When Luke Murphy was growing up in rural Kerry, his father, a chemistry lecturer and environmental scientist, had a habit of turning even the simplest questions into full-scale lessons. “Ask about water testing and you’d get a deep dive into inorganic chemistry. It was fascinating, but also totally overwhelming,” Murphy recalls. “It really made me think about how hard it is for experts to communicate the value of what they do.”
Waking Dreams from County Kerry
Years later, that early insight would become the foundation for Waking Dreams Media, the Dublin-based video production company Murphy founded in January 2021. What began as a solo venture during the bleakest days of Ireland’s third pandemic lockdown has since evolved into a growing team. Today, Waking Dreams Media delivers strategic video communications for some of the country’s most technically complex businesses.
But Murphy insists this is not a story about creative cinematography or camera gear. Instead, his team’s work is about making complicated ideas easier to grasp. In particular, he’s found a sweet spot in helping founders and teams who are building the kinds of products that don’t yet have a ready-made market, or whose value can’t be easily summed up in a single sentence.
“These aren’t off-the-shelf products,” Murphy explains. “They’re innovations, often emerging from research, deep tech, or life sciences. The challenge is not just showing what the product does, but helping someone who’s never seen anything like it before understand why it matters.”
From the story of a gravestone to the story of a product
Murphy’s entrepreneurial streak showed up early. While completing a degree in Film and Media at UCC, he worked freelance behind the camera to support himself. He also co-founded a startup called The Story Of, a business that used QR codes to link gravestones with short videos about a person’s life. The concept gained serious traction, even attracting media attention in Australia.
But what Murphy took from that experience wasn’t just media momentum. It was clarity about what he actually enjoyed. “I realised I was less interested in being the founder of a tech company than I was in helping tech companies communicate what they do,” he says. “I loved the storytelling side, especially when it meant getting to grips with something complex and making it accessible.”
This impulse shaped the vision for Waking Dreams Media.
Today, the company works with clients ranging from UCC Innovation and Blockchain Ireland to SMEs building smart RFID tools or pharmaceutical spinouts. Several of the startups they’ve supported have gone on to raise high six-figure funding rounds and land enterprise contracts. And they’ve often usd the videos in pitch decks and investor meetings. In one instance, a multinational client saw over 100,000 organic impressions from a single video campaign.
“We start with messaging, not cameras”
According to Murphy, the biggest misconception about video production is that it’s simply about visuals. “People often assume video means showing up with a camera and recording whatever’s there. But that’s not how it works when you’re dealing with complex B2B products. You can’t explain a semiconductor startup the same way you’d shoot a wedding.”
Devising a strategy is the first stage of every project Murphy takes on. Murphy’s team works with clients to clarify their core messaging, and ask questions. What changes in the customer’s daily life if they use this product? What makes it different from what already exists? Why should a buyer or investor trust you?
That messaging document becomes the foundation for everything else, not just the video but the website, sales deck and investor materials. It is a tool for internal alignment as much as external explanation. As Murphy puts it, “It’s not about polishing a script. It’s about revealing the story that already exists.”
Clients say the results speak for themselves. One founder described their Waking Dreams video as “an essential part of our early brand credibility,” while another shared that “we still use it to pitch two years later.”
In some cases, Murphy’s team will trace the evolution of an entire product category to find a new angle.
Complexity is the enemy of traction
Murphy is particularly interested in helping companies navigate the messy middle of the adoption curve, where new products exist but have not yet found widespread market understanding. “People talk about product/market fit as if it’s just about iterating on the product,” he says. “But often, the product is strong. It’s the communication that’s weak. Buyers don’t get it, or they can’t remember what makes it different.”
Video, when used strategically, helps clear those cobwebs.
In one case, a video campaign helped a sports tech startup secure their first fifty B2B signups at a trade event. Murphy’s own family business, which provides scientific testing services, has seen a multi-year uplift in online conversions since embedding strategic videos on their website.
Still, he’s careful not to overpromise. “A great video won’t fix a broken product,” he says. “But it can accelerate conversations and make it easier to get to that first yes.”
Where AI fits and where it doesn’t
As someone with both a creative and technical mindset, Murphy has been watching the evolution of AI tools closely. Waking Dreams uses AI in areas like concept visualisation and script development. But Murphy has reservations, particularly when it comes to ownership and legal ambiguity.
“There’s a lot of grey area in copyright law right now. If a video is entirely generated by AI, you may not actually own it,” he warns. “You might find that your assets are based on data you never had rights to in the first place.”
That makes him cautious about adopting an AI-first production model. Still, he sees real value in using AI to speed up research, spark ideas and summarise large blocks of transcript or interview material.
At the same time, he sees a growing divergence between fast, AI-driven content and high-touch creative work. “There’s going to be a flood of cheap, generic videos. And high-quality, thought-through content will stand out even more. People will start to recognise and value the human edge.”
From founder to translator
Asked what drives him, Murphy doesn’t hesitate. “I want to help innovators be understood,” he says. “That’s the work. That’s the value.”
In a world that is becoming more complex, not less, the ability to translate new ideas into something that resonates is becoming more critical. Murphy sees his work not as storytelling for its own sake, but as a bridge between technical minds and the markets they hope to serve.
“The best product in the world won’t succeed if no one gets it,” he says. “Our job is to help them get it.”
Luke Murphy heads up Waking Dreams Media, where he helps innovative founders translate deeptech and life science solutions into simple, investor ready storytelling. His agency has supported over 60 ventures across Ireland since its founding in 2019.
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