Advertising spend, as measured by media agency bookings, was hit by a post-election slump in June.
According to the latest Guideline SMI data, total bookings were back 7.1% despite strong growth from cinema (+12.6%) and outdoor (+5.4%).
Among key media sectors, video/streaming sites continued to grow in June (+12.3%) while bookings to newspaper-magazines jumped 23% for the month, mirroring a trend also seen in the New Zealand market.
The largest drivers of the lower demand were the 34% fall in government category in June and a 21% drop in food/produce/dairy ad spend.
On the positive side, retail ad spend was back in growth, up 10.4% in June, and insurance continued to gain ground (+11.4%).
Automotive brand slipped to third place in June, back 8.7%, despite renewed investment from the SUV subcategory.
However, in the six months to June the media agency market delivered a record level of ad spend, up 2.4%.
And bookings for the full financial year to June moved above $9 billion for the first time, up $212 million on the previous financial year, 2023-24.
“Media agencies clearly continue to deliver valuable media advice and services to their brand clients as evidenced by the 31.4% increase in the value of the advertising campaigns booked by agencies over the past ten years, representing an extra $2.15 billion in media investment,’’ Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said.
“But we’ve also arguably seen the biggest change in media habits over that time, with agencies literally doubling their investment in both the digital and outdoor media over those ten years.”
However, the number of individual media on which they bought campaigns fell to 6,000 in the financial year to June from 7,400 in 2014-15.
Digital, in the financial year, now has a record ad share of 46.4%. Outdoor has also delivered record share of 16%. Cinema also continued to grow, up 3.9% in the first six months of the year, but still just below the peak calendar year bookings recorded in 2018.
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