Online ad spend in Ireland continues to surge

Despite the deep recession and the economic uncertainty frightening advertisers and consumers alike, Irish marketers invested €53.9 million in online ads in the first half (H1) of 2010. This is a jump of 12.3% on last year’s figure for the same period (€48m).
All online ad formats saw spend increases and advertising on social media sites, particularly Facebook, contributed to the growth in display ads, which now account for 29% of spend in H1. This share was 26% in ’09 over the same period.
Paid-search ads continue to perform well as advertisers look for very clear cut ROI in these difficult times, they account for 45% of online spend in H1 2010.
More people are now online in Ireland which has also has an impact on ad spend. There are now 3,442,439 (77% of Ireland’s population) with access to broadband compared to 66% of the population in Q2 2009.
Suzanne McElligott, chief executive of IAB Ireland said the double digit growth in online adspend “is a recognition by advertisers of the impressive return on investment delivered by online advertising formats”.
McElligott said IAB Ireland will begin collaborating with Nielsen on display ad information in February 2011 and announced an IAB half-day conference on digital marketing for the same month. The keynote speaker will be Lucas Herscovici, Digital and Innovation, Anheuser-Busch.