Apps have the potential to provide marketers with a whole range of opportunities to engage with their target audiences but careful planning and research is needed to ensure that app users are accurately identified and targeted. Insight from Kantar Media’s TGI survey in Ireland reveals that there are currently 420,000 adults in ROI who use apps – equating to 12% of the entire adult population. Moreover, three-quarters of those who have downloaded an app in the past year are under the age of 35.

Aside from their age, app users have two key distinguishing features: their relatively high disposable income and their heavy consumption of media – in all of its many forms. App users have an average household income in excess of €60,000 making them some of the most valuable consumers around. They are also a third more likely than the average adult in Ireland to claim to “have expensive tastes”.

The fact that these affluent consumers can be readily influenced will also no doubt be music to the marketer’s ear. TGI reveals that they are a quarter more likely than average to “be tempted to buy products I’ve seen advertised” and more than twice as likely to agree that “celebrities influence my purchase decisions”.

Moreover, influencing these consumers can bring about significant added benefits as they themselves are particularly influential amongst their peers. According to TGI Word of Mouth data they are more than twice as likely as the average consumer to convince others about a whole range of products and services including computers, toiletries, cars and alcoholic drinks. Three-quarters of this group are also social networkers (compared to just 38% of the whole Irish population) providing the perfect combination to amplify marketing messages. 

If we take toiletries & cosmetics as an example, not only are app users more likely to persuade others to use the products but they spend more on those brands than the average adult. For female cosmetics, they spend 20% more than the average consumer every month and 15% more on skin care products. App users are also 75% more likely to have the heaviest brand repertoire of female toiletries & cosmetics products.

As expected, app users are heavy internet browsers with 70% surfing the net more than once per day and 20% of those also connecting to the internet via a mobile several times per day. However, they are not exclusively reachable via digital media as they are also twice as likely to feature among the heaviest 20% of cinema goers and two-thirds more likely to be heavily exposed to outdoor media.

Traditional media can also make a strong argument for being able to reach app users as these consumers are 20% more likely to read five or more magazines per month and almost 100,000 of them read a newspaper every day.  In fact, app users are 20% more likely than the average internet user to find out about new websites by reading about them in newspapers.

TGI also reveals that app users are a third more likely than the average adult to describe themselves as being “a television addict” and more than half listen to digital radio. Of those who download apps and listen to digital radio almost 60% do so in the car – compared to just 30% of Ireland as a whole.

Insights such as these are crucial to the marketer and planner, particularly as they reveal that app users can be safely considered “media champions” rather than solely “digital natives”.

As featured in the IMJ 

By Gary Brown

The fast-moving, non-stop nature of social networking can make it difficult to predict which platforms are most likely to reach a brand’s target audience. The table below indicates the changing audience of a selection of sites over a single year.

It is clear to see the dominance of Facebook among all social platforms, followed closely by YouTube. Boards has maintained a substantial audience of social networkers while My Space and Windows Live Space have fallen out of favour with social networkers in Ireland.

While social networkers are predominantly younger consumers – 60% of all social networkers in Ireland are under the age of 35 – individual sites are more effective at reaching different demographic groups. For instance, Facebook, being the most widely-accessed platform, is able to reach non-traditional networkers with more than 10% of its users being over the age of 55 and 20,000 Facebook users have retired in the past year.

Twitter, a burgeoning social network in Ireland, is a favourite for many digital natives with the microblogging site most likely to be used by consumers in TGI Lifestage group “fledglings*”. Boards, which has operated in Ireland since 2000, is particularly efficient at reaching consumers during major life events: for instance, individuals who have purchased or sold a property in the past year are 80% more likely to use the site than the average social networker – perhaps using the platform to buy or sell furniture.

Social networkers are often among the earliest adopters of new technologies, they set and promote online trends and rely on the internet in many parts of their lives. To take the 1.1 million most frequent social networkers as an example, TGI reveals how they are 60% more likely than the average adult to watch TV online, 50% more likely to listen to stream radio and 45% more likely to make internet voice calls.

The convenience offered by the internet also plays a key part in their purchase decisions – they are 30% more likely than the average internet user to agree that “to do my shopping by internet makes my life easier” with more than 250,000 making an online purchase at least once per month.

Targeting social networkers is not only beneficial because they readily part with their cash online but they have the added benefit of being some of the most influential consumers around. A positive brand experience can be followed by posts, tweets or comments which have the potential to spread virally and reach fellow influencers.

