Guideline SMI has reported its September numbers and, for the most part, it’s good reading—particularly if you’re in out-of-home, digital audio and remarkably, digital publishing.
The September data shows total bookings are back just 1.5 per cent from the record spend reported in the same month last year.
The media taking an even bigger bite of this improving market is Outdoor, which is reporting impressive growth of 15.8 per cent in September to take its total market share to a record level of 16 per cent.
Guideline SMI APAC MD Jane Ractliffe said Outdoor’s growth was very broad-based with every Outdoor sector reporting double-digit growth in ad revenues this month.
“It’s clear many product categories are moving their media investments from both Digital and Television to Outdoor as we’re seeing large category share swings. For example, the Food category has grown its Outdoor investment by 46 per cent this month while the Banking category has lifted its Outdoor spend by 46.2 per cent,’’ she said.
“It’s also evident in the In-Home Entertainment category (which mostly comprises ad spend by TV Streaming brands) as the Streamers have typically allocated more than 70 per cent of their ad budgets to TV and Digital, but this month Outdoor’s share of TV Streaming ad spend has grown to 34 per cent from 18 per cent in September 2023.’’
Ractliffe also said the growth in Australian Outdoor media was being replicated in New Zealand, with GL SMI’s September data showing Kiwi Outdoor ad spend up 16 per cent this month to an even higher record share of 19 per cent of all September agency ad spend across the ditch.
Among the other media, Digital ad spend was up 0.3 per cent overall, Cinema showed a lower-than-market decline of one per cent and both linear TV and Radio benefited from higher digital bookings with the Video and Audio (linear plus digtal) totals back just 6.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.
This month the strongest growth in ad demand came from the Banking product category (+13.9 per cent driven by growth in sponsorship investments), Government ad spend (also +13.9 per cent) and Toiletries/Cosmetics (+18.3 per cnt as bookings from both Skin and Oral Care advertisers doubled).
Ractliffe said the better September data also boded well for market growth this calendar year, as September quarter ad demand is back just 0.9 per cent while for the nine months of the 2024 calendar year the market is back just 0.2 per cent, or $9.7 million.
“The reality is that the market remains very short, so we’ve continued to receive extra late bookings for previous months and that’s resulted in total spend over the nine months being back by less than $10 million in a $6 billion-plus market,’’ she said.
“And with the momentum now evident in key parts of the Australian ad market, we remain confident that we’ll be reporting advertising market growth for the full 2024 calendar year.’’
Here’s a look at the full data.
