The value of national marketer ad spend jumped 15.5% in September, according to analysis by SMI (Standard Media Index).
But the result is 9.3% below pre-pandemic September 2019.
If bookings for lockdown-affected media of Outdoor and Cinema are removed then total ad spend is 0.6% above that two of years ago.
Television media was buoyed by the return of the AFL and NRL finals series to September after being moved to October last year, with total bookings up 17.1%.
Strong growth in Search and Social Media ad spend pushed Digital’s total bookings up 20.1%.
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe says 94% of all returning ad spend this month was placed on either the Television or Digital media.
"The Australian market has delivered another month of much improved advertising demand, but the month has been unusual given the very strong focus on the TV and Digital media," she says.
"The Radio, Magazines and Cinema media also all delivered double-digit growth in agency ad spend in September but the sheer size of the growth evident in TV and Digital – those two media accounted for 81.6% of all ad spend – necessarily reduced the share this month of all other media."
"After more than three months of lockdowns in our two most populous cities, it’s inevitable they would eventually again affect the Outdoor media and that’s certainly the case this month as the September month is the first in five in which Outdoor has not delivered double-digit levels of ad growth,’’ Ractliffe said.
"But now that the lockdowns are over and life in Melbourne and Sydney is finally returning to normal we fully expect the Outdoor and Cinema media to quickly return to very strong levels of double-digit growth and create renewed competition for both the Television and Digital media when targeting large audiences.’’
Ractliffe says SMI’s data also continues to highlight the incredible recovery in the local ad market, with September quarter bookings up 29.4% above the same quarter last year, and 4.6% above the same quarter in 2019 having moved back through the $2 billion mark for the first time since the September 2018 quarter.
"In this quarter we’re reporting higher ad spend to all major media as the ad dollars pour back across the media landscape but again the greatest growth has been seen in the TV and Digital media, with their agency bookings 9% and 29% above that achieved in the September 2019 quarter,’’ she says.
And across the calendar year-to-date total ad spend has grown 27% to $5.9 billion which is 0.4% above the total recorded in the same period in the pre-COVID year of 2019.
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