The global media agency MAGNA, which is part of IPG, has forecast that the Irish advertising market will grow by 3% this year.
The forecast comes in the group latest Summer update which monitors 16 markets in Western Europe, including Norway, Finland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
“Advertising sales will grow by +3% in 2019, to 1.3 billion EUR ($1.5 billion). Brexit uncertainty remains the biggest risk facing the Irish economy, but overall the outlook is strong. 2018 real GDP growth exceeded expectations (+6.8% vs +5.2%), and while a slight slowdown is anticipated in 2019 (+4.1%), this is still well above the Western European average of +1.2%,” according to MAGNA.
“Digital is the primary driver of growth in Ireland. Excluding digital, the Irish ad market contracted -1%, to 630 million EUR ($740 million) in 2018, and further declines of -5% are expected in 2019. Digital spend, on the other hand, grew by +17% in 2018 to 620 million EUR ($810 million), with video (+34%), social (+22 %), and search (+17%) seeing the strongest gains,” it adds.
MAGNA expects digital NAR will grow by another +11% in 2019, with video, social, and search continuing to drive growth. The pace of digital growth is expected to slow over the next five years, as Ireland is a mature digital market above the Western European average in terms of market share (54% vs 50%).
“Television spend was flat in 2018 (-1%), remaining around 220 million EUR ($250 million), 18% of total ad spend. TV NAR will decline by -5% in 2019, due to the lack of major sporting events (2018 World Cup, Ryder Cup) and weak demand from key UK advertisers, particularly those in personal care and retail,” it adds.
