Advertising spend, as measured by media agency bookings, fell 10% to $542.6 million in January as government money withdrew from the market.
However, the total was still the second highest January ad spend in SMI (Standard Media Index) history.
The month came up against last year year’s strong growth including an Australian Open broadcast fuelled by the success of Ash Barty.
This weighed on television ad spend, which recorded a 19.2% drop.
Government advertising, driven last year by a flood of COVID-related campaigns, fell 48%, or $25 million, in January.
The new Labor government in Canberra plans to spend significantly less on advertising than the previous regime, according to the latest budget papers. The cuts are part of an overall plan to cut expenses across advertising, travel and legal -- a total of $642.5 million in the current financial year and $809.2 million next.
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe: "The unusually high level of government category ad spend that SMI has been reporting across the past two years had to return to a more normal level once the COVID threat eased, and that’s now happening.
"When we remove government spend from the data we see outdoor ad spend grew by 5.1%, radio bookings rose by 2.4% and cinema’s growth jumped to 66%.’’
Ractliffe said the government decline also disguised strong gains among other product categories in January, with ad spend within the largest category of retail growing 8.7%.
Insurance advertising became the second largest this month after lifting 12%.
Travel ad spend continued to soar with the total up 64% in January.
Among the key media, Digital ad spend fell for the second consecutive month in January despite higher spend to streaming sites due to the Australian Open. But programmatic and social media ad spend continue to decline.
Outdoor ad spend was stable and Cinema and Magazines both reported strong double digit growth.
And the Australian ad market remains strongly in record territory across the seven months of the current financial year with ad demand up 1.9% to $5.2 billion mostly due to huge growth in the Automotive Brand and Travel categories.
At this level, the ad market is more than $500 million larger than it was at the same time in the pre-COVID 2019-20.
Outdoor (+29%) and Cinema (+57%) are reporting the strongest financial year to date gains as they continue their COVID rebound .
Magazine ad spend is up 9.3% with related Digital revenues included.
On this basis, Radio/Audio ad spend is also stable.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.