TAM Ireland, the body that measures TV audiences in tandem with Nielsen Ireland, has released the latest instalment in its adland survey series. The results shine a light on a familiar question: do people working in advertising, also known as adland, see the world differently from the general public, and does that shape how they plan and buy media?
Eimear Keane reports
It’s a topic that always gets people talking. After all, understanding your audience is marketing 101, and making sure their real behaviour is reflected in your planning is essential. As an industry, we tend to be early adopters of new platforms and technologies, but how closely does that match the habits of the wider Irish population?
To find out, the study compared adland’s lifestyle, device ownership and media habits with nationally representative Irish data. The goal? To show just how different the advertising bubble can be from everyday Irish life.
Findings
Adland underestimates the amount of TV viewing
When asked about TV viewing, adland reported watching about 103 minutes a day themselves, and guessed that the average Irish person watches roughly 126 minutes. The real figure? Irish adults aged 15 and over watch 150 minutes of TV a day (live and otherwise). So while adland thinks the public watches more TV than they do, they still underestimate the real amount. And the gap widens when comparing TV viewing to time spent on other devices. The TV set still plays a bigger role in people’s daily routines than many in the industry realise.
Across all devices, adland still overestimates YouTube and TikTok viewing
For many in adland, YouTube feels ever-present: it’s open on a second screen during the workday, used to follow creators and trends, and plays a central role in how industry professionals consume video content. But the research shows that this experience is not representative of the wider adult population in Ireland.
Adults and younger viewers do use YouTube — heavily, in some cases — but not for the marathon viewing sessions many industry professionals imagine. Is this gap between perceived and actual daily watch time significant enough to raise concerns about how media plans are being shaped?
The same pattern appears with TikTok. While it’s a cultural juggernaut, especially for younger audiences, the actual time people spend on it per day is much lower than industry professionals think. The overestimation is consistent for both adults 15+ and the 15–34 group. In other words, TikTok is important — just not as all-consuming as adlanders might imagine.
Adland loves social media
No big surprise here: adland leans heavily into social platforms.
- LinkedIn is a standout, with 75 per cent of adlanders using it, compared to just 16 per cent of Irish adults 16+.
- Instagram and TikTok also see high usage in adland.
- Meanwhile, X (formerly Twitter) has taken a hit. Usage among adlanders has dropped by nearly 20 percentage points since the 2023 survey.
So what does all this mean?
These differences raise a big, important question.
Are media budgets and strategies being influenced by actual consumer behaviour, or by the personal habits of the people creating the plans? Everyone has unconscious biases, even the most experienced media planners. The key is recognising them. The best planning happens when decisions are based on real audience data, not assumptions shaped by lifestyles.
Understanding the gap between adland and Ireland helps ensure we’re building campaigns for the public – not just for people like ourselves.
The full report is available here
Eimear Keane is marketing manager of TAM Ireland; eimear@tamireland.ie
Pictured top is Patrick Kielty host of the RTE One’s Late Late Toy Show