For instance, regular social networkers are 60% more likely than the average internet user to be a Word of Mouth champion for mobile phones – that is to say they promote key messages, have product knowledge and carry the power of persuasion. Moreover, social networkers are also 50% more likely to influence others when it comes to toiletries and alcoholic drinks.

Social networkers, however, do not have to be targeted solely using the internet as a mixed-media campaign could well reach the widest audience. Insight from TGI reveals that a quarter of social networkers describe themselves as regular cinema goers and almost 100,000 notice advertising on the LUAS network.  Indeed, print media may be a viable option to reach this group – more than 300,000 social networkers read a newspaper everyday and they are 27% more likely to claim that “I cannot resist buying magazines”.

Implementing a social media strategy is essential for marketers in today’s digital world but engaging social networkers should be exercised with caution – the most ardent tweeters and Facebook users are just as likely to condemn and criticise a brand as they are to praise and promote it. The snowball effect of social networking is often difficult to predict, but when targeted and executed correctly – social marketing can reap huge rewards.

As featured in the IMJ

Gary Brown, March 2012

More than 80% of the adult population in Northern Ireland classify themselves as being a newspaper reader – a figure that has been fairly consistent over a number of years and shows little sign of dwindling.

In sheer numbers this equates to more than 1 million people who read a newspaper at least once per week, while a third of the population are every day newspaper readers.

Taking four of Northern Ireland’s principal titles* – Daily Mirror, Belfast Telegraph, Irish News and News Letter – reach more than 500,000 people every day. If we look at the most frequent newspaper readers in Northern Ireland, these publications fare particularly well with two-thirds picking up one of these titles on a daily basis.

Every day newspaper readers also tend to be loyal to their particular brand – more than half of them “would not change the newspaper I read” while 70% claim to “value the local paper because it covers local news”.

The explosion in digital platforms has allowed consumers to access content in a multitude of ways, but for many, this is not at the expense of the printed newspaper. TGI reveals that regular visitors to newspaper websites are also 24% more likely to be every day newspaper readers and a whopping 88% of them read a newspaper at least once per week.

Print media is also a valuable tool in helping consumers to diversify their online behaviours – almost half of all regular visitors to newspaper websites find out about new websites by reading about them first in newspapers.

*Average Issue Readership in Northern Ireland:

Daily Mirror – 218,000

Belfast Telegraph – 181,000

Irish News – 165,000

News Letter – 68,000

When targeted correctly, sponsorship has the potential to generate fevered – even unparalleled – buzz around a brand.

In recent years, the explosion in digital television channels has greatly increased the opportunities for brands to sponsor individual programmes. Kantar Media’s TGI survey in Ireland reveals how consumers are becoming increasingly familiar with TV sponsorship as 40% of all viewers claim to “always notice if a programme is sponsored” – up 16% in five years.

These consumers are themselves a particularly lucrative group to target being 20% more likely than the average television viewer to have a personal income greater than €75,000.

Television sponsorship, however, is often at its most effective when the viewers already have a strong affinity with the brand sponsor. Targeting at a programme level is, therefore, crucial to determine where these synergies lie.

For instance, TGI reveals that regular viewers of technology / gadget programmes are more than 50% more likely to notice if a programme has been sponsored and are almost twice as likely to “tend to buy from companies who sponsor television programmes.” Inevitably, product categories in similar fields will have broad cross-over appeal – for example, viewers of gadget shows are also 60% more likely to have bought a games console in the past 12 months.

However, consumers of certain product categories are likely to be heavy viewers across a range of programme genres and do not gravitate towards a particular niche. To take one category as an example, gin drinkers are more than 50% more likely to regularly tune in to one-off dramas, travel & holidays shows and programmes dedicated to arts & culture.

Planners and marketers alike therefore need to delve deeper and analyse viewing habits at an individual programme level to determine those with the greatest brand affinity.

As well as television, sponsorship of sporting events and teams can showcase brands, especially during this bumper year for sport with major tournaments such as Euro 2012, the Olympic Games in London and the Six Nations. At times of sporting success, brand sponsors also have the added benefit of being associated with the victory and are able to tap into the public mood of celebration.

Alcoholic drinks brands are leading names when it comes to sponsoring these events: Guinness are long-term supporters of rugby in Ireland as well as hurling, Heineken are also major sponsors of rugby as well as UEFA Champions League football and Carlsberg are the official beer of the FAI.

