Media agency bookings are being fed with a surge in government category spend in the lead-up to the federal election.
Guideline SMI shows government spend up 43.6% in January with all major media scoring increases. Linear TV received the largest benefit (+91.1%) followed by radio (+59.7%).
"We can already see strong growth in both government and political party ad spend in our forward bookings data, with the government category’s spend on digital media already in positive territory in February and that’s highly unusual given the way digital media is booked and paid,’’ said Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe.
"It’s definitely a strong indicator of demand as digital media inventory is infinite so this shows the various government departments are more keen than usual to secure prime digital placements directly with the digital publishers in advance in this likely election period.’’
Guideline SMI’s data for the month of January showing media agency advertising spend so far back 5% on the same time last year.
However, late digital bookings for January could easily shrink that number.
Ractliffe said most traditional media had shown growth.
"It’s clear that there’s continued growing demand for Digital quality media aligned with traditional media content as we can see ongoing growth in the streaming services of the linear TV stations and also the audio services of the linear radio stations,’’ she said.
Streaming bookings added linear TV’s 5.2% decline reduced to a fall of 3.9%.
And metropolitan TV ad spend fell only 1.7% , the best result since last year’s Paris Olympics.
Radio's linear revenues were back 9,6% but that transformed to -7.6% with digital audio bookings added.
"And this month the traditional Magazine media has seen its related Digital bookings more than double due to huge growth in direct bookings to sites such as Taste.com.au and Vogue.com.au," she said.
"And that’s transformed a 7.1% decline in print magazine bookings into growth of 19% once those related Digital bookings are included."
But on a stand-alone basis the best performing media for January is Outdoor , delivering a 0.3% increase in ad spend with strong growth in the Posters/Billboards and Sporting Venues sectors offset by lower Retail Outdoor ad spend.
Ractliffe said regional media again outperformed with Regional Radio back just 0.1% and Regional Press bookings +4.6%.
Ractliffe also noted that Australia’s New Zealand counterparts are reporting a stronger start to the advertising year, with January ad demand up 8% year-on-year, representing the third consecutive month of advertising growth.
"The New Zealand ad market is coming out of a prolonged malaise and is now delivering very significant increases in ad spend," Ractliffe said.
"In January alone we are reporting NZ Outdoor growth of 32.6%, Radio growth of 26.2%, Subscription TV growth of 45.9% and a doubling of Magazine bookings. It’s clear the New Zealand economy and consumer confidence is rebounding and that’s now being reflected in strongly growing ad demand."
The Australian numbers:
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