Advertising, as measured by media agency bookings, fell 2.7% in the 2023 calendar year but still managed to be the second largest annual spend on record.
The Standard Media Index (SMI) shows the top-line total at 8.2% - or more than $660 million – larger than the pre-COVID
2019.
The annual result was impacted by the huge Government and Political Party ad spend due to both the federal election and COVID response.
When bookings for those categories are removed across both years the underlying ad market shows a decline of just 0.9% (or $72 million).
December numbers showed the market back 9.1% with Outdoor the only major media to grow (+6.8%).
Analysts see a slow start to 2024, with a pickup in ad spend in the second half.
Advertising spend will be flat in 2024, according to the latest forecast by GroupM. The media agency group predicts 0.9% growth in 2024 in Australia from just 0.2% in 2023. The forecast is weaker than that of other forecasters, including MAGNA (3.8% in 2024) and dentsu (2.3%).
According to the SMI numbers, Outdoor media stood out in 2023, with a record level of revenue, up 15.1%.
"Outdoor media’s recovery from the COVID era has been quite extraordinary with growth continuing to accelerate each year since the pandemic," says SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe.
This year’s revenues was 70% higher than the COVID-hit year of 2020 but also 43.3% above the 2021 total even though the media had already reported a strong recovery that year.
"So Outdoor is doing well in a market that’s emerged as the second largest ad market of all time, with last year’s abnormal federal election boost delivering a huge record total.," Ractliffe says.
"And despite higher interest rates and global uncertainty the CY2023 total is just 0.9% below that record level on an underlying basis.’’
Digital bookings also continued to grow this year with the star sector being Video Sites as the BVOD and CTV markets quickly gain strong traction, pushing total growth for TV-related Video content to 32.4% on an underlying basis.
The value of Video-based Digital campaigns (+7.4% this year) got closer to the traditionally larger Display inventory (+1.4%) with only $150 million now separating the two.
And the Audio market also delivered 2023 growth of 0.5% on an underlying basis when the growing podcast and streaming markets were also included.
Among key advertiser groups, the Automotive Brand category reported the highest increase in ad investment across the year with that category’s spend up 11.3%, followed by Insurance ad spend (+7.7%) and then Restaurants (+8.6%).
And the Government category clearly reported the largest decline with total ad revenues back by more than $100 million on the 2022 year.
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