Most media channels took a hit in July in spite of the success of Nine’s Olympic Games coverage.
A softer ad market found the value of total bookings through media agency groups was back 7.8 per cent from last year’s record level of ad spend in July.
Australia’s record gold medal tally, and Nine’s ability to commercialise their Paris Olympic Games coverage has provided a bright spot in an otherwise declining market.
Nine Entertainment’s ad revenues surging despite the month only including six days of the Olympic Games event, Guideline SMI figures found.
Almost all major media are reporting lower ad spend, although Audio media has delivered growth of 0.1% when Linear and Digital Radio revenues are combined.
Video advertising was down 7.9 per cent, with a 10.1 per cent drop in linear TV and 11 per cent growth in digital video; outdoor was down by 6.5 per cent; cinema dropped by 0.3 per cent, magazines were down 15.8 per cent and news publishing bookings were down 24.8 per cent.
Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe said the Olympics had created an abnormal month for ad spend with bookings moving to the host broadcaster.
”The strength of Nine’s Olympics broadcast and the success of so many Australians at the Games has clearly moved an abnormal amount of revenue to the Nine group in July, and with more Olympic broadcast days falling in August that trend will continue next month,’’ she said.
“At the same time it seems advertisers not associated with the Olympics have decided to reduce their media investment and that’s led to another month of lower bookings.’’
Not all categories were tightening the purse strings. Government ad spend for July surged by 61.2 per cent, with Linear TV gaining the largest share of that ad spend. TV’s share of Government ad spend was close to 30 per cent in the month.
The demand from retail advertisers in July grew by 12.4 per cent, automotive brand spend increased by 5.8 per cent, but there were significant declines in ad demand from the communications and media categories.
”We can see there is a two-speed ad market developing as the product categories delivering growth are growing that media investment in the high double-digit range, and that’s meant that on a combined basis the largest growth categories have lifted revenues 9.8 per cent this month – way outpacing the broader market,’’ Ractliffe said.
Guideline SMI’s calendar year-to-date results show total demand is only back by 1.5 per cent with outdoor up 5.1 per cent, followed by cinema (up 3.9 per cent) and digital (up 3.6 per cent).
