Maximum Media has launched its third annual ‘Slice of Ireland’ insights report, in partnership with Empathy Research.
The report, the largest and most in-depth research report of its kind conducted in the country, surveyed over 15,000 people across JOE, Her, SportsJOE and HerFamily over a three-week period in November. The research drilled into everything from the gender pay gap, sexual assault and the housing crisis, to spending habits, online dating and who the voice of our generation is.
The research was launched this week in the RHA Gallery at an event attended by industry representatives from agencies, media and advertisers.
Some of the key findings of the research include:
- Voice of a generation: Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, was chosen by both Her and JOE users surveyed, as their ‘voice of a generation’, closely followed by Blindboy and Leo Varadkar for JOE users, and Leo Varadkar and Emma Watson for Her users
- Political agenda: The top three political priorities for those surveyed were 1. Public Health Service, 2. Housing and 3. Homelessness
- Housing crisis: Additionally, 17% of JOE users surveyed claim to personally know families or individuals who have experienced homelessness in the last year, and 50% say their rent has increased in the last year
- Gender pay gap: 57% of Her users surveyed believe the gender pay equality is an issue, with 48% feeling it will impact on their future career prospects
- Sexual assault: 19% of Her users surveyed claim to have been a victim of sexual assault or rape, with only 9% of those claiming to report the incident. In comparison, 5% of JOE users claim they have been a victim of the same, and 14% claim to have reported it
- Mental health: A huge 64% of JOE users surveyed claim to suffer from anxiety or feel like they are under too much pressure in their everyday life
- Sports personalities: Conor McGregor is ranked as the nation’s favourite sportsperson, followed by Katie Taylor and Roy Keane
- Sports on screen: 67% will use social media frequently when watching a sporting event or show on screen
- Best accent: For the second year in a row, Donegal was ranked as the nation’s favourite accent, followed by Dublin, Cork and Galway
- Fertility: 6% of Her Family users surveyed claim to have needed fertility support to conceive, with the average spend being €3,800
Commenting on the report, Daragh Byrne, Group CEO at Maximum Media, said: “Slice of Ireland allows us to paint a very extensive, detailed picture of our audience, and what we presented today is only the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more involved in this project. The insights we gain don’t just help us to determine how we develop our own business in 2018, but it also helps us to work even more effectively and collaboratively with our commercial partners. Innovation is at the heart of everything we do here and has enabled us to become the leading digital publisher in Ireland and this report will play a significant supporting role continuing our trajectory here in Ireland and beyond.”
“I’m incredibly excited about putting insights at the heart of our business development for 2018. Being the biggest digital publisher in the country we are in a prime position to bring together the trends, habits and opinions of Ireland, and use them to build smart, powerful, ground-breaking campaigns for our clients. We will do this by introducing our new service ‘Ideas by insights’ which will radically change how we partner with brands and respond to briefs in 2018,” says John Burns, Managing Director at Maximum Media.
Robert Clarke, Director, Empathy Research adds: “This is the third year of Slice of Ireland and we are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Maximum Media on the project once again. The scope and scale of the survey, 15,000 completed interviews in 15 days, is unparalleled in Ireland in 2017. This scale delivers a huge degree of robustness and reliability in the results. The combination of year-on-year information as well as having the ability to include the most important topics affecting Ireland currently, really separates the research from all others.”
