Ireland Introduction - A resilient market

by Tom Bowman and Harriet Dennys Media Week 10-Jun-08

Since BBC.com's launch last November, we've played an active role in the Irish advertising market. It's an exciting, vibrant and fast-growing area. For these and many other reasons, we're delighted to sponsor Media Week's Ireland supplement.

BBC.com is the online expression of the BBC outside of the UK. Run by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, BBC.com has introduced advertising on the site outside the UK, including the Republic of Ireland.

We use advanced Geo-IP tracking technology to identify ex-UK users and redirect them to the same editorial site served with advertising - giving our advertisers access to an international audience of 29 million* unique users. With more than 47 million** page views in Ireland, BBC.com is also one of the more sticky websites, with more than 25 minutes and 36 pages per visitor*.

This presents a unique opportunity for international marketers. The BBC is one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the world and the opportunity to reach out to a regionally segmented, global audience alongside the BBC's unique blend of authoritative breaking news, business, sport, weather, lifestyle and featured content is unique in the online space.

In the Republic of Ireland, BBC.com has made a significant impact. BBC sites are the 11th-largest internet property in the Republic, ahead of brands such as AOL and Facebook, making us a significant media proposition. To prove the point, we've already run regionally specific campaigns targeting Irish web users for brands such as Lexus, GE Money and MBNA Europe.

The potential of the Irish online advertising market is clear. Currently, online accounts for 1.2% of the advertising market in the Republic, compared to 11% in the UK. Carat research tells us that digital display alone increased by 75% in 2007 and will grow a further 37% in 2008.

This supplement demonstrates all that is good in the Irish media industry, both in terms of what it can offer the advertiser at the moment and its potential for the future. We're excited to be a continuing part of this growth and look forward to working with our Irish clients, present and potential, long into the future.
*comScore, March 2008/** BBC internal, March 2008

Tom Bowman, vice-president international digital ad sales, BBC Worldwide.

The global credit crisis has so far not affected the Irish media market, with the total ad spend in 2007 a healthy EUR1.85bn, up from EUR1.69bn in 2006.

Press spend is up 4% year on year, radio is up 13%, television is up 15% and internet spend has increased by a massive 65%.

Although poor broadband availability in the west and north-west of the Republic is still "a massive problem", according to David Murphy of Dublin's SalesOnline, online use in the Republic has exploded over the past few years.

In 1999, just 13% of adults in the Republic were online. Today that figure has escalated to 49% of the population aged 15+ (source: Joint National Internet Research, April 2008).

Ireland's steadily increasing broadband take-up will affect all media. Broadcasters such as market leader RTe will develop their on-demand programming and those in the press sector will have a greater incentive to evolve their online strategies.

One trend in press is the rise in popularity of indigenous magazines at the expense of UK titles. In 2007, the 320 titles represented by the Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland generated EUR239m in ad revenues, with home-grown magazines such as Irish Tatler, Irish Farmers Journal and Woman's Way all up year on year in the latest ABCs.

Irish advertisers and audiences also have a voracious appetite for local radio, with UTV Radio, which acquired Dublin's FM104 from Communicorp last December, increasing market share in all its radio stations in the Republic over the year to December, 2007.

However, despite strong local and national advertising revenues, the radio sector must improve the standard of radio commercials. At the Independent Radio Sales industry awards in March, judges described Irish radio ads as "uninspiring" and "garbage".

Meanwhile, Irish media agencies are becoming global forces, as the major networks spread their tentacles into Ireland. PHD Ireland opened an office in Dublin earlier this year, while Aegis Media, GroupM and Publicis also have an Irish presence.

But with the global agency networks taking the major multinational accounts away from smaller players in the market, for how much longer can Ireland's independent media agencies survive?

Harriet Dennys, features editor, Media Week.