James Byrne, Marketing Manager, PML Group, with this week’s Out \ Look on Out of Home
The autumn (R2) 2026 data release of the Republic of Ireland TGI survey has found that 425,000 adults bought, or asked for information, after seeing a promotion on posters – up from just over a quarter of a million a year ago.
Nearly half of adults nationally (48.4%) have acted in response to seeing any type of Out of Home advertising, either at the time or later on. For OOH consumers this increases to 63%.
Those exposed to Out of Home advertising have the most positive perceptions of it. Digital OOH consumers are 37% more likely to rank Outdoor ads as the most useful in helping to make a purchase decision. 33% of OOH consumers often talk about things they have seen advertised on posters while Classic OOH consumers are 33% more likely to trust OOH advertising the most of all media.
Furthermore, the study by Fifty5Blue finds that people are spending more time Out of Home while also seeing more OOH. It confirms that OOH is especially good at reaching elusive young, urban, upmarket audiences.
68% of Irish adults recall seeing at least one form of OOH advertising in the past week up from 66% 12 months ago and from 63% in 2022.
This rises to 75% of Dubliners (index 111), 78% of students (index 115) and 72% of ABs (index 106).
Live, Work and Play
Nearly two thirds of workers (65.2%) always travel to their place of work. Just over a fifth (21.7%) are hybrid workers, while just 13% work exclusively from home. Contrary to perceptions, this latter cohort are more likely to be OOH consumers at 69%. underlining the multi-faceted opportunities OOH now delivers.
In terms of public transport weekly usage 45% of Dubliners travel by bus while 22% travel by Dart, train or Luas. 63% of Dubliners make use of a leap card.
Turning to shopping, over 95% of us visit a supermarket at least once a month. Of those 78% travel by car. For shopping centres, the monthly figure comes in at 61%.
Looking at sporting events, the Six Nations Championship tops the list when it comes to interest. The GAA All-Ireland Championships and major soccer tournaments are also key occasion moments that matter to the Irish public.
Sporting events and high-profile match moments create heightened emotional engagement and specific real-time context opportunities for brands. Tailoring messaging, particularly on Digital Screens, to match the live context of sporting occasions maximizes brand recall and positive emotional resonance.
In a separate study, The Moments of Truth revealed that consumer brain response is 18% higher when viewing relevant content in Digital Out of Home campaigns, which in turn leads to a 17% increase in consumers’ spontaneous advertising recall, and ultimately proving that Dynamic Digital Out of Home campaigns can deliver a 16% sales uplift. When combined these findings give an overall campaign effectiveness uplift of +17%.
M&M’S Brushes Up on Halloween with After-Dark OOH
With Halloween tomorrow, M&M’S is making the most of Dublin’s darker evenings with a UV-painted mural in Stoneybatter and ten MetroGlo-enhanced JCDecaux Metropoles across the city, supported by Ad Boxes near convenience stores and supermarkets nationwide.
In Stoneybatter, a red-brick wall carries the line ‘Brush up on the fun this Halloween’. Yellow appears with paintbrush in hand, alongside pumpkin versions of his fellow M&M’S characters and tins of brightly coloured paint. PML Group’s in-house Create team handled the design elements for the mural, which was installed by Collectiv.
The artwork takes on a different appearance after dark. UV lighting picks out the lettering in vivid pink, while fluorescent details on the characters and pumpkins become more pronounced. The painted scene makes use of the wall itself rather than a conventional advertising panel, helping the creative stand out both by day and by night.
Sarah King, M&M’S Brand Activation Leader, said: “Halloween is always a key moment for M&M’S, making it the perfect occasion to experiment with exciting new formats. We wanted to trial some fresh booking styles that truly bring our brand’s colourful personality to life, and we are absolutely thrilled with the results.”
Elsewhere in Dublin, the campaign’s ‘Share Scarily Good Treats This Halloween’ creative appears on MetroGlo-enhanced Metropoles. The M&M’S characters are pictured outside a brightly coloured front door, with the specialist print treatment making selected details, including the lettering and lamps, stand out more prominently after dark. The campaign footprint was mapped using PML Group’s MAPS platform, showing its coverage across Dublin’s roadside locations.
Ad Boxes near convenience stores and supermarkets nationwide extend the campaign into shopping locations, keeping the brand in view as consumers pick up sweets and treats for trick-or-treaters, Halloween gatherings and last-minute seasonal purchases.
Sarah Behan Cahill, Senior Client Manager at Zenith, part of Core, said: “Out of Home played a really important role in this objective to embed M&M’S into the Halloween season and rituals. The UV-painted mural allowed us to bring the brand’s bright, playful personality to life, creating a striking visual presence that captures attention both day and night.”
Halloween is an important shopping period for confectionery. The most recent TGI release found that 79% of Halloween shoppers had seen OOH advertising in the previous week, while 38% said they had made a purchase after seeing an OOH ad.
