After three months replete with advertising-fuelling events, the lack of similar activity in September has seen media agency bookings decline by 4.8 per cent to $616.7 million in the month, although that decline will narrow once late digital bookings are received at month end.

But the agency market remains in record territory over the calendar year-to-date period (+1.6 per cent higher compared to the same nine months last year) with the market buoyed by key events such as the Rio Olympics, the Federal Election and the Census.

However, there was no similar event in the month of September with even the AFL and NRL Grand Finals played in October (as they were last year)

SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Schulze said as a result the market still seemed to be finding its next direction.

“There seems to be a level of caution in the market, with only the Outdoor and Cinema media so far reporting growth for the month of September,’’ she said.

“This caution also seems evident in SMI’s category data, with only seven of the 40 categories growing their marketing investment by more than $1 million in September.’’

There were also interesting movements within major media sectors, with regional and subscription TV reporting a lower decline than their metro counterparts, while regional press reported a 10.1 per cent increase in ad spend year-on-year mostly driven by higher government spending.