Australia’s advertising market, as measured by media agency bookings, fell by 5.2% in March against a federal election boosted month last year.
The Guideline SMI numbers for the quarter to March are down just 2% with late bookings making February a positive month.
However, increasing nervousness in the market is again delaying advertising commitments, according to SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe.
“Apart from the election-fuelled record level of ad spend in March last year, our market is plagued by the ongoing global geopolitical uncertainty which is in turn impacting consumer confidence and therefore advertising budgets,’’ Ractliffe said.
“Late bookings are trickling in but we ’re yet to see the confidence among enough brands who are willing to commit to their ad campaigns earlier and this makes it harder for media to plan and manage their budgets.’’
In March, outdoor again enjoyed growth, up 1.4% on strong demand in the billboards and retail outdoor sectors.
On a stand alone basis (with ad spend not tied to traditional media content), digital bookings are down 6.2% with late programmatic and search still to come.
The month and quarter are notable for being the first time social media bookings overtake those of search.
“There ’s some significant changes now occurring in our digital media as search was historically the largest .. by way of agency spend but is now third after programmatic and social media,” Ractliffe said.
“And given the growth trajectory of social it may soon deliver larger ad spend than the whole programmatic market."
Bookings to the video sites/streaming market now represents more than 10% of all digital ad, spend having grown 20% in the March quarter and by 16% in the month of March alone.
Streaming bookings helped offset a 10.1% fall in linear TV ad spend.
Radio bookings were back 6.4% although metropolitan radio’s decline reduced to 3.2%.
Regional Press also continued to be a bright spot for print, up 38.3%, in a press market back 4.6% and magazine ad spend down 18.8%.
March 2026 numbers:
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