Starts June 20th in the Aviva actually but every match, one spot, 20k
Obviously you can double that etc but advertising in rugby is very ABC1 and this will be HUGELY popular.
Great price, click the link for more….
From Irish Times
Ad man and bestselling author of books such as Marketers are from Mars, Consumers are from New Jersey; Advertising for Skeptics; and AdScam, Bob Hoffman is back shining an unfiltered light on the industry. He’s not impressed with what he sees.
Given that his blog, The Ad Contrarian, was named one of the world’s most influential by Business Insider, when the former ad agency boss calls out rampant ad fraud, to the tune of around $100 billion (€91 billion) a year, you’d expect the industry to act.
But it doesn’t, and for a very good reason, he tells Dentsu’s Dave Winterlich. “Everyone’s making money and everyone is prospering,” says Hoffman. If he were buying online advertising, he would only buy direct from the publisher or from a quality trusted network, he tells Winterlich. “I would never buy programmatically.”
That’s because so much ad fraud is attributable to automated, programmatic advertising. It means brands are spending money and too often getting nothing in return.
“The money is being stolen. You would think they would care but what is bad for the brand may not be bad for the marketing people,” he argues.
“The CMOs (chief marketing officers) and the marketing people are getting these fraudulent reports about what they’re buying, the low cost per thousands and the millions of people seeing their ads, and it’s all bulls**t. But they can wave it in front of their CEO, or their board, and say ‘See what I’m getting for this money we’re spending in programmatic online, see all the good stuff that’s coming from it?‘”
It is much harder for a CMO to go back to their boss and say actually, “we’ve been screwed. We lost tens of millions of dollars last year to fraud and I didn’t know about it. I’m an idiot,” he adds.
What the brand has actually paid for is anything from bots to click farms, but worse, their money is lining the coffers of cyber criminal gangs
“According to the World Federation of Advertisers, in 2025 ad fraud may become the second largest source of criminal income in the world after drug trafficking,” says Hoffman. Part of the problem is that the marketing industry is, almost by definition, “immune to facts”.
“They exist on legends and rituals. They ignore the facts and just keep doing what they’ve been doing, and everyone seems to be satisfied with fraud, and the damage that some of it is doing to society. It’s frustrating.”
It’s a topic he explores in his latest book, The Three Word Brief, a newly published collection of his most thought provoking and controversial essays, in which he characteristically pulls no punches taking apart the so-called “best practices” of the advertising, media and marketing industries.
His thesis is that the most important thing any brand needs to tell its ad agency is three words: “make us famous”. “It doesn’t matter what you are selling, if your competition is not famous and you are, you have an enormous advantage over them because most people don’t really think very deeply about what they buy.”
‘To me the most important part of advertising is to be noticed, and it doesn’t take a brilliant strategy to do that’
Marketing and advertising is about likelihoods and probabilities, he says. “There’s no yes and no, no always and never. And if you are famous, the likelihood of your brand being bought is substantially greater than your competition that is not famous. And that’s the number one thing advertising can create,” he says.
It’s very simple really but unfortunately another characteristic of the industry is a compulsion to obscure simplicity, he believes. “Because that’s how we make money. We make money by complicating the shit out of everything. We take the obvious and make it incomprehensible,” he argues.
Marketing is about strategy, advertising is about execution.
It’s why marketing should be left to marketing people and the execution of advertising to advertising folk. Unfortunately that happens less and less.
“The skills to be a good marketer are that you need to be logical – to connect A to B in a logical way. In advertising, logic doesn’t work. Advertising is not about logic. Advertising is not a court case where I list the points in my favour and you list the points in yours and whoever has the best-case wins,” he points out.
Indeed, he reckons Monty Python was the best ad agency that never existed. The legendary comedic troupe would have “done some of the greatest advertising in history”, he says, because of their core strength – silliness, one of the most underutilised facets in advertising.
