The Irish Out of Home (OOH) market grew by around 7% in 2015 according to Kinetic, the OOH media specialist.
According to Kinetic, improved quality and the introduction of new formats all played a central role in delivering this growth. Innovation was a central theme with advertisers creating new and exciting ways to engage with consumers. Traditional formats also played an important role with large format including 48 Sheets, 96 Sheets, Commuter Squares, Metropoles & Golden Squares accounting for 31% of spend. Small format accounted for 45% of spend while transport formats such as bus formats, interior rail and Luas formats took 17% of overall spend.
“For the third consecutive year, there has been a year-on-year increase for the OOH sector,” says Simon Durham of Kinetic. “Out of Home continues to evolve and become more appealing to advertisers due to the range of formats, creative opportunities and innovations that are available. Advertisers are embracing new technologies and ways of using Digital Out of Home, however traditional formats are still performing strongly and experiencing growth. Innovation is very much at the forefront of what Kinetic delivers. Our Kinetic Active departments work closely with clients, creative and media agencies to bring ideas to life and deliver media-firsts,” he says.
He adds that Digital Out of Home Advertising (DOOH), currently recorded under small format, continued to be a popular format for advertisers taking an estimated 12% of the total OOH spend in 2015. This is expected to grow to 16% in 2016. DOOH is particularly attractive to advertisers due to its flexibility, which ranges from day part buying, temperature-reactive, audio-activated and dynamic campaigns, which allows for further engagement with target audiences.
According to Kinetic, the top spending category was household services, which accounted for around 17% of OOH spend. This included the likes of high profile campaigns from Virgin Media and Sky, both of which have been slogging it out to win market share. With an investment in the order of €3.2m, bSkyb pipped its rival Virgin which had an estimated spend of around €2.9m.
The drinks industry, which includes both soft drinks and alcohol manufacturers, was the second biggest category, accounting for 17% of the market. Retail, meanwhile, experienced the highest increase in spend, which was driven by chain restaurants and fashion sub-categories according to Kinetic. Spend increased by 34% on 2014,p it says. Fast food giant McDonalds was the top spending advertiser in this category with a spend of €4.4m, while H&M Hennes was the top advertiser within the fashion and retail category with spend of over €440,000.
Entertainment and media had a total spend of €10.6m, with film releases accounting for 60%, an increase of 3% compared to 2014. Film advertisers such as Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures continued to invest heavily in the medium.
Looking forward to the year ahead, Durham says he is optimistic for the remainder of 2016.
“2016 has started on a positive note for the OOH market and this can be attributed to key activities in Q1 including the General Election, Oscar-season and new 2016 car launches. Big sporting events such as Olympics and the Euros means that brands will have a massive opportunity to make a big impact with OOH over the summer months. Continued quality improvements, growth in DOOH and innovative and dynamic campaigns are changing the face of OOH advertising. With this momentum and focus, Kinetic suggests that the market will continue to develop with estimated year-on-year growth of 6 per cent,” he says.
