Advertisers are beginning to spend again - ad spend is up 12% year-on-year. But what are they getting for that investment? A new report - The Value of Advertising in Ireland - aims to provide an answer. The report was commissioned by advertising industry group IAPI and Television Audience Measurement Ireland.
To measure the value of advertising, Jill McGrath, the chief executive of TAM, said the group took 106 cases of advertising from the IAPI ad effectiveness awards and looked at how they had worked. Jill McGrath says what they found was that the effective campaigns had increased their market share by 6% - a great measure of how successful and effective advertising can be.
Explaining that value market share is revenue and growth in relation to a company's competitors, Ms McGrath says it is not just about increasing sales volumes but also increasing the value of sales. She also says the report shows that all advertising works well and not just the award-winning campaigns.
The report also looked at the long term effects of advertising. Four different sectors - supermarkets, the drinks industry, grocery products and the motor trade - were tracked over an eight year period. Ms McGrath says that four brands from each of those four sectors were selected. The study found that those brands which had invested consistently in media spend and had spent more than their market share showed growth consistently.
Ms McGrath said the report found that most ad campaigns used three media platforms. She said that television tended to be the dominant platform, along with others. While there is anecdotal evidence for a strong connection between digital and television, she said the metrics around digital are still not strong enough. Digital is really still growing in terms of measuring the effectiveness of its ads and will take some years to fully quantify.
"Advertising will always be a barometer of an improving economy," she states.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Investment fund IPUT has said it plans to bring 400,000 square feet of office space in Dublin to market over the next three years, capitalising on a shortage of supply that is pushing up rents. Prime office space in Dublin now rents for over €52 per square foot, up 50% since 2013. Vacancy rates in the most centrally located areas are as low as 2%. Speaking at the opening of a new IPUT office building in Dublin last night, IDA Ireland's chief executive Martin Shanahan noted that there is a tightness of supply and that new office space coming on stream would ensure companies, including IDA clients, continue to find space in Dublin.
*** The cost of breakfast is at its lowest level in five years thanks to falling commodity prices. The FT Breakfast index monitors the equally weighted average price of six commodities - milk, coffee, wheat, orange juice, sugar and lean hogs. It's now at its lowest level since 2010.
*** Just over one in six mobile users in Ireland are now actively using 4G, following the roll-out of the high-speed wireless networks by operators over the past two years. Figures from communications regulator ComReg show mobile data usage growing rapidly up 84% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period a year ago. Average revenue per mobile user is still falling for the operators, though, down from €24.98 this time last year to €24.75 a month.
