On-trade

4 in 5 publicans access internet daily

Internet advertising is becoming increasingly important for today’s tech-savvy breed of publicans as new research carried out in over 100 pubs around the country outside Dublin (mostly in Cork and Galway) discovered.

The research, conducted by the founder of the traditional Irish music website www.findtradfolk.ie Anne Brady, found that four out of five publicans (82 per cent) access the internet daily in their line of work. By comparison, only a miniscule 1.5 per cent of owners and managers claimed never to use the internet.
The study discovered a further 15 per cent of publicans reported that they went online on a weekly basis.
But while the internet has become a part of daily life for the vast majority of Irish publicans, the survey showed they haven’t forgotten the nation’s traditional roots when it comes to musical preferences.
64 per cent of the 134 pubs questioned said they hosted live traditional Irish music in their establishment on a weekly basis. Nearly 13 per cent said traditional Irish music performers could be found playing in their pub every month while 13 per cent said trad music featured at their venue irregularly throughout the year.
Only four per cent of the publicans surveyed said they never hosted traditional Irish music in their pub.
Interestingly, the statistics show pubs are keen to marry a love of traditional music with more modern marketing methods. Of those surveyed, 88 per cent believed it was important to advertise their Irish music sessions online while just 12 per cent disagreed that the internet was a key method of spreading the word about their music sessions.   
Yet despite a widespread awareness of the gains that internet advertising can bring, publicans nevertheless reported that they’d faced several barriers to doing business online.
Pub owners said the most significant of these obstacles was the lack of a dedicated website for traditional Irish music (18 per cent), followed by cost (eight per cent), a lack of computer literacy (7.5 per cent), lack of knowledge about where to advertise (1.5 per cent) and broadband availability issues (one per cent).
Significantly, nearly 40 per cent of publicans said they’d be willing to pay to advertise their Irish music sessions online while five per cent currently use their own website to advertise forthcoming gigs. Some 62 per cent of publicans responded that they note increased customer numbers when they advertise their sessions.
For more information about the traditional Irish music sessions currently being hosted by pubs across the country, visit www.findtradfolk.ie.


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