He believes that how strong brands are created is grossly misunderstood. “You don’t create a strong brand by ‘branding’ – whatever that means – you create it by doing a lot of other things right, like making a terrific product, by making it attractive and easily available, and by making it famous,” he says. It’s not about putting a logo on a pair of socks.
As advertising is an art, not a science, marketers need to be wary of using endless data and metrics to prescribe it, he cautions, not least because so much of the data is unreliable. More than that, data is meaningless without a human who can synthesise and develop a sensible strategy out of it, he adds.
Indeed, it’s the humans that make the difference in this business, given that data is so ubiquitous and commoditised as to be no longer any source of competitive advantage.
Part of the difficulty the industry has in recognising this is that it has been bought up by very large financial institutions.
“Holding companies are not advertising agencies, they are financial institutions who have bought up all the big advertising agencies and milk them, and that’s how they make their money,” he says.
“They are not run by the craftspeople who built the advertising industry, the copywriters and art directors and researchers and (client) accounts and marketing people. It was built bottom up. But now it is a top-down industry in which the large financial institutions optimise for efficiency, they don’t optimise for craftsmanship.”
Though there is so much that concerns him, and so little sign the industry has the will to mend itself, he won’t stop calling it as he sees it. “Advertising is the only thing I know about,” he says. “I feel a responsibility to some degree to try and do what I can.”
Wireless Ireland, the operator of radio stations such as Dublin’s FM104, Q102, Cork’s 96FM and C103, has rebranded as Onic.
The group’s representative sales house, urbanmedia, will also be renamed Onic.
Additionally, the group will launch new POD and VOD offerings under the Onic Originals banner, including podcasts hosted by Kathryn Thomas of Q102 and Thomas ‘Crossy’ Crosse of FM104.
Onic, which is part of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News UK & Ireland, will also launch the Onic App and Player, bringing together all its audio, podcast and visualised content.
“Onic will be a beacon for authenticity and trusted quality content,” said Sean Barry , managing director of Onic.
“Every day, our audiences welcome us into their lives and allow us to share their day. Individually and collectively, at home or on the go, we are their trusted companion, connecting in a deep and meaningful way. We never take this for granted.
“Onic is a new force in Irish media, building on a brilliant heritage, setting the standard for audio and video content in the years to come.
“We are excited to bring together a raft of authentic and talented voices, accelerating progressive innovation and driving engagement and connection across our audiences.”
The organisers of the Media Awards 2025 have announced a deadline extension.
The new deadline for entries is now March 27 at 6pm.
The organisers have also advised entrants that their entries will only be accepted via the awards entry portal.
In addition, entry templates and an entry kit are available for download to help entrants structure their entries.
Following the entry deadline, judges will be assigned to different categories and a shortlist will be published. Live judging of this shortlist will take place between April 20 and May 1st. The Awards Ceremony will take place in the Mansion House in Dublin on May 8.
This year, the organisers have introduced a number of new categories and retired others. Chief amongst the new categories is Best Use of Irish Language which is sponsored by TG4.
According to the organisers “using the Irish language in a communication strategy can significantly enhance a brand’s connection with Irish consumers by conveying authenticity, fostering cultural pride, and potentially increasing customer loyalty, particularly among those who value the language and its preservation. This can lead to a more positive campaign perception/ engagement and potentially boost success, across all of Ireland (and not just Gaeltacht regions). ”
Campaigns must have been active in the Republic of Ireland and/or Northern Ireland between Jan 1st 2024 and March 14th 2025.
For more information visit www.mediaawards.ie
Some brands take the Irish advantage and this is worth a look, courtesy of IMJ Adworld:
https://www.adworld.ie/2025/03/14/out-look-ooh-goes-green-for-st-patricks-day/
From Irish Times
The Belgian group that owns the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent said its revenues were unchanged last year at €1.2 billion despite a decline in advertising sales and increased labour costs.
