It wasn't a very merry Christmas for main media vendors if the latest Standard Media Index (SMI) numbers are anything to go by, but it appears media agencies are starting to bet big on social media.
The latest data out has suggested that all categories were down for the month compared to this time last year, except for radio.
Leading the way by media spend was TV, with $216.6 million of media placed on the medium. However, this was down by 4.1% compared with the previous December.
Even the ever-growing digital category didn't have a lucrative yule tide season, with a 4.2% drop to $114.15 million for the month.
However, SMI warned that this figure could be a touch askew, with the organisation to run agency data in a fortnight as not all media agencies had run its digital data into its system before deadline.
Newspapers continued to decline, recording a whopping 16.6% drop in December, while magazines dropped by a similar 13%. However a saving grace could be that an extra Sunday fell in December 2013, with Sunday papers traditionally recording high circulation and attracting ad dollars.
Radio managed to grow by 0.9%, with $44.1 million placed with the medium in December.
All up, it was a bleak Christmas for media, with a 5.8% drop in spend to $533.19 million spent in the month.
However, overall advertising spend for the year only dropped by 0.1% year on year.
Between January and December, a total of $7.48 billion was dropped on advertising in the Australian market, with that total a slight drop on 2013's effort.
The best performer for the year was digital, which led the way with 15.6% growth, while all other categories declined.
The worst performers were newspapers and cinema, shedding 17.3% and 14% respectively.
The highest growing category was social media spending, up 77.6% for 2014 with a spend of $97.5 million.
For more news:
Ad spend jumps 3.8% in November
Seven rules TV land in October
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