Ad spend declines for 17th month in a row
The media agency-funded ad market was back 5.3% in February, an improvement on January’s 8.2% decline that suggests the market was beginning to stabilise before the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Standard Media Index (SMI).
SMI’s AUNZ managing director, Jane Ractliffe, said that the impacts of the pandemic means February will be the last ‘normal’ results the market sees for the indefinite future.
Anyone keen to place bets on next month? I’ll go first, 45% down.
37% down on billings plus extra 5% just not added in SMI
I’ll go 42%
Doesn’t this just mean that advertising spend from the big agency groups is down? It doesn’t take into account consultancies, internal media teams or independent agency spends. 17 months in a row suggests a systemic problem for large media agencies, not necessarily a representative spend of media in Australia. Or am I missing something?
Hi Curious,
Yes. SMI does measure the media-agency funded ad market. So direct spend and some smaller groups are not counted. The story does refer to it as the “media agency-funded ad market” in a bid to make this clear.
I agree that in some instances, it could be reflective of the position of the larger holding groups and associated agencies, rather than the wider economy/ brand confidence, however given the economic environment we’re in at the moment, I suspect it is indeed the trend.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella