9. Online advertising and promotion

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At last, there are some numbers on online advertising in Ireland. Most likely, they only scratch the surface of online advertising and promotion activity.

BASE, published by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland, is a composite survey of media spend based on rate card valuations supplied by media owners. BASE inflates the value of advertising spend as it does not factor in discounts.

% avdertising spend Sept 05 - Mar 06. Source: BASE

Online made its debut in the BASE study for the six months to March 2006. It shows a rate card spend of €6.7 million, just 1.5% of the overall advertising cake of €440 million. Online is a minnow compared with TV, press and other categories.

However, BASE does not monitor all online spend. It tracks a limited number of Irish websites and does not take account of search marketing, classifieds and other forms of online promotional activity.

In the UK, as well as in other markets, there are more sophisticated measurements of online advertising. In 2005, online had a 7.8% share of total advertising, having overtaken directories (6.4%) and outdoor (5.1%). Sources: Internet Advisory Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Anecdotal evidence indicates increased activity in online advertising and promotion in Ireland. So far there is an absence of research to back this up.

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