Outdoor media is the only major media to report growth according to Guideline SMI’s results for May, with total bookings up 1.6%.
The findings noted that the market continues to stabilise, with total ad spend back 5.3% year-on-year and with the market delivering its strongest level of forward pacings this year.
Jane Ractliffe, Guideline SMI APAC managing director, said forward bookings data indicates more of the market may soon turn back to growth as confirmed future bookings are now at the highest level seen this year.
“The latest ad spend extracted from the payment systems of our agency partners shows that 90.5% of last year’s June ad spend has already been confirmed (excluding Digital) with a week of trading still to come, and that’s the highest level of forward pacings a month out that we’ve seen this year,” she said.
“Already we can see regional TV and regional radio are reporting flat ad spend in June, and cinema bookings are up 11% year-on-year so there are definitely strong signs of market improvement.”
Ractliffe said the higher demand in regional TV and radio continues this year’s ongoing trend of building demand within regional media, with regional radio ad spend up 9.7% and regional press bookings up 29% in May.
“We’ve noticed throughout 2024 growing demand for regional media with regional press being the star performer with double digit growth so far this year, while regional radio ad spend is up 0.1% over the same time,’’ she said.
“In the linear TV world the decline in ad spend is the lowest in regional TV with the total back 6.2% so far this year.”
Overall, the Guideline SMI report noted that radio did well in May with total bookings back just 0.7% and cinema also staying largely steady with its ad spend dipping just 0.5%. While Digital ad spend is back 2.3% in May the Streaming sector has grown 9.7% (mostly due to growth at SBS on Demand and YouTube) and bookings to Social Sites are up 3.2%.
Among the key product categories, the growth drivers in May were government (+13% YOY), retail, (+5.7%), and Automotive Brand (+6.7%).
But the market has so far failed to gain the usual end-of-financial-year kick from the Insurance category with its ad spend back 6.6%, while communications ad spend is back 20%.
Calendar year-to-date results show the market is back just 2.1% with both the digital (+4.2%) and outdoor (+3.9%) outperforming. As the financial year-end draws near, the total market is back just 1.8% from last year’s record total with by far the largest growth being recorded by outdoor (+10.3%).
See also: April ad spend back 5.6%, but news grows 1.8%
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Top image: Jane Ratcliffe