Quantitative research can reveal the synergies between brands and consumer groups. To take one example, the TGI data below reveals how consumers of Guinness and followers of rugby union have similar demographic and attitudinal profiles, demonstrating how their campaign can efficiently deliver their target audience. Further bearing this out, spectators at rugby union matches are almost twice as likely as the average consumer to drink Guinness.

Rugby fans are also a particularly receptive group to sponsorship in general with 20% of spectators claiming to tend to buy products from companies who sponsor sports events and teams.

However, a recent announcement from a Department of Health panel places this kind of sponsorship under threat. According to their proposals, the drinks industry should be barred from sponsoring sporting events, musical festivals and other gatherings.

Although the implementation of such measures seems far off, should they come into force, it would strike a severe blow to event organisers and alcohol marketers alike. In spite of this, marketers from other sectors could fill the void and, in turn, reap the benefits.

Rugby Union fans, to continue with our example, have a higher spending power than the average consumer in Ireland – making them a much-courted group for many brands. These spectators are two-thirds more likely to take four or more holidays per year or buy a brand new car in the next five years.

Sponsorship, although a widely used tool in the alcohol industry, is by no means the only category that can find it effective. Marketers across the board should consider sponsorship as a viable option to promote their brands, but accurate targeting and careful planning are vital to ensure maximum return on investment.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

Gary Brown, February 2012

The latest data reaffirms the downward trend in newspaper readership with a third of adults picking up a newspaper every day – down more than a quarter in the past five years. Yet, 86% of adults claim to read a newspaper at least once per week, a figure that has remained relatively stable over the same period.

For magazines, readership trends are more encouraging as currently 47% of adults read at least one paid-for magazine per month – a near 18% rise on the 2007 figure. Heavy magazine exposure also remains strong, with over 300,000 consumers reading at least six paid-for magazines every month and more than 100,000 reading more than ten titles.

However, migration to digital platforms is inevitable as consumers look to access content at a touch of a button. Over the past five years, print publications have improved their status as dominant players online. Visits to newspaper websites have risen three-fold over this period, while the number of adults logging-on to magazine websites has quadrupled – by far outpacing the general rise in internet usage.

The rise in digital media, for many consumers, is driven in no small part by print media itself. More than a third of internet users discover new websites by reading about them in newspapers and more than a quarter do so in magazines.

These figures are all the more impressive when compared to 16% who are driven to new sites from TV adverts, 13% from radio and just 11% from clicking on pop-up adverts.

The rise of newspaper websites has, in turn, given the consumer a wider choice of content and the lack of pay walls on many of these sites reduces the barriers to entry. The latest TGI data reveals how online versions of newspapers can affect consumer loyalty to a particular newspaper brand.

To take the Irish Times as an example, we can see that half of their internet-enabled print readers have accessed the IrishTimes.com within the past four weeks. But does their loyalty vary between hard copy and online formats?

Of the 385,000 daily readers of the Irish Times, slightly fewer than 60% pick up no other newspaper. Yet, just 22% of Irish Times readers are loyal only to the newspapers’ website.

Even though the IrishTimes.com is far and away the number one newspaper website for Irish Times readers, they also regularly visit other online newspaper sites. Just over a quarter have visited Independent.ie in the past four weeks, 15% accessed Examiner.ie and 7% have logged-on to Herald.ie.

With consumers now firmly positioned at the intersection between traditional and digital media, advertisers are faced with the challenge about how to most efficiently reach these consumers. Evidence from Irish Times devotees would suggest that the print version is more efficient in grabbing the attention of readers than its online counterpart.

Irish Times readers who access IrishTimes.com are 20% more likely than the average internet user to pay most attention to advertisements in newspapers. And while just 4% claim that they pay most attention to adverts on the internet, 14% claim this medium to be the most helpful when it comes to making purchase decisions.

In truth, advertisers would be most likely to find success in tailoring their message to resonate with readers of both platforms. Quantifiable targeting is crucial to ensure consumers are engaged in the most effective way, in order to ensure maximum return on investment.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

Gary Brown, February 2012

After several years of such intense focus on all matters economic, it will be of little surprise that consumer attitudes and behaviours are starting to adjust to the new realities of a proclaimed ‘age of austerity’.

On the surface, some of these changes are evident and well-understood by observers of the market. For instance – over recent years – TGI has tracked the rise-and-rise of the budget supermarkets: with the likes of Lidl and Aldi growing in line with the consumer appreciation of “low price” as the most critical determinant of their main supermarket selection. In fact, “low price” is cited as the most important factor in selecting a grocer / supermarket by a third of the population.

