The Albanese Government has increased its advertising budget again, reporting the second largest spend on record in the 2024/25 fiscal year.
The government spent $265.3 million on advertising, including $204.1 million on media and $61.2 million on campaign development costs.
The most expensive campaign for the year was the Australian Defence Force’s recruitment drive, which cost $42 million, including $7.1 million in expenditure to VML. This was the government’s largest single contract for a creative agency. Recruitment numbers have risen to their highest level in 15 years on the back of the advertising blitz.
Droga5 netted the second largest individual contract ($3.67 million) for its work on the Future Made in Australia campaign, which cost $18.6 million and promotes opportunities for Australia to transition towards net zero. This is part of a broader $45 million marketing blitz.
Other large campaigns included the AEC’s Federal Election campaign, which cost $18.1 million, a Medicare benefits campaign, and two campaigns to tackle violence against women, ‘Stop It’ (see video below) and ‘Consent’ – both delivered by BMF Australia.
BMF won the most contracts for the year with eight, followed by Ogilvy (six). ClemengerBBDO and Droga5 both worked on four campaigns.
The roster of creative agencies that work with the government includes Droga5, VML, Ogilvy, BMF, ClemengerBBDO and TBWA.
Transition to digital accelerates
UM is responsible for planning and buying media for the government, which cost $204.1 million in FY25.
In FY25, the government spent $97.5 million on digital channels, up by 21.6 million (28 per cent) on the previous reporting period.
Digital advertising now accounts for nearly half of the government’s media budget (48 per cent); its share has grown by 4 percentage points year-on-year.
Meanwhile TV advertising spend increased by 8 per cent to $59.3 million; although its share of the overall pie has shrunk from 31.5 per cent in FY24 to 29 per cent in FY25.
Out of home (11 per cent), radio (8 per cent) n cinema’s (6 per cent) shares remained stable, while newspapers continue to decline (2 per cent) and spend on magazines are negligible.
Spend on ethnic media (5.8 per cent share) and first nations media (3.5 per cent) remained proportionally stable, while regional media continues to get a raw deal with only 17 per cent of budget spent in rural areas where about a third of Australians live.
| Year | Media ($ million) |
Campaign development costs ($ million) | Total ($ million) |
Growth (%) |
| 2024-25 | 204.10 | 61.20 | 265.30 | 5.87 |
| 2023-24 | 173.80 | 76.60 | 250.60 | 39.77 |
| 2022–23 | 131.40 | 47.90 | 179.30 | -47.14 |
| 2021–22 | 239.60 | 99.60 | 339.20 | 82.27 |
| 2020–21 | 145.30 | 40.90 | 186.10 | 18.69 |
| 2019–20 | 127.90 | 28.90 | 156.80 | -16.73 |
| 2018–19 | 140.00 | 48.30 | 188.30 | -7.29 |
| 2017–18 | 157.00 | 46.10 | 203.10 | 52.36 |
| 2016–17 | 100.10 | 33.20 | 133.30 | -42.52 |
| 2015–16 | 174.70 | 57.20 | 231.90 | 50.98 |
Government spend by channel (%): FY25
Government spend by channel (%): FY24
