September’s Guideline SMI figures make for tough reading for all those in Adland. The market is back 10.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY), although figures are likely to improve when more digital bookings are added in November.
Linear TV came out with the smallest decline of any media sector, back 7 per cent, or 5.1 per cent with digital revenues added. Metropolitan TV was back just 3.9 per cent. Digital video, meanwhile, was up 8.6 per cent.
After the tough July and August 2025 months, comparatively to last year due to the Paris Olympics broadcast, September has also taken a hit YoY, with its total market back 10.4 per cent.
In contrast outdoor was back 15.8 per cent, radio down 16 per cent and even digital was back 8.6 per cent , although that figure will improve when more late digital bookings are added. Within digital, there are areas of growth with streaming video revenues lifting a solid 9 per cent.
The softer September demand is largely due to declines across three product categories: food/produce/dairy, government and toiletries/cosmetics. The combined declines in ad spend from those categories account for nearly half of the market’s total dollar decline.
“The September results made it clear the ad market remained cautious , although I expect the level of decline to reduce with further late digital bookings,” Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said.
“The market remains largely infected with a high degree of uncertainty which in turn is resulting in marketers either delaying campaign launches or reducing the size of their campaigns,’’ she said.
“But the numbers should improve slightly as we can see a large proportion of programmatic bookings are yet to arrive due to the difficulties in reconciling campaign values within that system,” she added.
And the size of those declines (all more than 20 per cent YOY) more than offset growth among the large retail (+1.8 per cent), insurance (+7.2 per cent) and bank (+0.9 per cent) product categories.
Ractliffe said the September quarter ad demand is now back 6.7 per cent, with cinema reporting the only growth (+7.4 per cent) among major media.
Ad demand remains 1.1 per cent higher over the calendar year-to-date period, largely thanks to gains in digital and outdoor (up 4.5 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively).