In a statement on Thursday, Mediahuis reported operating profits of €153 million for 2024, essentially unchanged from the year previous.
The group, which also publishes the Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday World and several regional titles, said its results were “stable” year-on-year despite significant challenges facing the print media industry.
Total subscriber numbers across the group, which owns a range of media and radio brands in the Benelux countries and Germany, were also stable at 1.8 million, it said, with digital subscriber growth compensating for the decline in print subscribers.
“To accommodate the decline in print volumes, Mediahuis closed its printing facility in Aachen, Germany, and centralised production in Paal-Beringen, Belgium,” it said.
Mediahuis also recently announced plans to close its plant in Amsterdam and move production to Leeuwarden in the north of the country.
Ger Ysebaert, Mediahuis group chief executive, said 2024 was “another year full of challenges” for the media sector.
“Despite these developments, Mediahuis managed to hold up well,” he said.
“Digital subscriptions are clearly the driving force behind a sustainable future, especially as the distribution of printed newspapers becomes increasingly complex and expensive.
“That is why we continue to invest in digitalisation as a future-proof solution, ensuring that our pluralistic journalism remains widely accessible and relevant. As a powerhouse for independent journalism, we continue to build strong news brands that all generations can trust in a world of change.”
Mediahuis Ireland, which employed close to 550 people at the start of 2024, said in January last year that it would seek to shrink the size of the workforce across its publishing division in the Republic and Northern Ireland by about 10 per cent. The cuts were realised through a mix of voluntary redundancies, natural attrition, a shift to part-time working and compulsory redundancies, with some “internal mobility” also taking place.
From TAM
The total advertising spend on TV in 2024 was €298,000,405- an increase of 5.3% on 2023.
This is great news for the TV industry and really shows the power, strength and agility of this media throughout a continuously morphing media landscape. Commercial impacts saw a significant surge this year up 7.7% on 2023 reflecting the medium’s ability to engage audiences effectively.
These figures, compiled by Guardian Management Accounting on behalf of TAM Ireland include spot, sponsorship, product placement, AFP and Broadcaster VOD revenue.
This positive trend is further bolstered by Ireland’s robust TV viewing habits. Viewers spent a total of 3hrs 23 mins viewing video content on a TV set every day in 2024*. Of this 77% of the time was spent viewing Broadcaster content, 10% of viewer’s time was spent with SVOD services such as Netflix, Disney + and Amazon, 4% with Youtube and the remainder of viewing time was to other streaming services. This mix highlights TV’s continued relevance in a fragmented media environment.
The growth in TV ad revenue is also a testament to the medium’s unique strengths: trust, scale, and its proven ability to build brands. In an era where trust in non-traditional media remains shaky, television continues to deliver on its core promise of reaching mass audiences while fostering emotional connections. TV’s vital role on the media plan has been reinforced by a number of prominent research studies published in 2024 ( Peter Field’s Effectiveness Study / Thinkbox Profitability 2 and TAM’s own award-winning Attention Research carried out by Red C & Amplified Intelligence.
These attributes make TV an indispensable tool for advertisers seeking to build brand awareness and loyalty.
The 5.3% rise in TV ad revenue is more than just a financial milestone; it is a testament to the medium’s enduring appeal and its ability to adapt to changing consumer behaviours. As Ireland’s media landscape continues to evolve, television remains a trusted and powerful platform for both viewers and advertisers alike.
Lyric FM breakfast presenter Marty Whelan was especially chipper on air on Friday, and he had every right to be. “Thank you for the kind words this morning,” he told listeners. “You’re very, very kind.”
Whelan’s listeners are not just very kind, they are more plentiful, according to the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey for 2024. They show that Marty in the Morning, the RTÉ station’s breakfast show, now has 71,000 listeners, his highest figure to date. Whelan’s audience has climbed 15,000 year on year – significant growth in percentage terms and a notable achievement given the competitiveness of the radio market at that time of day.