More subtly, TGI also appears to record a shift in attitudes towards spending – with a new mood of greater caution and consumer deliberation taking hold.

As one important description of this developing caution, 88% of adults now agree that they “don’t like the idea of being in debt” – up from 75% in 2007.

This financial wariness translates into a related mode of consumer deliberation, with 82% asserting that “I spend money more carefully than I used to” – up from 64% in 2007. Similarly, the proportion of the population agreeing that they are “bargain hunters when shopping” has risen from 49% in 2007 to 58% just five years later.

If the above are signals of a nervous tightening of the purse-strings – Irish marketers and advertisers should, however, be wary of assuming that this negative conclusion is, in fact, the end of the story.

Digging deeper, TGI also tells a story that suggests consumers have not fully ‘turned their back’ on the consumerism of previous years. As evidence in favour of seeing some silver-lining to the recessionary cloud, it is possible to note that spending remains robust in a number of key consumer sectors.

To take one small example of this trend, one needn’t look further than the statement: ‘I sometimes treat myself to something I don’t need’. In five years, agreement with this statement has actually risen from 60 to 67% – suggesting that there’s still space in the consumer wallet for non-essentials. 

This is particularly good news for sales of small-ticket treats: whether DVDs, confectionery or alcoholic beverages – and for ‘premium’ retailers who can capitalise on these appetites.

This trait is not, however, just limited to small treats. Elsewhere in the consumer arena, customers are still queuing up to buy into higher-ticket items: particularly in the area of technology and communications.

Indeed, when looking at levels of smartphone, console or TV upgrade/renewal: Ireland has kept pace with other European countries. 37% of the population agree that they ‘love to buy new gadgets and appliances’ – a figure that has remained extremely stable over the last five years – in spite of so many other market changes.

In other words: however constrained the wallets, aspiration to ownership remains as consistent as was ever previously the case.

The above examples, on both negative and positive sides of the story, can easily be multiplied-up – and perhaps the only clear conclusion is therefore to acknowledge that the recession is not simple, but manifests itself in contradiction and ambiguity.

If a story of more cautious customers (and tighter budgets) are the obvious down-side of a recession, marketers can take heart from the fact that the taste for consumption has not entirely cleared from the Irish palette.

Instead, if marketers are to seize the opportunities that still persist, it will be more important than ever that they invest effort in understanding the mix of messages coming from the consumer and carefully adjust their activity accordingly.

As featured in the IMJ

Chris Lamour, January 2012

Eating Healthily

The latest insight from Kantar Media’s TGI survey in Ireland reveals that almost two-thirds of consumers claim to “eat more healthy food than I did in the past”. In spite of this, just 36% of consumers actually opt for healthy option ranges when purchasing food and drink – giving real scope for growth in this area if the message is targeted correctly via the most efficient medium.

Women account for more than 60% of those who regularly consume food or drink from healthy ranges and around a third of these consumers are over the age of 55. However, gender and age are themselves rarely sufficient discriminators to tailor a marketing campaign. TGI Lifestage segmentations group consumers by their situation in life, rather than simple demographics to enable more sophisticated targeting.

For instance, individuals in the group “Playschool Parents” (live with son or daughter and whose youngest child is aged 0-4) who also regularly choose healthy ranges are most likely to be among the heaviest consumers of outdoor media. By contrast, healthy eaters who are also “Secondary School Parents” (youngest child is aged 10-15) are most likely to be heavily exposed to radio and they are 40% more likely to watch health & wellbeing shows on television.

Keeping Fit

The New Year provides further encouragement to get in shape, making consumers of healthy ranges a natural target for sports associations and fitness clubs. What’s more, these organisations have plenty of new potential clients to target: just 40% have visited a gym, leisure centre or health club in the past 12 months and only 10% are already members of such facilities.

Moreover, these consumers are some of the most lucrative around: their average household income is €44,200 – over €1,500 more than the national average and over a quarter of them claim to “have expensive tastes”. These individuals also tend to be financially astute, with almost 200,000 owning stocks and shares and 20% consulting a financial adviser.

Marketers can get an edge in targeting potential customers by taking other personal factors into account and using, for example, TGI’s Life Events data. For instance, of the 150,000 adults who intend to get engaged or married in the next 12 months, a third visit private gyms and they are more than twice as likely to have bought a new piece of keep fit equipment in the last year. They are also 50% more likely than average to have recently tried to quit smoking and a large proportion can be reached via cinema advertising, as 20% go at least once per month.

