Marketers withholding budgets for the second half of the year: AANA and Ipsos

Half of Australian marketers are withholding their budgeted advertising spend as they wait for more stability in the country’s COVID-19 status, new research from Ipsos and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has found.

The findings come as the Standard Media Index (SMI) has reported that the media agency-funded ad spend market fell 14.7% for the financial year and 35.7% for the month of June.

The AANA’s research found that 68% of small to medium-sized businesses and 87% of large businesses still have marketing-related spending budgeted for the next six months. However, both are waiting for state borders to reopen, employees to return to workplaces, retail locations to reopen and virus infections to remain low before they invest marketing dollars.

Businesses still have marketing budgets to spend (Source: AANA. Click to enlarge)