Strong growth in digital, outdoor and cinema advertising has powered a record-breaking financial year of media agency bookings, according to Standard Media Index data.
In the 2015/16 financial year, media agency bookings increased by 3.4% to $7.14 billion, which doesn't include IPG Mediabrands agencies.
The figures indicate advertisers continue to shift money away from traditional media such as newspapers and magazines (down 14.6% and 15.7% respectively) into digital (up 18.7%) and outdoor (up 14.2%), which is mostly digital outdoor growth.
Publishers are quick to point out SMI data doesn't include a significant amount of direct sales ad revenue, which is estimated to be about a third of the total. When this revenue is included, newspaper sales decline drops to about 10% YOY, but some of this can be attributed to growing ad sales on publisher websites.
TV media agency bookings in the 2015/16 financial year dropped 2% on 2014/15 figures, while radio was up 6.4% and cinema increased 16.4%.
Election buoys June ad spend
In June, media agency bookings are on track for another record-breaking month, down 2.1% to $631 million but late digital bookings should more than make up for the shortfall.
SMI Australia and New Zealand managing director Jane Schulze says this was driven by advertising in the government category, which hit $81.5 million, inspired by the federal election.
“The federal election has had both positive and negative impacts on Australia’s advertising market,” Schulze says.
“With the government category so dominant this month, many advertisers chose to remain quiet which is evidenced by the fact that seven of the ten largest SMI product categories significantly reduced their year-on-year ad spend in June.”
Ebiquity, which monitors how election campaign advertising money is spent, said $8.5 million was spent on political ads in June, with $7.5 million on TV.
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