Planning Major Purchases

The health and fitness sectors, however, are not alone in being able to profit from a shift in the consumer psyche over the New Year. It is also a time for consumers to plan their major purchases for the year ahead such as a holiday, a new car or home renovations.

Much like New Year’s resolutions, these major decisions are invariably dictated by changes in personal circumstances: for example, 14% of recent retirees intend to purchase a car in the next 12 months, compared to just 9% of the total retired population. The recently retired are also two-thirds more likely than the average adult to purchase a car that is brand new.

For many consumers, their purchasing behaviour in 2012 will also be affected by other major life events: 140,000 adults intend to buy or sell a property in the next year while 270,000 expect to make major home improvements. In the financial services industry, for example, accurately identifying both groups is vital. TGI insights show that property buyers / sellers are 25% more likely to have obtained a credit report last year and individuals making improvements to their home account for 13% of all those who took out a loan last year.

With major life events often at the heart of purchase decisions, efficient targeting is crucial to ensure the correct audience is reached with the appropriate message. TGI, for instance, can reveal that property buyers / sellers are 50% more likely to believe that “advertising helps make the best purchases” and are most heavily exposed to the internet.

“Home improvers”, by contrast, are heavy magazine consumers, 70% more likely to read 10 or more magazines per month and just under half agree that “magazines give me ideas for how to improve my home”.  This group is also potentially lucrative in amplifying marketing messages, with TGI’s Word of Mouth data revealing them to be 80% more likely to convince others about household appliances and a third more likely to champion DIY and gardening.

Despite prevailing bleak economic conditions, accurate and quantifiable targeting, using insight relating to changes in attitudes and personal circumstances, can help marketers to make the most of exploiting the opportunities that the New Year brings.

As featured in the IMJ

Gary Brown, January 2012

The Media Awards celebrate the very best work, businesses and brands in the media business. This celebration will be representative of the whole commercial media industry – north, south, national, regional, agency, media owner and sales agency and will acknowledge the people that bring the most outstanding media ideas in press, digital, outdoor, TV and radio to life.

To find out more about The Media Awards 2012 visit www.mediaawards.ie

It is fair to conclude from the above table that consumer spending confidence remains significantly lower than pre-crisis levels. For instance, there has been a 28% rise in the number of consumers claiming to “spend money more carefully than they used to”, suggesting that the effects of the economic downturn on consumer spending are set to linger. As such, marketers will need to improve the efficiency of their campaigns to target their most lucrative consumers with the most effective messages.

At this lucrative time for retailers, promotions and offers play an even more important role is enticing consumers through the door. TGI reveals that 38% of Irish consumers have responded to promotions and offers that they have seen advertised, up from 26% in 2007. Retailers will also be heartened to hear that consumers in the potentially money-spinning AB social grades are 20% more likely than the average consumer to respond.

Irish consumers are most likely to respond to promotions and offers that they have seen on television with 15% doing so, an increase of more than half in the past 5 years. Similarly, internet and newspaper promotions have each attracted 12% of consumers in the past 12 months – with both experiencing increases every year since 2007. Significant rises in consumer response rates have also been recorded for offers placed in magazines, email and radio.

TGI’s powerful targeting capabilities can also help marketers to identify groups of consumers that are most likely to respond to particular promotions. For instance, TGI Lifestage group “Primary School Parents” (consumers who live with their son or daughter and whose youngest child is aged 5-9) are the most likely to respond to offers and promotions on leaflets posted through the letterbox [150*]. Meanwhile, “Secondary School Parents”, whose youngest child is aged 10-15, are most likely to respond to offers disseminated via email [120].

Delving deeper, consumers who respond to promotions shown on television are a third more likely to believe that “celebrities influence my purchase decisions” – perhaps underlying the sway of celebrity endorsements on TV. Fledgling brands may also be encouraged to hear that consumers who “often buy new brands to see what they are like” are also 20% more likely to respond to promotions found on loose inserts in magazines.

TGI also pinpoints the most efficient channels for particular products to showcase their promotions and offers. For example, consumers who have bought games consoles in the last 12 months are 25% more likely than the average promotions respondent to react to television campaigns, while email is the most efficient channel to target DVD purchasers [125]. With Christmas in mind, it is helpful for retailers to know that people who drink champagne at festive occasions are a third more likely to respond to radio appeals.

Consumers are inundated with promotional appeals, particularly during the frantic final shopping days until Christmas, meaning that precise targeting is essential to ensure that brand messages reach and engage the right people while also maximising return on investment.

