The Australian ad market softened in May as Federal election-related demand subsided and ad spend to the Digital media remains increasingly late, bringing total bookings for the month so far back 7.2 per cent year-on-year.
The month was most notable for record levels of May ad spend from the Outdoor and Cinema media, with Outdoor revenues up 4.6 per cent driven by higher Posters/Billboards ad spend. Meantime, Cinema ad spend jumped 12.8 per cent YOY. Magazines also remained in the black, up 0.9 per cent, with growth at both the Trade and Consumer Magazine sectors.
Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said that with the Federal election occurring so early in May there was little influence from that event this month, although the ongoing decline in Government-related ad spend continued to dampen ad demand.
“In previous elections we’ve usually seen a strong spike in Government category advertising ahead of the election, but this year was remarkably different with Government bookings down 29.0 per cent in May and back 27 per cent in the current January to May period compared to the last election year of 2022,’” she said.
“The pivotal Retail and Automotive Brand categories are also reducing overall demand as their double-digit declines are having an outsized impact on the market given their sheer volume of ad spend. But if we removed those declines, along with Government, from the market, then underlying demand for the month is back just $10 million.’’
But that deficit should be reduced given the lateness of Digital bookings this month, with the total so far back 6.5 per cent. Within that bookings to TV Streaming/Video sites remain the big winner, jumping 7.8 per cent YOY and Retail Online revenues were also up significantly. But the issue with late bookings is highlighted by Programmatic ad spend so far being back 13.4 per cent and Search ad spend so far back 9.3 per cent but only due to the lateness of payments.
Also this month, ad spend to Digital Content Sites grew by 1.2 per cent boosted by election bookings flowing to the Nine and News Corp news media websites.
And across the calendar year-to-date period total bookings are up by 3.0 per cent – or almost $100 million – ahead of the same period last year.
