Advertising spend in Ireland expected to increase by 10% in 2016

Spending on advertising in Ireland will grow by 10 per cent this year, the first double-digit growth since the recession, according to a forecast by Accenture Media Management Ireland.

Television and radio will both be "lifted by a strong rising tide" in 2016, although digital will, unsurprisingly, be the fastest-growing medium, says Accenture's Grace Gallagher, who heads the global management consultancy's media practice in Ireland.

Accenture expects growth of 15 per cent in digital this year, with a continued surge in mobile advertising leading the way.

Volumes of programmatic advertising – the purchase of online ads through automating software – will also intensify.

“We estimate that between 20 to 25 per cent of digital spend at the moment is programmatic and this is set to increase to well over 30 per cent,” says Gallagher.

Spending on television advertising will increase by up to 14 per cent in 2016, according to Accenture. Prices inflated in 2015 and are forecast to do so once again, possibly by as much as 7-8 per cent.

“Traditional trading methods will continue to hold in Ireland, but hunger is growing for ‘smarter TV’, as evidenced by developments such as Sky’s AdSmart technology,” Gallagher says.

This technology is already available in the UK and is expected to be launched in the Republic this year.

Radio, meanwhile, will remain “resilient”, with the national stations becoming “even more commercially amenable”. Increased demand could prompt a 3-4 per cent rise in prices.

Although the print sector will also be buoyed by the overall uplift in the advertising market in 2016, print ad spend will remain relatively stable year on year and its share of spend will continue to decline.