World Cup broadcaster SBS has seen its ad spend for May almost double ahead of the event, as an outdoor surge powers May bookings towards positive territory.
Gambling brands preparing for the World Cup increased ad bookings by 23.8 per cent year on year. Sportsbet has run plenty of World Cup spots in the past couple of months (see one below).
Guideline SMI data shows ad spend is back just 0.5 per cent and likely to turn positive with extra late digital bookings, with media agency ad demand strengthened now that last year’s Federal Election comparative period has concluded.
Outdoor is leading the charge, up 14.3 per cent in May, while Cinema also had a strong month with 22.6 per cent growth on the back of a triple header of Michael, The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.
SBS’s success limited Metropolitan TV ’s decline to just 3.4 per cent, while Streaming ad spend back just 0.9 per cent.
Guideline SMI APAC MD Jane Ractliffe said this result was the first this year to provide a clear view of underlying ad demand given previous months were impacted by the Winter Olympics and the abnormal spike in ad spend from last year’s Federal election.
“We’re seeing a return to more normal programming in May with each of the three largest product categories – Retail, Auto and Government – all reporting sizeable increases in media budgets and other key categories like Pharmaceuticals and Non – Alcoholic Beverages also spending more,’” she said.
“And given the lag in collecting ad spend for Social, Search and Programmatic media we’ll see these gains further amplify in the next few weeks to deliver higher ad demand in May.’’
The key driver of the stronger ad demand this month was the 60.8 per cent jump in Government spending that pumped an extra $22.8 million into the market. Those extra bookings benefited every major media with all experiencing a minimum gain in Government ad spend of 35 per cent.
An 11.3 per cent increase in Automotive Brand ad spend was driven by higher bookings from the Electric Vehicles subcategory, which more than doubled in the month.
