Drinks brand advertising up 80%

The most significant year-on-year growth in the advertising market last year came from drinks brands which were up by close to 80% in terms of total spend according to This Year, Next Year, media investment company Group M's End of Year forecast, published recently.

The report believes that the growth in drinks advertising has been “driven by a forced focus on the in-home trade for both alcoholic and soft drinks brands as well as a pivot to supporting non-alcoholic variants for the former in response to tightened advertising guidelines”.

The Irish advertising market generally grew much faster than expected to “reach a level not seen since before the crash of 2008” noted the report.

As a result, GroupM puts the growth in general advertising in 2021 at just under 20% and it anticipates further growth of 9% this year.

GroupM’s report points to the pandemic having proven to be an accelerant to “shifting consumption trends, be they media or economic”.