Is this because none of us are getting any younger? Are more people simply coming around to the genial charms of Whelan? Or is there a touch of mood-correcting news avoidance at work?
Whelan hinted at the latter on a couple of occasions during his Friday show, noting the value in “adding to the gaiety and the craic” in difficult times. He alluded to the grimness and harshness of current events before opting to finish his show with a beautiful reminder that not everything is always terrible, playing Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World
Whelan and his style of broadcasting may act as an audio salve for some listeners bogged down by the woes of the world, but his show is, of course, more than that. It’s a cultural home for listeners who appreciate a playlist that finds space for both Donna non vidi mai from Puccini opera Manon Lescaut and Everlasting Love by Love Affair from 1968.
“We’re glad that you’re there making a point of us being here,” Whelan told his listeners, later observing that “right across the schedule, you seem to be enjoying the station”. Indeed, Lyric FM’s current line-up of presenters – among them Lorcan Murray, Liz Nolan, Aedín Gormley, Niall Carroll and new additions Claudia Boyle and Simon Delaney – have each carved out solid audiences in their respective time slots.
With a 2.6 per cent share of listening on weekdays from 7am to 7pm, Lyric is a niche operation compared with other national stations, but in the role it serves in the lives of its listeners, it gently punches above its weight. Whelan won’t be the only one hoping this will long continue.
This is the independent research of Radio listenership considered ‘The bible’ for media planning. There’s no doubt, Radio still shows remarkable popularity!!!
From The RadioCentre;
The report shows that Radio is enjoying record levels of listenership with 3.9 million peoplenow listening to radio every week, the highest weekly listenership ever recorded, growing by 105,000 listeners compared to the same 12 month period previously (Jan-Dec ’23). The average weekday audience listening at any time between 7am to 7pm is now at 1,095,000, thehighest recorded average audience ever. This clearly shows that despite competition from so much media, Irish people have a deep passion for live radio and listen in increasing numbers across broadcast and online platforms.
Other key results from the latest JNLR/Ipsos survey are:
Source: JNLR/Ipsos 2024-4 (January to December 2024), JNLR/Ipsos 2024-2 Audio Module (Apr’24 – Jun ’24 3 month data)
23-092916-JNLR-Sales House Report 2024-4 (Final)
From Irish Independent:
Top broadcasters hit listenership highs as ‘talk radio’ becomes king.
Brendan O’Connor, Oliver Callan, Miriam O’Callaghan and Marty Whelan see massive listenership increases Matt Cooper keeps a steady ship at Today FM while other shows see dip Pat Kenny’s Newstalk show is still the most popular show on commercial radi
RTÉ radio continues to dominate the airwaves, with a 29.6pc share of listeners in Ireland.
The latest batch of Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures show all of the broadcaster’s flagship programmes have grown in popularity.
Morning Ireland is up 1,000 listeners to 466,000 since the last survey in November.
Oliver Callan’s 9am show has gained 11,000 listeners. The listenership for his slot now stands at 349,000. The comedian took over permanently from Ryan Tubridy in February last year.
Claire Byrne’s show is performing strongly, up 7,000 since last November. Its listenership stands at 349,000.
The Louise Duffy Show has gained 5,000 listeners, which brings her tally to 228,000.
Joe Duffy’s Liveline attracted an additional 7,000 listeners for a total of 314,000.
Ray D’Arcy has gained 6,000 listeners to bring his total up to 194,000, while Drivetime is up 5,000 to 226,000.
There has also been an increase in listeners across RTÉ’s weekend shows.
Brendan O’Connor’s Saturday show is up to 358,000 listeners, which represents an increase of 16,000. On Sundays, his listeners have increased by 27,000, from 339,000 to 366,000.
Miriam O’Callaghan’s 10am Sunday show is also doing well, gaining 4,000 listeners to bring her total listenership to 304,000.
The figures suggest that talk radio has never been so popular, with Irish listeners heavily invested in coverage of news events.
