9. Online advertising and promotion

Online advertising and promotional spend is charging ahead internationally. In the last quarter, a series of bullish reports have been published about online advertising in the US and the UK, in particular. But Ireland continues to rely on anecdotal evidence rather than hard facts about online spend.

Estimates vary about what Irish online advertising is worth. Precision Media is the latest to attempt a valuation. It reckons the online ad market is worth €20 million, which equates to around 1.5% of the advertising cake.

The only way is up. Total US online ad spend, excluding paid search, showed growth levels of 19% in the first half of the year. Valued at €4.7 billion, this represents 6.4% of the total advertising market.

Old media companies are benefiting and in the US have reported growth in online advertising revenues of 33% to $667, the ninth consecutive quarter of double digit growth levels

Even in the US, advertising spend is still disproportionately low considering the amount of time consumers spend online.

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