VisionR at the Checkout Conference 2025

VisionR attended the Checkout Magazine Conference, hosted this year by the Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge, and it really was a spectacular occasion. The day started off early with a breakfast from 7.30am - 8.45am, and there was great buzz immediately. The hotel put out plenty of great tea and coffee, which had a lot of people going back for seconds.

After a lively opening speech from the Checkout Magazine team, the first talk began with Jane McDaid from Thinkhouse, who focused on marketing strategies for the next generation of young adults. The amount of imagery, slogans, and campaigns that I immediately recognised from Thinkhouse was incredibly impressive. 

One advertisement I’ve always enjoyed when I’ve seen it on billboards or on buses passing through Dublin, is as the parody of Sense and Sensibility, done as Accounts and Accountability for the company eFlow. The collage of different styles and branding decisions, through a variety of media mediums, made by Thinkhouse was a brilliant way to begin the day and it gave great energy to the room. 

Next was a talk from David Berry of Nielsen IQ who dived into the economic factors which could see customers becoming a lot more cautious in their spending over the next decade. There was also a very interesting graph to show a small percentage drop on purchases of items that would be considered mid-market. My feeling is that with a squeeze on the next generation’s finances, even some essential items we cannot see ourselves living without, could take a serious hit.  

Nielsen IQ themselves have posited that Gen Z could be the “wealthiest and most influential” generation, using the term SpendZ for their talk at the NACS Convenience Show in Copenhagen later this month, but from Berry’s presentation, a squeeze on midmarket goods looks like a likely outcome. We might see GenZ shoppers including bite-sized luxury and ultra-discounted goods within the exact same shopping basket. 

The networking breaks were much appreciated and gave everyone a chance to connect with familiar faces and connect with fresh faces in the retail community. Checkout’s previous event was in 2020, so a lot had changed in that space of time. Lockdown, cost-of-living, Ukraine war, and tariffs, are all major factors that shook world economics and industry professionals will all have their own stories to share. 

Sharon Yourell Lawlor from Think Plan Do Consulting presented a panel discussion on retail media and AI, with panellists Allan Russell (Musgraves), Avril O’Hehir (Lidl), and Sylvia Cawley (Dunnhumby) and each had their own unique take on what their respective organizations prioritize. Avril said that Lidl push for AI to make the shoppers’ experience as easy as possible, and Sylvia said that Tesco has a similar approach of testing lots of solutions but veering towards the customer-centric approach, saying that they’ve always been obsessed with customer issues. 

Allan Russell detailed quite a few experiences he’s had in his role of head of AI and Automation for Musgraves, including the creation of an internal HR solution, allowing staff to ask a chatbot for details relating to their policies, benefits etc. Allan also spoke about Musgraves dipping their toe into the waters of semi-autonomous customer facing robotics. He said the robot that they are testing currently, moved from a back of house role to a shop floor role and they are monitoring shopper reaction and its own productivity to see whether it’s worth scaling up in the short to medium term. 

There were some great talks in the afternoon from John Moane of the BWG Group, and the CEO of Maxol, Brian Donaldson, who detailed all the changes and challenges that their stores have ongoing in 2025. John Moane demonstrated some brand-new store layouts in locations around rural Ireland which look like major credits to their communities, and Brian Donaldson spoke of the proud 100-year Maxol family business and the differences in running a fuel retailer in two nations on the same island, with very different regulations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

The final talks were a panel discussion with Sarah Ferguson (Kellanova), Brian Malone (Heineken Ireland), Tom Gannon and Niall McGrath (Slicey Pizza). Malachy O’Connor led the questions and there were lots of answers again based around youth buying patterns. Brian Malone spoke about “Treatanomics” and “Striping” being two modern youth phenomenons.  

Treatanomics being the idea that GenZ would be happy to spend a relatively smally amount of money on a product that is perceived as strong in quality above its competitors. Examples might be Dubai Chocolate, Happy Pear Hummus, Prime Energy drink, amongst many more. Striping, Malone continued, is a method by which young people alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages throughout a night.

Our final talk of Checkout 2025 was a deep dive into the importance of marketing with Conor Kilduff, of Love Irish Food, and formerly of Unilever, took the crowd through a 30 year long journey of the marketing of certain brands in Ireland. He explained how slight differences in perceptions of brands can make a world of difference. The biggest effect of a marketing change he saw was in Pot Noodle, who eschewed an inoffensive and charming ad campaign for a more risqué one, and over the course of a few years, sales dropped off massively in Ireland. Conor’s talk didn’t just go into perception, as he detailed his own 4 P’s and 3 C’s approach to product purchasing behaviours. 

The event ended with a lavish buffet lunch from the InterContinental Hotel, which allowed for a lot more networking between the retail professionals in attendance. VisionR had an excellent time and look forward to further events from Checkout. Hopefully, there are many more to come.