Out of Home advertising in the Republic of Ireland experienced double digit growth in the first quarter of 2016 according to the latest Posterwatch market report published by OOH specialist company PML Group.
Specifically, PML Group reports a 15% increase in the value of the market, compared to the same period in 2015. However, it also notes that Q1 2015 was the poorest performing period of last year but the trend has been upwards ever since.
The Posterwatch report lists McDonald’s, Diageo and Sky as the three most active advertisers in Q1. With regard to product categories, the top three consists of finance, including banks and insurance companies; retail , including supermarkets and telecoms.
Other big growth sectors were QSRs and the toiletries/cosmetics market. Q1 also benefitted to a small extent from the general election but spend was relatively light for the political parties.
Among the most prominent individual OOH campaigns of the first three months of the year were launches for Samsung Galaxy S7 and Sky Q as well as multi-format campaigns for Tesco at Easter time and the National Lottery for its ‘Multiplier’ promotion in March.
OOH formats that have performed particularly well in the first part of 2016 include transport panels such as bus T-Sides, Digital OOH screens including iVision and dPod, and large format billboards and in particular the relatively recently launched Première 48 Sheets and 96 Sheets. According to PML, a demand exists in the market for quality, backlit, large format options and this is being addressed more and more by the main OOH media owners – Clear Channel, Exterion Media and JCDecaux.
“It’s been a great start to the year. Most cycles have shown good growth in Q1. Demand is high and we’re finding advertisers using more of a variety of formats within campaigns. Investment is paying off with demand high for Digital OOH formats and the improved large format sector. Q1 was the fourth successive quarter of growth for the medium. We are expecting to continue the trend into Q2 as summer kicks in and with events such as Euro 2016 and the Olympics on the horizon it should make for a busy period ahead, “says Colum Harmon, marketing director of PML.
