The August 2024 Guideline SMI figures reveal a distinctly Parisian flavour to August’s advertising landscape thanks to the Paris Olympics, with notable growth in magazine ad spend and a shock decline in out-of-home (OOH) media.
While the overall ad market dipped by 6.3%, Olympic media partners Nine Entertainment, QMS and News Corp reaped substantial benefits from their association with the Games.
Nine Entertainment’s August revenues skyrocketed by 32.3%, driven by a surge in both its linear TV and digital streaming businesses. With 11 Olympic broadcast days in August, up from just seven in July, Nine continued to see Olympic-related growth, particularly on its digital platforms, where ad spend more than doubled. This surge contributed to record ad spending on video ad format-based campaigns.
Outdoor media saw mixed results. While QMS, the official outdoor partner of the Olympic and Paralympic teams, reported an 11.3% rise in revenue, the overall outdoor sector experienced a 1.5% decline. Jane Ractliffe, APAC managing director at Guideline SMI, said the Olympic-driven anomalies in the data, noting that advertisers linked to the Games captured a significant share of the market while others scaled back.
“Both NEC and QMS reported huge growth due to their Olympic associations, while the more than doubling of ad spend to Nine’s streaming sites also had the added impact of delivering a record level of August ad spend for Video ad format-based campaigns,’’ she said. “The ongoing growth of Streaming TV services is continuing to challenge Display inventory’s historic dominance among the key Digital ad formats for which we report ad spend, with Video ad format spend now just $30 million below that of Display so far this year”.
Among other media, magazines stood out with a robust 8.9% growth in traditional spend, reflecting renewed interest in print media. The relaunch of Cosmopolitan Australia and other titles contributed to a 31.1% overall boost for the sector, with digital magazine ad spend surging by an impressive 141.3%.
In contrast, news publishing struggled in August, with newspapers seeing an 18.5% revenue decline and digital news publishing down 38.4%.
The cinema sector, however, continued its momentum from July, posting a remarkable 58.2% revenue growth, fueled by major releases like Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us.
The August figures follow a similarly turbulent July, during which total ad spend dropped 7.8%. Despite an initial surge from the Olympics, which boosted Nine Entertainment’s results, ad demand across most other media remained weak. Non-Olympic advertisers appeared to retreat, with sectors like communications and media reducing their ad spend, offsetting gains in retail and automotive.
Looking ahead, digital ad spend is expected to recover from its 10.6% year-to-date decline. “As the market is currently very short we’re seeing a longer than usual delay in some Digital campaigns being paid, so we are expecting the Digital decline to improve and as that happens there will also be a small improvement in the current total market decline,’’ Ractliffe said.
For the calendar year-to-date, the overall market is down just 1.3%, with outdoor (+5%), digital (+2.8%), cinema (+8.8%), and magazines (+8.4%) all posting positive growth. However, with the Olympic impact tapering off, it remains to be seen how the broader market will adjust in the months ahead.
This year’s Olympic-driven disruptions underscore the volatility of the media landscape, with magazines and streaming services continuing to grow, even as traditional formats like out-of-home and news publishing face challenges. As the market stabilises, the focus will be on how non-Olympic advertisers reengage and whether digital and out-of-home media can rebound.
