A $40 million injection from government advertising has pushed media agency spend to record levels. According to SMI data, July agency bookings increased 5.9% year on year to $638.8 million.
Government expenditure made up $57 million of the total, up from $16 million in July 2012. The lion's share ($23.8m) went to TV but digital expenditure reached almost $12m. That suggests it will achieve a four to five fold share increase compared to the last election.
Agency bookings last year in July and August were weak due largely to the effect of the Olympics. Brands not involved in the event took their money out of media channels. rom that low base, media buyers have suggested that government ad dollars could push growth next month into double digits compared to August 2012.
In category terms retail spend was down 5.9% to $118 million. However, most of the other main categories have not let the risk of losing cut-through to election clutter stop them spending. Automotive ($82.7m) was broadly flat, as was banking ($78.8m). FMCG rose 14.4% to $55.8m.
The TV market was up 9.2% overall to $338.3m with subscription TV (up 20.1%) continuing to outperform the broader market.
Digital spend rose 17.8% to $99.6m.
Radio was up 12% overall to $45.7m, outdoor media spend increased 10.3% to $54.7m.
While the smallest stand alone category, cinema recorded the biggest overall percentage increase (20.3%). The market as booked by media agencies is now worth $7.15m.
Buyers continued to place less of clients' budget with newspapers and magazines. While decline was less steep than recent months for national (-3.5%) and regional (-2.8%) papers the fall in spend placed with metropolitan titles (-21.3%) was exceeded only by that of consumer and newspaper magazines, which again tanked (-27.7% combined).
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