Australia’s media agency ad market was back 11.6 per cent in April compared with the pre -Federal election month of April 2025, the latest Guideline SMI data shows.
In the month of April, Cinema was the only media to report growth in April. The categories growth of 17.6 per cent correlates with the Australian box office soaring to $25.88 million across the Thursday to Monday Easter long weekend. It was the second-biggest Easter long weekend of the decade and up 52 per cent on the Easter long weekend last year.
The result was driven by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which delivered 446,000 admissions and $9.44 million at the Australian box office in the first week. The film also recorded the biggest opening weekend for any release so far this year.
The decline in the overall media agency ad market was due mostly to the near absence of advertising from the Political Parties/Unions category this April, back 97 per cent or almost $45 million from last April. With Government and Political advertising removed, the underlying decline for April is 5.5 per cent and even that decline is expected to reduce with very late Programmatic bookings.
Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said the April 2026 month was clearly abnormal due to last year’s Federal election.
“In any pre -Election month we see large increases in Political Party ad spend and it was no different last year when a surge in ad spend by the Political Party product category drove total ad spend in April last year to a record April level,’’ she said.
“And the sheer volume of ad spend is almost impossible to replace under normal circumstances so of course all major media are going to be reporting lower ad bookings this April.”
But now that the Election comparisons are over, Ractliffe said it’s clear there is now renewed energy in the Australian ad market.
“We also collect the confirmed future bookings of our media agency partners and for the month of May we’re seeing 93 per cent of last May’s total bookings (ex Digital) already confirmed and
paid and that’s by far the highest level of forward bookings that we’ve seen since COVID,’’ she said.
Outside the election related product categories, Automotive Brand has emerged as the growth category in April with bookings up 34 per cent as ad spend to the EVs, SUVs and Light Commercial
subcategories doubled.
Ractliffe said SMI’s forwards showed Automotive Brand ad spend onto traditional media in May is already positive, and that’s even with a week of extra trading still to come from when the data was collected.
“We can already see double digit growth in traditional media ad spend in May from the key Government, Gambling and Alcoholic Beverages and Non -Alcoholic Beverage categories so there’s clearly growing demand in the Australian ad market,’’ she said.
Meantime, while Cinema was the only media to report growth in April, within Outdoor the Street Furniture and Transit sectors reported higher ad revenues and in Digital the Streaming and Retail Online sectors lifted ad revenues.
