Online advertising in Europe has now overtaken TV as the most popular medium. IAB, the industry body representing online advertisers, published a report showing 13.1% growth in digital advertising to €36.2 billion over the past 12 months compared to TV adspend of €33.3 billion. Within that AdEx Benchmark report, Ireland was the country which showed the fastest growth. Ad spending online here was up 29% here in 2015.
Ian Dodson, co-founder and director of the Digital Marketing Institute, said the latest figures really represent the tipping point for television as the transition from the "traditional" broadcast schedule to a more
flexible online delivery continues. That trend is only set to accelerate as more and more people enjoy the availability of programming that they can consume any where, any time and from any device. And as consumption habits change, advertisers are following with their spend, he added.
This year in Ireland alone, advertisers will spend €350m on reaching Irish consumers and Mr Dodson said the rapid growth in online advertising shows just how veracious the Irish market's appetite is for consumption of online media. While Google and Facebook take the lion's share of that ad spend, he said the trend in Ireland towards dense mobile penetration has resulted in about 50% of online advertising going on mobile devices.
Ireland is punching ahead of its weight as the key transition from the desktop computers to the "internet in your pocket" accelerates, Mr Dodson said. He also said that the move to mobile means that advertising has to be better and advertisers have to engage with the consumer and be much more creative in terms of how they communicate or entertain their target audience. "What we are going to see is a much needed improvement in the quality of what passes for advertising in the digital era," he stated.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - This time last year KBC Bank Ireland was taking a €7.4m charge for expected loan losses. But over the first quarter of this year it benefited from adding back €3.4m in money previously set aside to provide for losses. The bank reported a profit of €34.2m for the first quarter compared to €16.2m between January and March last year.
*** Oil exploration company Petroceltic is set to exit examinership after the examiner accepted a takeover offer from Worldview. Worldview was Petroceltic's largest investor and had previously had a bid for the company knocked back prior to its decision to seek court protection from its creditors through the examinership process.
*** Irish start-up companies are on track to secure venture capital funding of more than €1 billion in a single year for the first time. Figures from the Irish Venture Capital Association show the level of investment from VCs in Irish tech firms over the first three months of 2016 almost doubled from the same period last year to €237m.Biotechnology firms attracted the biggest chunk of that €45m.
*** Google has decided that from the middle of July it will no longer accept advertising from payday lenders. Its director of global product policy said Google takes the view that it has to be particularly vigilant around ads for financial services as these are central to "people's livelihood and well being". Payday loans, as defined by Google, are all loans due within 60 days of the date of issue. In the US Google will also refuse ads from any provider offering finance with an annualised interest rate of 36% or higher.
*** The National Treasury Management Agency is to borrow €750m on behalf of the state today in the first bond auction since the formation of the new government. The yield, or interest rate demanded by investors, on Irish government debt is at historic lows as the European Central Bank's multi-trillion euro bond buying programme eases borrowing pressure on member states.
