After recording an estimated growth of 19.5% in 2021, the Irish advertising market can expect growth of around 9.3% in 2022 to end the year on €1.37bn, according to the WPP-owned GroupM Ireland which is made up of Mindshare, MediaCom and Wavemaker.
According to GroupM’s annual This Year, “Next Year” report, the total value of the Irish advertising market amounted to €1.26bn in 2021, this was a substantial 19.5% increase on the estimated €1.05bn achieved in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, which saw overall advertising revenues decline by around 6%, according to GroupM.
GroupM partly credits the growth in the Irish market to “the country’s resilience and resourcefulness, which is enabling it to emerge from the pandemic in a position of relative strength.”
This growth rate is also closely aligned with GroupM’s projection for global advertising growth of 22.5% in 2021 and 9.7% in 2022.
Unsurprisingly, digital will account for the lion’s share of advertising growth in 20202, according to GroupM’s forecasts which pitch it at €906.7m, an increase of 12.5% on 2021. In terms of its overall market share, digital advertising will account for a whopping 61.7% of the market, according to GroupM.
Of this, search advertising is likely to account for around €456..84m while non-search is forecasted to grow to €393.5m.
Having grown by 16% in 2021 to €220.6m, TV advertising, including the likes of CTV+ and BVOD revenues, meanwhile, are likely to grow by 4.1% to €229.7m this year while radio/audio could see advertising rise by 8.2% to €125.10m in 2022.
Elsewhere, GroupM has pencilled in a 7.7% decline in newspaper advertising to €96.65m while magazine advertising could see a drop of 12.4% to €11.39m, according to GroupM. OOH, meanwhile, is likely to rebound this year with advertising revenues of around €61.3m, a 26% increase, while cinema can expect an 86% turnaround with revenues in the order of €3.74m.
“Overall, 2021 was a positive year of growth for the advertising industry in Ireland,” says Bill Kinlay, chief executive officer of GoupM Ireland.
“After a particularly difficult year for the industry in 2020, it is extremely reassuring to see the high level of growth in the market over the past year, with indicators that this will continue in 2022. While the pandemic was extremely challenging for society at large, the economic growth we are seeing in our industry is a sign of the resilience and response of the Irish people in the face of a crisis,” he says.
“Similar to other areas of society however, the advertising industry may not look entirely the same as before, with a number of long-running trends being pulled forward, such as the accelerated pace of digital disruption. However, the gradual re-opening of society is also restoring some of the spending on other formats. We look forward to seeing how the industry continues to grow and change in the year to come,” Kinlay adds.
