Banks, government and Amazon expected to drive Australian ad spend, claims Zenith
Banks, the government and gambling sites have driven Australia’s advertising spend growth this year with Amazon Advertising’s entry into the local market expected to boost spending later in the year, claims Zenith in its latest forecast.
The Zenith Advertising Expenditure Forecast estimates Australian ad spend will grow 3.3% for the year, compared to global industry growth of 4.5%.
Zenith’s Elizabeth Baker expects banking and government spending to drive Australia’s ad industry in 2018
Search, which accounts for 45% of the Australian market, is estimated to grow 4% per year over the next three years with Amazon expected to boost that figure when it starts allowing advertising on its local website.
Zenith’s Sydney head of investment, Elizabeth Baker, said: “Search’s nature as a ‘pull medium’ and the fact it already makes up almost 50% of digital investment, will see ad spend continue to grow as usage increases with consumers and search’s role across a multitude of brand, marketing and communications needs.”
Source: Zenith Advertising Expenditure Forecast
The survey flagged marketers globally are shifting spend from brand awareness to paid search, with the latter expected to grow 8% annually over the next three years. However it also said social media spend is estimated to grow by an average of 16% as the platforms offer more video advertising options.
“In Australia, the growth of social we see as being driven by not only by the increasing number of platforms and consumer usage, but also the diversification of ad units within the platforms. From users consuming more video content, shopping straight from an image in Instagram and to the increasing use of bots, this drives incremental spend in the channel,” said Baker.
The survey nominated the banking industry as being the fastest growing Australian advertising sector with a 30% increase in spend. The government sector is expected to grow 26% throughout 2018 and gambling by 24%. The largest year-to-date decline in in the movies/cinema/theme parks category.
Baker attributed the growth of government and banking spending mainly to political factors and expects spend to grow further next year when elections are called: “The banks’ advertising investments continue to climb in the wake of the Royal Commission into the banking and financial services industry.
Source: Zenith Advertising Expenditure Forecast
“There have also been a number of elections and by-elections that have resulted in an increase in government spend. Our forecast assumes that the next Federal Election will occur in 2019. Although technically it could be called this year, many believe this is unlikely due to the recent change in Prime Ministership,” she said.
“All media in Australia, with the exception of print, is likely to be stable to up in 2018 with the outdoor and internet categories out-performing the total media spend trend. Video and mobile are driving internet growth, however total internet growth is slowing.”
