Advertising spend from media agencies hits high
Australia’s media agencies have spent a record amount on advertising in the first four months of 2025, driven by the federal election spend. The $2,711 million spend, while bettering the equivalent period last year, only just edged past the same pre-election period in 2022.
According to data from Guideline SMI, total spend was up 4.1% over the same period last year, with a 3.4% increase in April driven by $49 million in federal election spending during the month. Without this election cash, underlying advertising spend for the month of April was down by 3.8% year-on-year.
The previous ad spend record occurred during the lead up to the 2022 election, when $2.7 billion was spent. This figure has increased by $11 million this year, a modest increase of less than half a percentage point.
When taken in sequence, April seems less like an outlier and more the continuation of a good trend: the sixth consecutive month of higher year-on-year ad spend in the Australian ad market.
Total ad spend for the financial year to date sits just $25 million below the entire 2022 spend, with spending for the 10 months of the current financial year (to April) $150 million above the same period in FY22, and 2.4% above 2024.
Outdoor and digital media both saw record spend in April, while radio spend was the second highest since the post-pandemic rush of 2022 – with community radio up a whopping 178% from the same period in 2024, due to the election.
Metro TV spend climbed 4.2% year-on-year, again, due mostly to the Federal election spend. Interestingly, April newspaper spend dropped from the same month in 2024, suggesting that federal election print spend was allocated to digital mastheads.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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