SMI Data: Referendum Gives Agencies A Shot In The Arm, But Spends Down 3.8% YOY

SMI Data: Referendum Gives Agencies A Shot In The Arm, But Spends Down 3.8% YOY
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Australia’s media agency market received a one-off boost from ad campaigns related to the Voice referendum in Guideline SMI’s September ad spend detail, but total advertising revenues fell short of matching last year’s record total.

The value of total ad spend for the September month declined by 3.8 per cent year-on-year but that’s compared to a record period last year given the month of September 2022 was the first time the market topped $800 million/month.

Outdoor has again emerged as the market’s largest growth media in in September with revenues up 12.4 per cent year-on-year, while Cinema ad spend also continues to grow with total revenues up 17.1 per cent.

And while the value of total Television bookings is back 8.3 per cent, within that Subscription TV Direct continued its strong growth and Regional TV was flat YOY.

Total Digital revenues are back three per cent mostly due to a large decline in Programmatic bookings, and the Video Sites/Streaming TV market continues to outperform within this media with growth of 20.6 per cent in September.

Guideline SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said despite the headline decline against last year’s record level of September ad spend, the September 2023 total was still the second largest in SMI’s 16 years of data history.

“While the headline number shows a decline against a particularly strong prior year period, the market remains 0.6 per cent larger than in the pre-COVID September 2019 period with most product categories having returned to the pre-COVID level,’’ she said.

“And obviously key media are continuing to deliver strong growth, with Outdoor lifting its share of total ad spend by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year to now represent 13.5 per cent of all Agency ad spend. Outdoor’s COVID recovery is accelerating as new inventory comes online and as key categories move share from the TV and Digital media.’’

Ractliffe said the largest percentage growth of any product category this month came from the Political Parties/Industry Associations/Unions category as campaigns ramped up prior to the Voice referendum.

“This category reported a 72 per cent year-on-year increase in ad spend in September with TV, Outdoor and Radio gaining the majority of the extra ad spend,’’ she said.

However this was offset by the continuing decline in Consumer Electronics ad spend and a large fall in Retail category ad spend, mostly due to lower media investment from the Hardware and Alcoholic Retailer subcategories.

Meantime for the July to September quarter the market is now back just 1.5 per cent on last year’s record period, although Outdoor revenues are up 13.9 per cent and Cinema ad spend has jumped 11 per cent given the strength of hit movies such as Barbie.

And GL SMI’s CYTD results show the market back just 2.5 per cent against the record revenues reported for this period last year with Outdoor (+15.4 per cent), Cinema (+4.5 per cent) and Magazines (+2.2 per cent) all outperforming the market.

Also this month Guideline SMI has introduced numerous new data points, including new Electric Vehicles, Auto Brand and Auto Sponsorship subcategories within their Auto ad spend reporting.

And for the Radio media the database now contains ad spend for the sector of Narrowcast Radio.




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