Advertising spend in Ireland expected to reach €1.4b this year
2023 started off in a healthy position and spend is expected to grow by 3.8%
Print16 March 2023
Total media spend in Ireland is predicted to grow by 3.8% in 2023 to €1.434 billion. This is according to marketing communications company Core, which said 2023 started off in a healthy position which was to be expected given the Covid-19 restrictions in early 2022, with the overall market having grown by 3.7% to €1.382 billion last year.
With inflationary pressure and the war in Ukraine continuing to impact the market this year, Core predict small levels of growth across most media excluding print which once again is the exception, with Core forecasting a decline of 10.4% this year.
The figures below are contained in Core’s annual ‘Outlook’ report which forecasts spend for 2023 across a variety of media, including Video, Audio, Print, Online and Out-of-Home. The report also outlines some of the key developments and important issues that will impact the sector this year.
Television
Core said the significant growth the TV market experienced in 2021 came to an end in 2022 as linear TV increased by just 1% to €263 million. Core predicts that the growth in 2023 will be in line with 2022 levels with spend expected to grow by just 1% to €265.5 million.
Online video
It said the online video market continued to out-perform the media market last year with an estimated growth by 10% to €365.2 million. Spend across social platforms, dominated by Meta, accounted for approximately 75% of all spend in video in 2022.
Core expects online video and in particular Meta, YouTube and TikTok to receive increased share of advertising budgets this year, predicting investments will grow by 16.4% to €425 million.
Cinema
Meanwhile, cinema advertising grew by 62.2% to €3.52 million in the Republic of Ireland last year. While admissions are increasing, they still remain significantly lower than pre-pandemic times in 2019. Core predicts Cinema ad spend will grow by approximately 15% to €4.1 million in 2023 however it will still be some time before the spend in advertising and admissions return to pre-pandemic levels.
Print & digital media
Investment in print advertising held steady throughout 2022 with a recorded spend of €82.4 million, which was on par with 2021. Overall spend in digital news media declined by approx. 5% to €31.4 million.
Core predicts investment in digital media will return to growth this year increasing by 4% to €32.7 million, while investment in print is likely to contract by 10.4% to €73.8 million in 2023.
Even with abolishment of VAT on newspapers, inflation will require the print sector to cut costs i.e., reducing the pagination of the paper, cutting back on the number of days they have a print version or going fully digital.
Online
2022 saw a slowdown in the growth of the online sector in comparison to previous years with Core estimating that the online market increased by just 2.6% to €810.1 million last year.
Core anticipates that the overall online market will increase by 6.1% to €859.9 million in 2023 – significantly lower than previous years as the average yearly growth since 2017 for online advertising was 17%, and predict advertising investment in Social will account for 41.6% of all online advertising, Search (37%), Display (16.9%) and Classified (4.5%).
It also predicts that Google and Meta will continue to dominate, and some key trends to watch out for in 2023 include the rise of TikTok, the potential launch of Amazon.ie.
Radio & digital audio
The overall radio market was valued at €152.7 million in 2022 representing a 7.8% increase year-on-year. Core predicts 2023 will see the continued growth of the radio market by 1.7% to €155.2 million.
The digital audio sector (podcasts and online streaming) saw significant growth in 2022 with an increase by 22.3% to €12.6 million. The company is forecasting continued double-digit growth in 2023 across the digital audio market by 16.6% coming to €14.8 million.
Out-Of-Home
Investment in OOH rose by 24.1% in 2022 to €70.5 million with Retail and Alcohol accounting for the biggest spending categories, similar to 2021. Zero-alcohol variants accounted for a quarter of the spend by the category, up 31% year-on-year.
In 2023, advertising investment across the OOH sector is expected to increase by 8% to €76.2 million, which will once again remain lower than the €90.7 million recorded in 2019. Digital OOH formats accounted for 39% of the total OOH investment last year in the ROI and approximately 34% of the total OOH spend in Northern Ireland.
“The overall market in the Republic of Ireland has had a good start to 2023 and we do expect growth across most media throughout the remainder of the year,” said Colm Sherwin, chief digital and investment officer with Core. “However, there are certain watch-outs we need to be aware of including the global economic pressures that could impact the Irish economy, and the potential downturn in the UK which could impact ad spend in Ireland.
“We estimate approximately 20% of marketing budgets in Ireland are set in the UK. Northern Ireland, like in the Republic, recorded lower than originally anticipated spends in 2022. Expenditure grew just 1.6% to £203.7million (€238.9m). Core forecasts a slightly better performance in 2023 with growth of 2.9% to £209.6 million (€245.8m). The key watch out in NI is the continued political impasse and the potential impact this has on Government media spending, a key category in NI.”
To learn more about Core Outlook 2023, download the full report at: onecore.ie/outlook23
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