Media agency bookings closed the financial year to June down 14.7%, according to SMI (Standard Media Index) numbers.
However, the fallout from COVID-19 appears to have eased with forward booking data showing the market has begun to rebuild.
Total June bookings fell 35.7% to $417 million, reducing the quarterly decline to 38.7% and contributing to a 24% fall in first half bookings.
Jane Ractliffe, the SMI AU/NZ managing director, says the level of decline in June is the lowest since March
"While the market certainly looks to be picking up, the data underscores the truly awful period that Australia’s media industry has endured," she says.
"Never before have we seen a situation where all major media have reported significant declines in ad spend in the last month, quarter, half year and financial year as such large product categories significantly reduced their media investment."
Ractliffe says the declines were originally driven by the floods and fires earlier in the financial year, which had a particularly bad impact on retail ad spend.
Then the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed travel category ad spend outside the list of the ten largest categories for the first time.
The fourth quarter was also impacted by a large decline in Political Party/Union ad spend (-88%) given the Federal election in May 2019.
The closure of cinemas and theme parks saw the Movies/Cinema/Theme Parks category reduce ad spend by 92%.
On the positive side, the ongoing higher investment from our domestic banks meant that category’s ad spend fell only 2.7% in the quarter (but within that both TV and Radio reported higher bookings) while the In Home Entertainment category reduced spend only 3.7% but significantly grew its Digital and TV investment.
Ractliffe says the early view of SMI’s data for July shows the decline for that month is already below than that seen in June, while the market is also looking stronger in August.
"SMI’s agency partners have already guaranteed ad spend equal to half that recorded in August 2019 – and that data came through before the month had even begun - with the hair and oral care categories, parts of the pharmaceutical market and technology sector already reporting higher media bookings than for August last year,’’ she says.
"And we can see that retailers have already committed to spend more on television in July and August than was spent last year, and the outdoor media is also rebuilding with the level of confirmed bookings from the utilities category for July and August already above that seen at this time last year.’’
Ractliffe says it's important to remember that COVID has severely reduced ad spend in numerous markets, with SMI reporting that NZ’s ad market fell 32.7% in June, while in the UK the June decline was 44%, in Canada37% and in the US it was 20%.
"All markets are clearly suffering from the impact of COVID but as we track the changing market trends it’s also clear that within certain categories some media are managing to achieve growth," she says.
"It remains a challenging market but the data proves we’ve moved off the bottom so the question is now how quickly the market returns to growth."
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.