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Media spend dips again, according to latest SMI figures

A record result for the month of July at the back end of the 2016 financial year has created a major hangover for the media industry with media agencies reporting demand is down 12.5% on the previous year, the latest Standard Media Index (SMI) report for July has revealed.

Jane Schulze said the start to the 2017 financial year has been tough for agencies

The 2016 federal election coming to a head and the Olympics kicking off created a spending spike in 2016, resulting in total ad spending through agencies ahead of late digital bookings this year slipping back to $496.6m for the month of July.

Cinema was the biggest loser, down 41.6% on the previous year and fairing slightly worse than newspapers which dropped 40.1% as every single sector saw a retraction in spending.

Magazines dropped 25.4%  while TV was down 7.2%, leaving outdoor and radio the most stable of the sectors, down 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Source: Standard Media Index

However, the launch of the July figures also coincided with SMI releasing 40 new measurement categories which SMI Australia and New Zealand managing director Jane Schulze said painted a slightly more positive picture for advertisers.

The index is now also counting related digital media spend for allied media platforms – meaning that bookings for websites such as news.com.au will be aligned with the sector the parent brand is in, such as newspapers.

With interim digital results included (excluding programmatic) newspaper revenues were down just 36.2% while magazine ad revenues dropped 21%.

Source: Standard Media Index

Numbers for all categories for the year to date, January through July, saw newspapers down 24.3%, but the figure improved to a drop of just 21.2% when digital was included.

Magazines dropped 15.2%, but a rise of 6.3% in digital saw the sector drop just 12.1%.

TV was down 2.5% and digital in the sector was down 2.3% for a total drop of 2.5%, while across all sectors agency spending was down a total of 2.3%.

Industry breakdowns for the office and hardware retail industry revealed spending in July dropped more than $1m or 27% from $3.764m to $2.747m.

Television was the biggest loser with spending down 35.3%, or more than $811,000.

Outdoor saw the biggest jump in media agency spending, up from just $8,260 in July 2016 to $76,257, a leap of more than 823%.

Source: Standard Media Index

In the insurance sector figures for January through July revealed spending is up 3.8% from $243.12m to $252.34m.

The biggest rise was spending in newspapers which saw a lift of 44.7%,  or almost $2m, from $4.43m to $6.41m.

Source: Standard Media Index

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