Navigating Black Friday, Influencer Marketing To Grow, And RTE Player To Implement New User Sign Ups in 2025
Navigating Black Friday: Key Insights for the Irish Market
With more than a third (36%) of adults in the Republic of Ireland making purchases during Black Friday, it now rivals other key seasonal shopping periods like Christmas and Back-to-School. This shift in consumer behaviour, with increasing reliance on online platforms for researching and purchasing, means that brands must keep focusing on well-planned digital strategies to engage these highly motivated shoppers.
Interestingly, Black Friday in Ireland isn’t just about impulse buying. Research from DMG Media found that 69% of Irish shoppers spend two to four weeks researching their purchases before the sales. This shows that consumers are not just waiting for last-minute deals but are carefully planning ahead. As a result, it’s crucial for brands to ensure clear communication around sale dates, product details, and discounts across their digital channels. This transparency builds trust and helps turn interest into actual sales.
For marketers and advertisers, understanding the profiles and behaviours of Black Friday shoppers is key for effective targeting. Insights from TGI indicate that certain consumer segments are especially active during this shopping event. Urban audience segments demonstrate notably high engagement during Black Friday.
'Millennial Renters' emerge as significant spenders, showing a greater likelihood of purchasing items worth over €250. These consumers are highly active on digital platforms, presenting brands with a prime opportunity to connect with them through targeted ads and tailored content.
Black Friday is not only about immediate sales but also serves as a key moment to capture early Christmas shoppers. For marketers, this means that digital campaigns promoting Christmas deals can start early and build momentum as Black Friday approaches. Timely, personalised messaging through digital channels can effectively engage these early-bird shoppers.
How to take advantage of this opportunity:
A seamless, well-executed digital strategy can help capture both planned and impulse buyers, drive traffic, and increase conversions, while also reducing the risk of cart abandonment and missed opportunities. For tailored advice and recommendations that fit your brand’s unique needs, get in touch with your client team to discuss the best Black Friday strategy.
Sources: New research reveals Irish consumers' Black Friday habits (businessplus.ie)
TGI ROI 2024r2, Kantar Media
New Report Predicts 2025 Influencer Marketing Trends
According to WARC, there is an average of €3.4 million invested in influencer marketing from European companies, with further plans to increase budgets in the next year.
A recent report from Kolsquare has dubbed 2025 as the year of quality and responsibility within Influencer Marketing, this is aligned with Core’s approach to effective creator and influencer partnerships. The report goes on to details some key challenges arising in this space including user fatigue and changing the expectations of audiences. Despite these potential challenges, we know that Influencer marketing remains an incredibly useful tool for brands - Research carried out by our team in Core Research found 54 per cent of adults under the age of 30 cited influencers as the most influential on their purchasing decisions.
Core’s Strategic Communications Director Ruth Gleeson summarises some common hurdles brands face in this space:
1. Tactical decision making
What we have seen is a pattern of discontent among businesses who have invested in short-term influencer partnerships. And it’s an easy trap to fall into! Spot an influencer who is on the rise and think “we should partner with them”! But just like any form of marketing, unless you have a strategy in place it is unlikely to contribute to business growth.
2. Perceived risk
We hear some concerns as to whether partnering with an influencer can be brand damaging if something goes wrong. This perceived risk can present a barrier to brands engaging with this powerful channel, but there are ways to mitigate risks. What is clear is that the regulatory bodies are struggling to keep up with the pace of growth of this sector and as a result it’s imperative that we put guardrails in place even where they may not exist. We embrace rigour and regulation, and we work with those who do too.
3. Proving Efficacy
As Core is the number 1 most effective agency in Ireland - proving the effectiveness of any campaign is paramount. Often the right questions are not posed early enough as part of influencer planning:
What role are influencers playing?
What are we measuring?
Can we measure brand impact scores?
When it comes to incorporating influencer marketing into our campaigns, Core offers expertise in influencer marketing to strategically choose the most impactful influencers for your business. Our team, with their unique experience and proprietary data driven tools, helps our clients focus on prioritising authenticity, implementing measurement strategies, tailoring approaches to specific platforms, and ensuring full transparency in the use of AI.
Your Core client team would be happy to help explore opportunities in this space – please reach out if you would like more information.
Source:
RTÉ Player Will Ask All Users to Sign in From Next Year
Starting in 2025, RTÉ Player users will be required to sign in to access its streaming services. This marks a significant shift in RTÉ’s strategy, aligning with trends seen across other major streaming platforms. By implementing this sign-in approach, RTÉ aims to provide a user led approach to personalisation and engagement. As part of this new approach, RTÉ is set to expand its content library from 5,000 to 7,000 hours. One of the key programs leading this shift is Good Boy, a "player-first" series available currently only on the RTÉ Player which no current plans for a linear roll out, highlighting the RTÉ’s commitment to BVOD led content.
What does this mean for advertisers?
With the RTÉ Player on track to surpass 130 million streams this year, it will position it as Ireland’s largest native VOD streaming platform. For advertisers, this represents a major opportunity to expand reach within their combined AV strategy. Recent attention research carried out by Amplified Intelligence/RedC in Ireland highlights that 70% of active attention viewing on BVOD is primarily on a mobile device whereas 47% of active attention viewing is on a connected TV. This high level of viewer engagement, combined with the introduction of mandatory sign-ins, could offer advertisers improved targeting options in the near future—an area to watch closely as RTÉ continues to refine its player first offering.
Sources:
https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2024/10/15/good-boy-comedy-marks-new-era-for-rte-player/
Amplified Intelligence/RedC Ireland Attention to AV Study
