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Sinn Féin biggest spenders on online ads, analysis finds
From RTE
Sinn Féin has spent the most on online ads in the past five years with Fianna Fáil a close second, according to new research.
Analysis by Mulley Communications, using Google and Meta Ad Transparency tools, shows that Sinn Féin spent €64,149 in the past 90 days on online ads, twice as much as all other parties combined.
Over the past five years Sinn Féin has spent €266,428 on online ads, followed by Fianna Fáil on a figure of €213,215.
Fine Gael spent €170,154 and Labour’s five-year online ad spend amounts to €54,139.
“When you look at the five-year ad spend of the parties, there’s not a huge difference between them,” said Damien Mulley from Mulley Communications.
“However, this year, Sinn Féin is showing a significant increase, nearing their total 2023 spend in just the first half of the year, even though the local and European campaigns have barely started.”
The analysis shows that in recent weeks, Sinn Féin has spent €7,000 on Google ads and €1,500 on Facebook and Instagram ads focusing on Taoiseach Simon Harris.
The analysis of Sinn Féin’s 2023 ad spend was calculated using the mean of expenditures, which were displayed per ad in ranges on the Meta Ad Library.
Most Irish plan holidays
From Marketing.ie:
In Dentsu’s latest Pulse study, 1,000 Irish adults were asked about their holiday intentions for this year. The report found that nearly three-quarters of adults are planning to go on holidays in the coming months, with one in three having already decided on their destination in March. Although most consumers have made, or intend to make, holiday plans for this year, one in four either have no plans, or can’t afford to head away on holiday leave.
Two thirds of adults holidaying this year will take their main break in Europe, with another one in six staying in Ireland. Asia is most popular with those aged 18-24, with 11 per cent planning to go there this year. Among those planning on taking several breaks this year, over half will take a holiday break in Ireland. Cost of living pressures mean that almost one in three either do not have any plans or are unable to afford to take a holiday away this year.
Six in ten of those without plans are struggling to meet everyday living costs; although fewer people than last year told us that their home energy bills are too high, this remains a quarter of those who are not planning a holiday this year. Holiday packages will need to be competitively priced and represent value-for-money if companies are to attract business from those finding everyday living costs to be a challenge
Differences
Dentsu’s research director Claire O’Rourke (pictured) says there are differences in targeting and messaging consumers. People plan main holidays well in advance. Over two thirds plan to go to Europe – with 81 per cent organising their main holiday at least three months in advance. Shorter holidays may be booked less than two months in advance. For those selling package holidays or deals on longer trips, it is important for offering discounts.
Price comparison websites are the top resource used when planning a main holiday, with those aged 55+ proving an exception. Social media now plays a major role in providing travel inspiration with 41 per cent of under 35 year olds looking to social media for inspiration. After a very wet year in Ireland, good weather is the top factor considered by consumers when choosing their holiday this year, ahead of budget-friendly.
Over a third of under 35s are looking to go somewhere new or that has scope for adventure. Fun, adventure holiday messaging would be well placed on social media. The focus changes as children and family enter the mix, with nearly half of those aged 45-54 looking for child friendly accommodation, significantly more than any other age group. One in six are looking for luxury locations to holiday this year, rising to one in four of those aged 25-34.
Revealed: The firms with the ‘best reputations’ in Ireland
From Business Post:
RTÉ’s reputation saw the biggest decline over the last 15 years, according to the annual Ireland RepTrak study.
Credit unions enjoyed the best reputation in Ireland in 2024, according to a new study.
Over the past 15 years, An Post was the most reputable organisation among the Irish public, while RTÉ suffered the biggest decline in reputation over the same time period, according to the latest Ireland RepTrak study.
Lidl was the second most favourably-viewed organisation in Ireland last year, with tech companies, healthcare providers and others making up the remainder .
42% of People Believe World Would Be Better Off Without Advertising?
Admatic comment “There was a time, when the Ads were found to be more interesting than the programmes…but not now. Because creativity is dire. It’s not ‘Advertising’ that’s disliked per se but rather, the communication. After all, if you asked people would they be prepared to pay for Facebook, Twitter, Virgin TV, Sky etc…instead of advertising, they’d say no. Nor is it the role of advertising to ‘halve carbon emissions’. Ask for this indecipherable nonsense -“People aren’t emotionally connecting to the future we need to create”….
From Adworld:
New research carried out amongst Irish consumers show that 77% of those surveyed believe that “the advertising industry should help people lead healthy, sustainable lives” while 45% believe that “the world would be better off without advertising in its current form”.
The findings are contained in a new report called Good Life 2030 Ireland, the first ‘citizen vision report’ designed to uncover insights into what Irish people believe a ‘good life’ looks like for them in the year 2030 and the role of advertising in supporting this.
