Australian advertisers slashed $245 million from metro newspapers and $80 million from direct mail in the 12 months to June, but cinema and online display both notched up hefty year-on-year increases, according to Nielsen.
See the Nielsen Top Advertisers report in today's AdNews, in print and on iPad, for a full breakdown of the country's biggest-spending advertisers – and where they're putting their money – as well as in-depth category analysis.
The overall ad market was down by 2.5% to $9.8 billion. Metro TV commanded the lion's share at $3.1 billion, a slight decrease of 0.5%, followed by metro press, down 10.8% to $2 billion.
Direct mail suffered the biggest year-on-year decline, down 25.9% to $231 million, while cinema increased by 13.2% to $93 million and online display by 13.8% to $730 million.
Wesfarmers remained the country's biggest advertiser – far outspending second-placed Woolworths – increasing its spend by 6.2% to $248 million. The retail giant increased outlay across TV, radio, cinema, magazines and online, but significantly cut back advertising in newspapers, out-of-home and direct.
Also in this issue, DDB regional boss John Zeigler wades deep into the procurement debate, saying the creative industry faces a "death spiral" if it continues to accept client cost cuts over the long term. "It seems like such a small issue, 10% saving. But most corporations, and this is driven by consultants, have a goal of 30% to 40% reductions in their non-working costs over the next four to five years," he says.
"You take 40% out of people and you destroy the creative industry and this is not a 10-year cycle now. [Companies] don't understand the implication of what they're doing. This is going to kill their opportunity to competitively differentiate. The system is broken because no one understands we're building something that's much bigger and more important to today's corporations."
Elsewhere: Qantas Loyalty chief marketing officer Stephanie Tully sheds the Frequent Flyer wings, New Republique's Nima Yassini tries something newer, and Tom Moult asks if 'three-in-one' campaigns are smart, dumb or desperate.
There's a giant pull-out poster mapping Australia's networks and agencies, and some other stuff as well.
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