Cork in Numbers: What you Need to Know About the Rebel County
Coined the real capital, Cork is the second largest city in Ireland. Located on the River Lee, it is a diverse and vast county that has experienced somewhat of a population boom in recent years. Here we delve into some of the key stats that contribute to OOH’s effectiveness in the rebel county.
As location-based marketing experts, audience insight and location intelligence are integral parts of our OOH planning process. This ensures campaigns reach the right audiences in the right locations and drive the best return on investment.
While OOH has a concentrated presence in the capital, other main and regional cities should not be overlooked for their potential to maximise OOH effectiveness and campaign success. OOH is the only channel that allows brands the opportunity to reach a mass audience rapidly and consistently. Expanding geographical targeting enhances OOH’s role to do just that.
Home to the famous English Market and Blarney Stone, Cork is the second largest city in Ireland and has experienced a population growth of 4.2% between Census 2011 and 2016.
Cork has a total population of over half a million and the region is set to become the fastest growing area in the country. Gender is pretty evenly split with an average age of 38.
Cork has a vibrant and thriving student population with approximately 35,933 students living there. It is home to several international companies and there is 102,139 people working in Cork City alone.
Record numbers and strong commuting figures are promising news for OOH in the county. The most popular way to travel is car followed, possibly surprisingly, by walking. Public transport figures are in rude health too, a total of 15.26 million passenger journeys were taken across public transport services in 2018. Bus Éireann accounted for 13.91 million of those passenger journeys. Outside of Dublin, Cork’s Kent Station is the busiest in the country.
With 2,020 OOH panels in the county the possibilities for targeting Corkonians are endless, broadening the opportunity to connect with new audiences. Advertisers can surround points of interests such as regional events or within a specific range around shops, restaurants and even tourist spots.
In terms of DOOH opportunities, 7% of the national digital inventory is located in Cork. The expansion of digital screens into regional areas provide advertisers ample networks to produce location-led placement and messaging. DOOH is also a cost effective and flexible way to market and is a great way for SME’S and regional brands to build awareness in local areas.
More importantly though audiences in Cork respond well to OOH advertising. 62% have seen some form of OOH in the past week and they were 9 times more likely to say posters/screens act as a conversation starter (Index: 109).
They take action too, with a whopping 30% searching online for further information as a direct result of seeing an OOH ad. They are also more inclined than the rest of the population to make a purchase online after seeing an OOH ad (Index: 127).
As outlined, location and demographic insights offer us a rich source of data to inform OOH strategy and planning. Insights garnered from the Census and PML Group tools such as OCS, Locomizer and Pinpoint enable our planners to build campaigns that connect the correct audiences and locations with brands.
We know our cities and neighbourhoods and by combining our location and audience expertise we can help brands reach new audiences and other groups whose lifestyles may make it harder to reach them with other modes of advertising.