Following a challenging second quarter, the Irish out-of-home (OOH) market grew once again in Q3 and in the full year to date it is 2% ahead of the same period in 2016, according to PML Group’s latest Posterwatch quarterly market review.
According to PML, Diageo remains the top spending advertiser, ahead of Mars and McDonald’s in second and third places respectively.
Looking at Q3 only (cycles 14-20), the top spending advertisers on OOH channels were Diageo, Tesco and Mars. Campaigns from these advertisers that were visible on the street include Tesco’s ‘800’ and F&F campaigns, along with activity from Diageo for Carlsberg, Hop House 13 and Smithwicks. Mars advertised Galaxy, Pedigree and Uncle Ben’s among others.
Retail was the most active category in Q3, according to PML, and that’s also the case across the year. Most of the major supermarkets have significantly increased investment on the medium. Confectionery and Telecoms were the next two biggest categories in Q3.
A feature of Q3 was some highly innovative activations including a man crèche in DundrumTown Centre for EA Games, a twitter enabled dispensing bus shelter for Dublin Bus, a geo-fenced campaign for permanent tsb which enabled mobile ad-serving and a brilliantly executed experiential piece for Aer Lingus in Stephen’s Green shopping centre, based around an interactive, talking digital screen.
According to Colum Harmon, marketing director, PML Group: “The OOH sector is growing in an uncertain advertising environment overall. This is a great vote of confidence in us and our services, along with OOH media owners and the quality formats they provide. The value of OOH is also evident in the great innovative pieces we’ve seen in recent months. We would encourage advertisers to continue to challenge us to redefine OOH media and what it can achieve.”
