April's strong advertising revenue results have seen surges in the retail, communication and travel sectors, while FMCG, toiletries and cosmetics and government are on the way down.
According to figures from Standard Media Index (SMI), retail ad bookings through media agencies jumped 7.5% year-on-year to $119.4 million in April. The category has grown 3.8% for the financial year to date (July 2011 to April 2012).
GroupM national trading director James Parkinson told AdNews: “We have seen a pick up in retail, in recent weeks and over the past couple of months. While retail remains tough, companies must still market themselves to create traction in the category. This is reflected in the numbers.
“But is this a few big players spending big, or is it representative of the whole market?”
OMD chief executive Peter Horgan said: “The retail market is flat, but is continuing to invest in advertising ahead of sales to stimulate growth. This shows a leap of faith from the market.”
FMCG shrunk just 1% in April, but for the financial year to date it has fallen 7.3%.
One industry source, who wished to remain unnamed, said: “The FMCG category is getting squeezed, and this has a lot to do with the tactics of the big supermarket players.”
For the financial year to date, government spending has dropped 27.1%. Horgan said: “Potentially, this is the government keeping their nose clean for election year next year.”
Communication grew an astounding 71.8% in April, although this was off a very low base last year. In fact, the category has shrunk 3.7% for the financial year to date, to $300.7 million.
Parkinson said: “The April figure is just the category normalising.”
In April, automotive grew 1.1%, travel increased 4.4%, and pharmaceuticals grew 15.1%. Banking and finance shrunk 4.3%, entertainment and leisure fell 7.6%, media fell 0.8% and toiletries and cosmetics declined 26.1%.
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