In the first four months of 2025, Australia’s ad market was boosted by a record level of ad spend, in part from the Federal election and in part from less obvious contenders, according to Guideline SMI.
Total advertising investment was up 4.1 per cent over the same period last year, with the month of April seeing a 3.4 per cent increase in ad spend from federal election campaigns.
“The growth in election-related ad spend was the main influencing factor on this month’s results, with underlying spend for the month (e.g. Political Party bookings) so far back 3.8 per cent,” Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said.
Back in April, GroupM’s ANZ chief investment officer Melissa Hey told B&T that the 2025 federal election will “undoubtedly impact the advertising landscape,” but it could lead to cost increases and inventory constraints across the market.
“Across the four months of 2025, we’re now reporting a record level of ad spend with total ad investment up $11 million from the last record period in 2022,” Ratcliffe said.
“Much of that is due to the extra spending from the Political Party/industry Association/Unions category ahead of the Federal election in early May, but even with that extra $49 million removed, total calendar year ad spend is still 2.2 per cent above that achieved at the same time last year.
“The spike in election-related advertising also disguised strong underlying growth, with the April data now the sixth consecutive month of higher year-on-year ad spend in the Australian ad market,” she added.
One of the highest channels in demand during the last period, though, was not election-related, with strong increases in demand from Communications advertisers—such as Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vodafone—(+24.7 per cent YOY), Insurers (+7.1 per cent) and banks (+9.6 per cent).
“Total ad spend for the calendar year is now only $25 million below the 2022 record high, but the overall market uncertainty has meant some of those extra bookings have come through after the month end, and for that reason, we also expect the underlying demand for April to also further improve.,” Ratcliffe added.
Ad spend for the ten months of the financial year is also in record territory, 2.4 per cent above the same period last year, and $150 million above the same period in the 2021/22 financial year.
Meanwhile, the stronger April market has delivered record ad spend for the Outdoor and Digital media this month, while for Radio, the April total was the second highest since the post-COVID boom of 2022.
Metropolitan TV remained the largest sector this month, up 4.2 per cent Year on Year (YoY), as it was the largest recipient of Political Party ad spend, while Regional media also reported higher demand mostly due to Political Party ad spend (Regional TV +4.2 per cent, Regional Radio + 12.2 per cent- and Community Radio + 178 per cent YOY – and Regional Press ad sales grew 10 per cent YOY).
So, even with the boost from election spending, ad spend is on a rising trajectory and seems to have no plans of stopping.