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

* [x] = x is the index score. For example an index score of 150 means that consumers are 50% more likely than the average adult to do something.

As featured in the IMJ

Gary Brown, December 2011

General Internet Use

Ireland has a greater proportion of its adult population using the internet than the other major Western European countries. Ireland also features near the top of the rankings when it comes to consumers having access to broadband in home – although France is the leader in this respect with three quarters of their entire population having home broadband.

The 2011 ROI TGI survey also reveals that over a fifth of Irish adults have only accessed the internet for the first time in the past 6 months, far surpassing their counterparts in Europe. These recent internet users in Ireland are more than 30% more likely to be in TGI Lifestage groups “Senior Sole Decision Makers” or “Empty Nesters” – groups that represent consumers over the age of 55. Almost 60% of these senior new internet users regularly email and a quarter use social networking sites – although they are half as likely as the average internet user to do so.

Online Video Streaming and TV on Demand

Irish consumers are more likely than their counterparts elsewhere in Western Europe to use online video sites, particularly YouTube which is used by 61% of internet users in the Republic. Not only does online video have a high penetration among Irish internet users, 13% of these consumers are heavy viewers of online video – watching at least an hour per week.

When it comes to TV on Demand, be it through an online video stream or via a set top box on television, Irish consumers also rank highly, beaten into second place only by consumers in GB. In Ireland catch-up TV viewers watch, on average, just over 2.5 hours of programming per week and they are most likely to tune in to entertainment [136] or technology / gadget shows [133]. The new internet users in Ireland also account for 22% of all users of TV on Demand services, suggesting that new users are in part being attracted to the internet in order to access content offered by traditional media.

Capitalising on the significant demand for TV on Demand, the services offered by individual programmers are also experiencing surges in traffic. For example, the RTE player has been viewed by well over half a million consumers in the last 12 months, up from 140,000 in 2010.

Digital Technologies

E-Books and tablet devices seem no longer to be confined merely to the early adopters as waves of consumers across Western Europe are using the latest digital technologies. In Ireland, the 2.2% owning an e-book reader represents almost 80,000 consumers while 87,000 own a tablet computer. These devices, however, cannot yet topple the dominance of laptops and netbooks, which are owned by more than half of all consumers in Ireland, GB, France and Germany.

TGI data can also help to build a profile of the users of digital technologies, for instance women are 21% more likely to own an e-book reader while men are 32% more likely to own a tablet device. Tablet owners are 60% more likely for “products reviews to have a major influence on my purchasing decisions” while owners of an e-book reader are 60% more likely to claim that “I couldn’t live without the internet on my mobile phone”.

E-Commerce

As digital technologies become ever more sophisticated, consumers are using their devices to make online purchases for a variety of household and personal items. In Ireland, the percentage of internet users making online purchases has risen from 56% to 62% in the last 12 months. However, as the table above indicates, there is a wide discrepancy between consumers in different European markets. While the vast majority of internet users in GB and Germany (over 80%) make online purchases, only half purchase online in France and that figure falls to 42% in Spain. Ireland comes third in the rankings with almost two-thirds of internet users buying products online.

When it comes to certain product fields, however, Irish consumers are more likely to purchase online than other consumers in Western Europe. One in three consumers in ROI buy event tickets online, slightly higher than in GB and considerably higher than in France. Ireland does come out on top with online purchasing of airline tickets with 44% of Irish internet users, dwarfing the respective totals in GB, France and Germany. One possible explanation of this trend is that half of these consumers have flown Ryanair in the last 12 months where the majority of passengers book online.

Mobile Downloads

Tablet devices, e-book readers and smart phones have greatly enhanced the ability of consumers to access content on the move. Consumers in GB currently lead the way when it comes to mobile downloads with more than a quarter of all internet users downloading apps; Ireland and France are tied for second with 14% each.

In terms of the specific applications downloaded by consumers in Ireland – almost 10% of Irish internet users have downloaded social media applications. TGI data also reveals that the mobile social networkers are also more than twice as likely to “like to stand out from the crowd” and “tend to spend money without thinking about it” – making them a potentially lucrative target audience for many FMCG products.

Over 200,000 consumers, 7.3% of all Irish internet users, have downloaded news applications on their mobile phone in the past year – a higher proportion than both Germany and France. These consumers are also 50% more likely to be willing to pay for newspaper content online.

(Source: TGI Republic of Ireland 2010 – 2011, TGI Europa 2011)

As featured in the Irish Marketing Journal

Gary Brown, November 2011