The report was funded by Creative Ireland as part of the Creative Climate Action Fund, and was created by Purpose Disruptors and the Dublin-based agency Thinkhouse.
The report highlights that the modern advertising industry has played a key role in driving an emphasis on a “good life” of “more stuff, status & wealth”. For its part, the Purpose Disruptors has claimed that the industry has, so far, “taken the world in the opposite direction of where it needs to go.”
The research also shows that citizens are divided on their view of advertising and its influence. According to the report many shared negative feelings toward the industry with 45% saying that they agree that “the world would be better off without advertising in its current form” while 42% say that ‘the advertising industry promotes an image of life that is harmful for people in Ireland”. Some 39% of people were unsure, neither agreeing or disagreeing with the statement while just 19% disagreed.
When thinking about the industry’s influence on a ‘good life’, 45% of citizens disagree with the statement “the advertising industry promotes an image of life that is in line with what I want for myself” while 32% of people neither agree nor disagree with it. Overall, however, 77% agree that ‘the advertising industry should help people lead healthy, sustainable lives.” Some 19% of people neither agree nor disagree with just 3% disagreeing.
“It’s clear that people believe that there is a responsibility for the industry to play its role to facilitate the necessary culture, behaviour and system change needed to halve carbon emissions by 2030. This project aims to bring the advertising industry closer to citizen’s real needs, to create a new narrative, informed by real everyday people, that improves human and planetary wellbeing for all,” the report notes.
“It’s time for our industry to realise its true potential – to shift our focus in service of a thriving future. As architects of desire, the advertising industry shapes our cultural understanding of a life worth wanting. Science states we need to halve emissions by 2030. But 2030 has an image problem. People aren’t emotionally connecting to the future we need to create. The invitation now is for those in the marketing, advertising and media industry to embrace our unique expertise and our responsibility to rethink what’s being sold and imagine a new ‘good life’ story that serves all living systems. A 2030 Good Life is ours to create,” she adds.
Costello points to the growing awareness within the advertising industry for the need to do better. A recent IAPI survey, in support of the Good Life 2030 Ireland project, shows that 57% of Ireland’s advertising industry, don’t believe that the industry ‘is currently doing all it can to create a sustainable world,’ with just 18% of the industry believing that they are “doing all they can.” In addition, 90% of the industry recognises that Ireland’s advertising industry “has an important role in changing consumer behaviours.”
“I agree. Who better to shape a new image for 2030 than Ireland’s advertising and marketing industry?” adds Charley Stoney, CEO of IAPI. “ Supporting initiatives like this and Ad Net Zero, are an important part of our industry’s response to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan and Ireland’s Digital Creative Industries Roadmap – ensuring our industry is front and centre of Ireland’s transition to a sustainable economy. We must harness the superpower of the ad industry, generating a desire for ways of living and working that supports a good life for everyone.”
Channel 4 to invest advertising worth millions in ‘overlooked’ UK founders
From Ireland Live:
Channel 4 has announced plans to invest millions of pounds worth of advertising in business founders it views as overlooked and underrepresented, as it shrugs off concerns about a TV advertising slump.
Channel 4 Ventures, the broadcaster’s investment arm, said the launch of its new initiative Untapped is the first of its kind in the industry.
It plans to commit a significant proportion of its investment into growing companies led by entrepreneurs with more diverse profiles, including gender, education, socio-economic background, race, employment history and location.
This will be achieved by a new framework which it said will determine founders’ profiles across a range of criteria.
Founders securing significant investment have been predominantly men from top universities, analysis by Channel 4 Ventures found.
The fund uses a media-for-equity model, which means it offers start-ups advertising space on Channel 4, both on TV and its streaming platform, in return for an equity stake in the company.
At the end of 2022, it had about 20 active investments worth £45 million.
The company said it was deliberately not putting in place a specific target for working with founders from a broader range of profiles, so as to avoid a “token” approach.
But the proportion of investment could range between 10% and 60% and amount to millions of pounds worth of advertising space.
Verica Djurdjevic, Channel 4’s chief revenue officer, said TV advertising remains “very appealing” for businesses who want to grow and generate strong returns on investment.
“While audience behaviours are shifting and we’re seeing some decline, actually the mass reach available within linear TV advertising is incomparable to other media channels,” she said.
It comes after Channel 4’s chief executive Alex Mahon warned last month of a “sharp and protracted advertising slowdown that has hit the whole industry”, as it planned a new wave of job cuts.
The broadcaster said it wants to start generating more money from digital advertising revenues as part of a push to grow its streaming services.
Channel 4 Ventures has backed firms including Oddbox, Pinterest and Carwow since launching eight years ago, and re-invests the returns it makes into Channel 4.
