Adspend takes a dip in Australia, with TV taking the hardest hit

Media spend in Australia took a 7.3% hit at the start of the year after enjoying two months of growth in November and December. 

Analysts say a big factor was moving the Australian Open to February over COVID concerns. The result was that TV saw a 5.3% fall in ad bookings, a reduction of 2% in overall spend, data from SMI Australia, reported by Mumbrella, shows.

The context

• The fall in TV spending has helped drive the continued growth of digital, which is up 1.8% year on year, and has now overtaken TV as the largest media in terms of adspend – digital now commands 37.6% of spending, ahead of TV with 37%, and all other media making up 25.4%.

• Social media, programmatic and video sites all enjoyed double-digit percentage growth.

• The dominance of digital has been slower to happen in Australia than many other markets, partly due, it’s believed, to the strength of TV down under.

Key takeaway

The delay of the Australian Open was probably a one-off, even though it had significant impact. Going forward, the skies appear blue. “We can see that February demand is already in line with that evidence before the start of the COVID pandemic last year, while for March the total demand is running at four percentage points above the same time last year, while for April demand is already seven percentage points higher.” SMI AU/NZ Managing Director, Jane Ractliffe.

Sourced from Mumbrella