An RTÉ spokesperson said: “Oliver has had an amazing 12 months and Brendan O’Connor is the same. His year-on-year figures are massive, and it’s a tribute to lots of different things, including the teams that work behind all the shows, trying to make them the best they can be.”
Marty Whelan on RTÉ lyric fm is hitting all the right notes too, achieving a new high of 71,000 listeners for his 7am-10am daily show.
Despite a number of changes over the past year, 2FM is performing well. It is currently the most popular station among 15 to 34-year-olds, with a 12.1pc share of that audience.
Early-morning show 2FM Breakfast with Carl and Aifric gained 10,000 listeners to bring it to 152,000, while Laura Fox lost 2,000 listeners, bringing her total to 131,000.
Presenter Tracy Clifford has dropped 2,000 listeners and now has 117,000.
The 3pm-6pm slot formerly occupied by The 2 Johnnies, aka 2FM Drive, showed no fluctuations, with 145,000 listeners.
From Irish Independent
RTÉ is seeking one of its highest radio sponsorship rates for Doireann Garrihy’s new 2FM show.
As revealed in the Irish Independent, the public broadcaster wants €225,000 for an annual advertising package for Garrihy’s new afternoon slot.
The Dancing with the Stars presenter (32) – who is getting a six-figure salary to return to 2FM after quitting last year – will start her new afternoon show later this month.
She will now be the biggest name on 2FM, something reflected in the sponsorship fee being sought.
A source said RTÉ was keen to bring back the presenter and influencer and would do so “at any cost”.
“Her leaving the station came as a huge blow last May as it came on the back of Jennifer Zamparelli, The 2 Johnnies and was then followed by Donncha O’Callaghan,” the source said.
She is very well regarded in the station and RTÉ is confident they won’t struggle to get a sponsor for her slot. She has a huge following on social media and hits the right demographic for 2FM.
“As a media personality, hers is a premium brand. RTÉ has no doubt her afternoon show will do the business for it.”
The publicity blurb for the show says Garrihy will “take the listeners home, offering the hottest tracks, entertainment updates and feel-good vibes to power the evening commute”.
Her return is part of an overhaul of 2FM’s schedule in response to big changes at the station over the past year.
In stark contrast to RTÉ Radio 1, the latest JNLR listener figures show many of 2FM’s shows dipping in the ratings.
Its daytime show Drive with Beta Da Silva had the biggest drop, of 12,000 listeners, down to 145,000, while Breakfast with Carl and Aifric lost 7,000 – down to 142,000.
Tracy Clifford and Laura Fox’s shows also dropped in numbers when the figures were released last November.
However, 2FM boss Dan Healy is confident the new-look station will hit the right note with listeners. He said he was “really excited” to launch the schedule, which brings together old and new faces.
As part of the revamp, a new Breakfast Show will be presented by Garrihy’s former co-presenter Carl Mullan alongside Roz Purcell and Aisling Bonner.
Mid-morning will continue with Fox from 9am before Clifford kicks off her three-hour-long show at 12pm, with Garrihy’s show running from 3-6pm.
There had been speculation around the decisions of the five 2FM presenters to quit last year and whether it was linked to new rules around endorsements.
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst brought in new guidelines last year stipulating that extracurricular work undertaken by the “talent” would have to be published and approved.
But Garrihy has denied that the new rules were part of the reason why she left last year after five years. She said she was “beyond excited” to return and front her own show.
A spokesperson for the RTÉ director general said he had not been involved in the deal to bring back Garrihy. Bakhurst previously indicated he would no longer engage with Garrihy’s agent, Noel Kelly.
However, RTÉ has said it would still deal with his agency and would continue to negotiate with a range of agents “as appropriate”.
When asked whether the sponsorship package for Garrihy’s new show was the highest for any 2FM programme, an RTÉ spokesperson said the broadcaster could not comment because it was “commercially sensitive”.
