The Irish advertising market is expected to grow by about 1.6% to just over a billion euro in 2020, according to the 2020 Outlook Report from media agency Core.

Last year experienced a one per cent uptick, which was way less than rates of growth in markets such as the US and UK, and Core managing director Colm Sherwin expects another challenging year in Ireland.

“Ireland does not enjoy the growth levels in advertising investment experienced by other countries such as the US and UK. Those markets benefit from substantial spend by the tech giants including Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix," said Sherwin. “It is this activity, plus investment from other major internet-reliant brands (like comparison and booking websites) that contribute to growth levels in these larger markets.”

Core expects that the €1,065m it predicts will be spent this year will break down as follows:

• Online spend is expected to increase by 7.5% to €570m
• Radio spend could fall by 6.4% to €100m
• TV spend is anticipated to fall by 2.5% in 2020 to €210m
• Print spend could fall by 12.3% to €90m
• Out Of Home spend could increase by 3.2% to €90m
• Sponsorship spend could increase by 9% to €210m.

Chief investment officer Eddie O’Mahony said: “According to the latest Central Bank quarterly bulletin, the Irish economy grew by 5% in 2019, but this did not translate to a buoyant media market. We estimate that the overall market increased by just over 1%, recording a spend of €1.052 billion.”

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O’Mahony pointed out that an initiative begun last year to improve ways of measuring investment in advertising ran out of steam, and said Core has invited the IAPI to reestablish the group so that “together, we can create a more formal framework for tracking advertising spend”. 

“Addressing this issue would provide a reliable valuation of the size of the market and would be an important proof point of transparency and cooperation at a time when trust in the media industry is at a low ebb,: he said.

Up north, overall advertising spend fell to €210m or down 0.2%, but Core believes the market will recover strongly in 2020, largely on the back of the Stormont Executive returning. 

Sherwin pointed out that government ad spend in Northern Ireland amounts to 50% of the entire market, and said he estimates growth of 2.6%.

The continued shift of spending to online platforms continued, and will continue, said Core. With online spending up by 7.8% to €530m in 2019, Core expects a further 7.5% increase in 2020.

Online video ad spaend is estimated at €140m om 2019, up by 25% and with three-quarters of the spend going to Facebook. O’Mahony said he expects this trend to continue, with a projected increase of 20% through 2020.

Core's Outlook 2020 report is available here.