Field, the “Godfather of Effectiveness”

    “I’ve worked with Paul on a number of very successful projects over more than 5 years. His command of marketing science as well as his instincts for great thinking and ideas are, in my opinion, superb.”

  • Damian Devaney, ex-CMO at O2 Ireland

    “When in O2, Paul had the highest scores on people management across the entire organisation. He set the standard for excellent management of his team’s performance and development”

  • Paul D’Arcy, CMO at Indeed and Miro

    “Paul Dervan reported to me as Head of Brand when I was at Indeed. I have learned more from him than anyone else in my career.”


Want to work together?

I'm working with a select group of marketing leaders who want to make AI actually deliver results, not just sound good in meetings. If that's you, let's have a conversation.