CARAT Ireland released its 2006 advertising forecast last week and said it expects ad spending in Ireland to grow 7.5% this year from the 920m spent in 2005, which was itself a 9% up-tick on 2004's figure.

It is a rapid growth rate and one that underlines the strength of the economy at the moment and the prospect of SSIA windfalls over the next 18 months or so.

Carat also points out that non-nationals now represent 9.5% of the population, with an additional 50,000 immigrants expected each year for the next decade.

That is beginning to grab the attention of companies wishing to tap into a growing market for their goods and services.

Several firms have already done some experimental work, with O2 for example having had some Chinese-language adverts on bus shelters last year, and more obvious candidates such as Western Union, which is operated here by Fexco, ensuring its advertising is available in different languages.

Carat chief executive Alan Cox said last week that more clients are beginning to take notice of the expanding non-national population.

"It's embryonic at the moment, but 2006 is the year where I think it's going to be become a real issue for advertisers, " he said.

But the 9.5% non-national community is split among several groups, with the two largest probably being those from China and Poland. Although there are varying estimates, figures roughly put the number from each country living in Ireland around 100,000.

That means that advertising targeting nonnationals is likely to remain, at least for the time being, largely a niche affair rather than mainstream.

Irish advertisers have tried targeting nonnationals before, with HMV among those that many years ago ran ads in Spanish on Darts in Dublin in an effort to draw some spending from students visiting Ireland. It is clear, though, that advertisers that exclude non-national groups from campaigns will eventually be losing out on significant potential return for clients.

The trick is to do it cost effectively and accurately, as the horror stories of mistranslations that have occurred in other countries show that not all adverts can be simply transposed into other languages.

Interestingly, Carat also mentioned the challenge facing outdoor advertising in transforming existing roadside paper formats to digital. At the moment, it is not a cheap technology option, but it is one that will certainly happen.

Last year a number of massive digital advertising signs were erected beside a motorway in Los Angeles.

They drew a lot of comment from drivers, and from safety officials, who said the dynamic displays distracted drivers. The outlay for the advertising platforms was enormous . . .

if Ad Lib remembers correctly, somewhere in the region of $4m-$5m per sign.

CHANNEL 6 AMONG NEW INITIATIVE CLIENTS

INITIATIVE'S Dublin arm has secured accounts for four new clients, the agency said last week. Now on board are Channel 6, Weetabix, Quorn and the Cyprus Tourism account in the UK. It already handles the latter in Ireland.

The Channel 6 account should certainly be an interesting one, with the developments at TV3 and reports last week that Sex and the City is to form a core part of the new station's line-up. How do you pitch old shows as something your audience should be thrilled about?

We'll see.

EXPERIAN LAUNCHES NEW MARKETING TOOL

EXPERIAN Ireland has launched its Prospect Locator, an online tool that tries to help businesses find new clients. Experian holds data on over three million Irish households and companies can now drill down to see who to target.

Experian says the new product will help advertisers dramatically to reduce the time involved in getting direct marketing campaigns up and running.