PML Group’s annual Posterwatch market review for 2017 indicates that the Irish OOH sector grew by around 1% in 2017.
According to the Posterwatch review, Diageo was once again the top advertiser on the medium in 2017. The top five advertisers also included McDonald’s, Mars, AIB and Coca Cola. Between them they accounted for more than 15% of display and on average the five advertisers increased their OOH investment by 10% in 2017.
The retail category accounted for 11% of all OOH display for the year, according to PML, and was by far the biggest category using the channel across the year. The supermarkets were major drivers behind this. Others in the sector prominent throughout 2017 were IKEA, Arnotts, Dunnes Stores and Harvey Norman. Tourism and Travel had the largest increase in value in 2017, improving by 43% on 2016. Advertisers in this category include the TUI, Aer Lingus and mytaxi. All categories among the top 10 for the year increased their investment in OOH bar telecoms and Films.
According to Colum Harmon, marketing director, PML Group: “The market growth for 2017 in itself is positive for the medium considering the uncertain advertising market we are operating in. However, even more encouraging and exciting in Q4, and throughout 2017, was seeing some highly original and impactful applications of the medium. For example, we were delighted to support the National Lottery’s Millionaire Raffle campaign through our Dynamic platform. It delivered a cross-network optimised digital OOH campaign at scale, incorporating a live clock counting down to the time of the draw on New Year’s Eve. This platform represents a unique solution for advertisers to achieve large scale content-managed digital OOH campaigns that can react to live external triggers or display pre-programmed copy on demand.”
December also saw a countdown of a different type on OOH as PML partnered with Carat and Mondeléz to bring ‘Cadvent’ to OOH with giant advent calendar type doors opened on billboards around the country in the days leading up to Christmas.
Digital OOH accounted for 15% of all OOH in 2017 but with the launch of new networks such as Tesco Live in late 2017, this share is expected to grow again in 2018, according to Harmon.
