Advertising spend, as measured by media agency bookings, was back 5.5% in August compared to a record month last year.
SMI (Standard Media Index) numbers show sport, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup, lifting TV streaming services 14.3% year-on-year and direct bookings to subscription TV channels growing 14.7%.
Outdoor was up 4.8% to a record August.
Digital ad spend grew 0.5% to another record.
Bookings to metropolitan newspaper titles were up 1.1% year-on-year.
"The vast majority of growth among the BVOD and Subscription TV services was within the sports-related content, with Optus’ streaming service quadrupling ad spend year-on-year and Foxtel’s Kayo platform doubling bookings (from a higher base)," says SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe.
"And the impact was also clear within the product category data with ad spend from Sports-related advertisers up 44% year-on-year and Gambling ad spend lifting 21% with most of that higher gambling ad spend now moving to Digital publishers as TV spend declines.’’
Lower Government category ad spend continues to weigh on the market with the total back 30% in August to again be the largest decline.
But Automotive Brand advertising continues to rebound (+9.6% YOY), while Insurance demand lifted 12.9% and ad spend from the Movies/Cinema/Theme Parks category soared 63.3%.
And calendar year-to-date results show the market back just 2.7% from the record spend levels seen over the same eight months last year.
Ractliffe says it's also worth noting a higher level than usual of late July bookings has now turned ad demand for that month positive (+2.5% to now be at a record July total), resulting in ad spend for the first two months of the financial year to be back just 1.7% against last year’s record level.
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