Meanwhile, its analysis of the profiles of hundreds of entrepreneurs that have secured a valuation of more than £100 million for their business found that they are coming from a narrow section of society.
Some 94% of founders were men, despite men representing 41% of all UK graduates.
The founders were 51 times more likely to have graduated from an Oxbridge university or US equivalent than from a university outside the top 100 globally.
And they were ten times more likely to be a white university graduate than a black graduate, the analysis showed.
Vinay Solanki, head of Channel 4 Ventures, said: “The data implies that a wide range of talented founders leading attractive commercial organisations are being overlooked by the current ecosystem and we are committed to identifying and backing them.
“More broadly, Untapped can be a catalyst to grow the UK consumer investment landscape and encourage others to follow in the investment space.”
New restrictions on vape advertising to come into effect
From Irish Legal News:
New restrictions on the marketing of vapes and other nicotine products to children will come into effect in six months.
The Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023 will ban the sale of tobacco products or nicotine inhaling products at events aimed at children, and prohibit advertising for nicotine inhaling products around cinema films for children, on public service vehicles and at stops or stations and within 200 metres of a school.
There is a six-month lead-in time for these measures which will take effect from 23 September 2024.
A further provision will come into effect on Thursday when test purchasing operations carried out by the National Environmental Health Service of the Health Service Executive (HSE) on tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products will be underpinned by law.
Test purchasing operations involve a minor aged 15 or over attempting to purchase tobacco products in contravention of the ban on sales to minors.
These operations were previously approved by the High Court for tobacco and from Thursday, they will be contained in legislation for both tobacco and nicotine inhaling products. This coincides with the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the smoking ban in workplaces in Ireland.
It follows the commencement in December of section 28 of the Act which made it an offence to sell a nicotine inhaling product to a child.
Health minister Stephen Donnelly said: “The commencement will bring into operation further elements of our overall strategy to reduce the exposure of our children to smoking and vaping.
“I am particularly pleased to commence the statutory framework for test purchases as it highlights how some of our young people themselves are helping to protect other young people from tobacco and nicotine inhaling products.
“As we mark 20 years since the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland, my department continues to introduce evidence-based policy measures that help to reduce the significant health burden that smoking places on our population.
“Second-hand smoke causes cancers, heart disease and strokes, and young people who vape are more likely to go on to smoke, so it is vital that we initiate measures to protect them from addictive products.
“We have made great strides in this area, but the work continues and I want to reaffirm my commitment to reaching our goal of a tobacco free Ireland.”
Hildegarde Naughton, the minister of state with responsibility for public health, wellbeing and the national drugs strategy, added: “I welcome these further measures to allow our children to go about their daily lives without being exposed to advertising for e-cigarettes.
“I look forward to the implementation of further measures on nicotine inhaling products that are currently being developed.
“The recent public consultation on the further regulation of vapes and tobacco will help to inform future regulation, with the aim of protecting the health of our population, and in particular, our young people.
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Zero-alcohol ads and sport sponsorship ‘may be breaking the law’
From The Examiner
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) said these products use the same logo and trademark of the parent alcohol brand and claim this breaches Irish health legislation.
The Department of Health said minister Stephen Donnelly had asked officials, as reported in May 2023, to review if advertisements for zero-alcohol products were being used to promote full-strength brands.
The department told the it was examining the evidence base “with a view to developing legislation”, but said any issue on legal enforcement of the law was up to local HSE environment health officers.
AAI said that while alcohol advertising is banned on a sports pitch during a game, communications for zero-alcohol versions were common throughout the Six Nations rugby tournament which finished at the weekend.
It said that, under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, “advertising” means any form of commercial communication with the aim, or direct or indirect effect, of promoting an alcohol product.
In a statement, the AAI said: “Sect 15 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 bans alcohol advertising “in or on the sports field of play” during a sports event, but to watch the Six Nations rugby tournament you would not know there had been any change to the law.
“This is because the industry simply tacked a 0.0 onto its commercial communications, a move which Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has described [in May 2023] as ‘cynical’.”
It said the alcohol industry must be challenged over its alleged “continued and egregious flouting of the law”.
The CEO of AAI, Sheila Gilheany, said: “A case must be taken to test this in court. We would be keen to find out if the HSE and/or the Department of Health is going to take action on this and if not, why not.
AAI said research showed that alcohol brand references are occurring at a rate of one in every eight seconds during high profile rugby matches — a sport, the charity claimed, which appears “to have been entirely captured by alcohol”.
It said Diageo’s alcohol brand Guinness now also sponsors the women’s Six Nations rugby tournament, which begins this week.
The HSE referred queries on the matter to the Department of Health.