‘Definitely strong signs of market improvement’: Advertising bookings are recovering
The advertising market is continuing to recover, with future bookings at the highest level seen this year.
GUIDELINE SMI’s results for May show total ad spend is still down 5.3%, year-on-year, with outdoor media the only sector up on the previous May, albeit a modest 1.6%.
But Guideline SMI APAC Managing Director Jane Ratcliffe said the forward bookings data indicates “more of the market may soon turn back to growth”.
“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.
“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.
“And 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.’’
The biggest advertisers for May were Government (+13% YOY), Retail (+5.7%) and Automotive Brands (+6.7%). However, this was offset by the Insurance category, with ad spend back 6.6%, while Communications ad spend is down 20%.
Subscribe to the daily newsletter
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
Have your say