A huge increase in government spending has spurred media agency bookings in February, according to the Standard Media Index.
With a federal election only months away, there was a 57% increase in media agency spending for government to $25.2 million, including a $2.7 million year-on-year increase in TV advertising. Government spending on newspaper advertising nearly doubled to $5.4 million and its spend across all media was up $9 million on Feburary 2015, indicating that pre-election campaigns are well underway.
Other sectors that increased were travel, up 14% to $36.3 million, and other financial services such as insurance firms, up 41.8% to $24.3 million.
Total media agency spending for TV was down 5.8% to $252 million year-on-year. This was offset by strong gains in digital (up 12% to $137.3 million), radio (up 14.6% to $52.2 million) and outdoor (up 23.8% to $72.2 million helped increase total spend by 2% to $582 million.
The 7% decline in newspapers advertising is better than expected, while magazines continue to struggle with a year-on-year drop of 21.6% to $13.5 million. Media agency bookings for magazines has declined by 41% in four years.
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