Online marketing and advertising spend now accounts for 12pc of total media buying in economies like the UK but online advertising campaigns in Ireland accounted for just 2.5pc of the total Irish marketing media budget in 2007.
The latest iReach study into online advertising in Ireland found local marketing spend significantly lags the UK’s annual spend.
Irish online advertising as a proportion of total media spend is forecast to grow from 2.5pc in 2007 to 3.6pc in 2008 but this figure still trails international norms.
In the UK, over 12pc of marketing media budgets is spent on online advertising campaigns.
iReach estimated that Irish online advertising spend in 2007 would reach €35m.
Overall advertising budgets in Ireland continue to increase and will exceed €1.5bn for the first time in 2008 with the online proportional share of this budget also growing fast. However, this level of growth is still significantly slower than in the UK.
Increasing methods for Irish citizens to access the internet, such as mobile broadband, means there’s a market there that’s waiting to expand, explained Oisin Byrne, managing director of iReach.
“Over 1.4 million people in Ireland now have access to the internet, so perceptions of Ireland being switched off are no longer reflective of the true state of the market,” Byrne explained.
“Access to the internet through fixed line and mobile broadband will exceed dial-up in 2007, a step change which happened in the UK during 2006.
“Online advertising spend in Ireland across all channels will grow to over 3.6pc of total advertising media spend in 2008, totalling €55m, yet is still trailing the UK market by a significant margin,” Byrne added.
By John Kennedy
