SMI - July ad spend down 1.3%

Media agency bookings in July were back just 1.3% from last year’s record total, according to the latest SMI numbers.

That's a recovery from the 5.5% fall reported in the June numbers when compared to last year.

SMI reports that the strong growth media for July were Outdoor and Cinema, with Outdoor bookings up +19.7% while ad demand for Cinema has jumped 18.9%, likely attributed in part due to the Barbie and Oppenheimer blockbusters.

Against last year’s numbers, Metropolitan Press was up 2.3% YOY, Metropolitan Radio  was flat (-$1,000 YOY) and Outdoor's largest sector of Posters saw ad spend increase 33% YOY.

SMI AU/NZ MD Jane Ractliffe said the month was also notable for the impact of the FIFA Women’s World Cup despite the fact only ten days of the event fell in the month.

"The fastest growing media sector in July was Video Sites - which includes ad spend for all the TV streaming services - and we saw the value of its ad revenues shoot up by 58.6% in July, mostly due to huge increases in demand for those streaming services focused on sport,’’ she said.

"And within the advertiser market we saw that advertising by Sports-related groups surged in July with SMI’s Sports category the fastest growing of any with total bookings up 205% year-on-year. Most of that extra revenue was directed to the Outdoor media.

"The market is continuing to show strong resilience given the record level of ad spend in the market in July 2022. That result was driven by the huge increase in Government bookings and with that removed the underlying market is reporting growth of 0.5%."

In July, Government ad spend fell by 40.6% and the largest category of Retail reported a 10.6% fall in media investment, but that was partly offset by healthy increases from the Automotive Brand market (+16.5%) and Toiletries/Cosmetics advertisers (+33.7%).

SMI said the market was also reporting solid results for the first seven months of the calendar year with total ad spend back just 2.8% on the record period reported last year; with Government and Political Party bookings removed, the market is up 0.3% on the same seven months last year.