Strong radio and outdoor media agency bookings has led to a record month for October with total ad spend up 0.9% to $689 million year-on-year.
The solid October result has improved record numbers already being reported for the financial and calendar year-to-date periods, with these totals up 1.4% and 2.0% respectively.
"October 2015 was also a record for month of agency ad spend having lifted 8% from the 2014 result, so for the market to deliver even more ad dollars is evidence of a growing confidence,’’ SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Schulze said.
Growth was led by the highest monthly spend on metropolitan radio bookings (up 13.8% to $36.9 million) in ten years of SMI records.
Outdoor was up 36.6% while television bookings were virtually flat on last year. Digital was down 6.6%, although late bookings should bump up its results, cinema was down 21.2% while newspapers (down 22.2%) and magazines (down 17.6%) continue their gradual decline.
Categories that have driven growth include gambling ( up 27.5% YOY) and other financial services category (up 40.4%).
Meanwhile, SMI will soon provide more granular detail category ad spend in the automotive and pharmaceutical categories.
This will include common car categories - micro/small, medium/large, SUVs, light/commercial vehicles and auto brand/sponsorship.
In pharmaceutical, the digital breakdown will include analgesics, skin/respiratory, supplements/vitamins and a separate pharma brand/sponsorship sub-category.
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