Australian ad spend has finished the 2025-26 financial year back 2 per cent year-on-year, despite returning to the black in May and June, according to new data from Guideline SMI.
Bookings in June were up 0.3 per cent year-on-year and, SMI said, are likely to strengthen further as late digital bookings are processed.
This growth is led by digital, which is up 49 per cent as a result of advertisers pulling out their wallets for the World Cup on SBS.
The result indicates a strong finish to the financial year, with the underlying improvement in demand clear following the conclusion of last year’s Federal Election period. June follows May as the second consecutive month in the green. The month is now showing growth of 5.1 per cent following the inclusion of extra late digital bookings, and a similar uplift is expected for June, buoyed by the FIFA World Cup.
Guideline SMI chief insights and analytics officer Sean Wright said the June result confirmed that advertising demand had continued to strengthen through the second half of the financial year.
“The market has continued to build momentum through May and June, with stronger Digital demand and broad -based growth across several key advertiser categories helping June return to positive territory,” he said.
“While the financial year is tracking 2.0 per cent below the previous year overall, the stronger January-to-June performance demonstrates that advertiser confidence has improved, with the final June result likely to reflect this once all Digital bookings have been reported.”
Government advertising was up 50.1 per cent in June year-on-year, while Food, Produce and Dairy spending rose 17.6 per cent. Automotive Brands (+6.6 per cent), Restaurants (+11.7 per cent) and Wealth Management (+12.0 per cent) were also up, demonstrating increased broad demand.
For the six months to June, overall ad spend is up 0.4 per cent against the same period last year, with Digital, Outdoor, Cinema and Newspapers all in growth.
Over the full financial year, Digital ad spend grew 2.4 per cent, with Social Media showing similar gains.
Outdoor also delivered another solid year of expansion, up 3.8 per cent, supported by gains across Posters, Street Furniture and Programmatic Outdoor—which jumped 36.8 per cent over the period.
Streaming Video continued its strong growth trajectory, up 14.2 per cent over the financial year, while the FIFA World Cup saw that growth spike in June to 26.4 per cent compared with the same month last year.
Most Digital formats recorded higher demand in June, with Retail Online up 44.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, Radio enjoyed growth across the board, up 5.2 per cent compared with last June.
Insurance recorded the strongest financial -year growth among the major advertiser categories, up 14.5 per cent against the previous comparable period.
