Agency expenditure hit a record high in November - traditonally the largest advertising month - with bookings exceeding $820 million, a 4.9% year-on-year increase.
Ongoing gains in digital and outdoor media continue to propel spend, with digital recording a 15.6% year-on-year increase to $185 million and outdoor flourishing by 36% to $122.7 million last month.
SMI warns however that outdoor's huge growth is partially attributable to lunar month payment issues, meaning that some agencies will have already have paid for campaigns running in December, typically a very busy time for the media.
Meanwhile, November's figures benefitted from ad spend for the Victorian election, which saw the government sector invest $31.9million during November in contrast to the $15.6m spend in the same month the year previous.
Elsewhere, TV continues to hold down the largest market share although bookings leave money spent rather flat – spend on TV only increased 0.1% year-on-year, while the total annual figure is up a mere 0.4% to almost $1.7 billion.
Newspapers and magazines continue their downward trajectory, recording a year-on-year fall throughout November of 27.1% and 10.5%, respectively.
Cinema, however, is up a staggering 55% for the month, taking spend on the big screen to $10.2 million. Cinema enjoyed increased footfall during the month owing to the latest Bond film and the final instalment of The Hunger Games.
Radio, meanwhile, is up 4.4% to a little over $55 million.
Increases in advertising spend largely came from the automotive industry, rather than retail related advertisers. The automotive brand market lifted its total spend by $18.4 million (29.3% year-on-year) to $81.3m.
However, the general retail category was nonetheless the second highest spending after growing its total ad spend by $5.4 million (10.5% year-on-year) to $57.8 million, followed close behind by specialty retail (retailers of their own products) which grew ad spend $11.2 million to $32.8 million.
SMI publishes a list of newly-booked media outlets. For November, these included:
Television
• 9Life and its various capital city-based codes
• SBS Food
Digital
• Appier – Digital technology company
• Dataphoria – Digital marketing and technology group
• Make Some Change – Business content site specialising in crowdfunding for charity causes
• Maker Studios – Production studio specialising in short-form video production
• Mum Central – Parenting/Women focused content site
• Opera Mediaworks – Mobile advertising specialist agency
• Rock Paper Shotgun – Content site focused on gaming
• What Tradies Want – Male focused content site
specialising in extreme sports and lifestyle
• MobExt – specialist mobile division of Havas Media
• Thump (Vice) – Music and Entertainment content site published by Vice
• Stock Journal – Rural/farming news content site published by Fairfax
• Tax Spot – Accounting services search content site
Magazines
• Adventure Time – Family/Kids title published by Titan Magazines
• gQuip Guide Book – Official guide for Field Days Exhibit in Gunnedah, NSW
• SkyScape – Inflight magazine of China Southern Airlines
Provoke – Lifestyle and fashion magazine for the Brisbane market
• Avery – Aimed at parents of teens/tweens in South Australia
• The Races – Official publication of the SA Racing/thoroughbred industry
• Towing Guide – Guide of the Caravan & Camping Industry Association
Newspapers
• Eternity – Christian newspaper published by the Bible Society of Australia
• Pink Media Group – Titles aimed at LGBT community in Australia
• Central Coast Extra – News Ltd insert for Central Coast residents
Outdoor
• Target Tradies – A3 posters/panels for work sites based in Melbourne
• Union Offset Printers – Poster and billboard production company
• Myer Centre Brisbane – Retail outdoor
• Posterbill – Posters and flyers production based in Queensland
• Vicinity Shopping Centre – Retail outdoor by property management company.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.