The advertising market, as measured by media agency bookings, was boosted by strong spending from government in the lead up to a national election.
Guideline SMI’s ad spend data shows ad demand back just 0.5% in February compared to last year with revenue from the government category up 46%.
“The higher government category spend added an extra $12 million to the market in February,” said Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe.
Among the key media, outdoor is again driving the highest dollar growth with the total up 9.2%, radio demand improved (+3.4%) as did demand for print newspapers (+2.4%) while cinema delivered the highest percentage gain of almost 21%. And digital ad spend is so far back 3%.
SMI’s Forward Pacings data – which tracks confirmed future ad spend across all product categories - shows demand is moving from the government category to the political parties/industry associations in March and April.
“Already we can see political parties spending an extra $8 million on TV in March and an extra $6 million in April, and that’s pushed total ad demand for March an extra ten percentage points above where we saw future demand at the same time last year,” she said.
Removing extra government ad spend from the February total, the underlying market demand would have been -2.7% with outdoor still leading growth at 8.7% and press still positive with 0.7%.
SMI is also reporting double digit gains in insurance category ad spend (+15.1%) and among brands in the Household Supplies market (+64%).
However, the significant Automotive Brand category continues to drag the market lower, back 10% overall.
And the stronger recent results have seen the market’s ad spend across the financial year- to-date results return to the black (+0.5% overall) with digital bookings +5.8%, outdoor +4.7% and cinema +10.5%.
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