Australia’s media agency market has finished 2022 by reporting another year of record ad spend with the total value of advertising bookings jumping 6.9% year-on-year to now be nudging the $9 billion mark according to the Standard Media Index.

The market is now 10.9%, or $875.7 million, larger than it was in the pre-COVID CY2019 period, but the Digital media is now the largest on a standalone basis (with Digital-related ad spend from other media included). But when Digital spend is reallocated to the originating content, the Video/TV media remains the largest.

Radio hasn’t fared quite as well with December down by 11.8% YoY, but up by 3% for the year against the 2021 spend.

SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Ractliffe says Australia’s ad market has clearly emerged in a far stronger position following the COVID downturn.

She says, “Growth in the Australian ad market looks to be accelerating not just post COVID but also more broadly as we can see that in the past ten years the value of the ad market has grown by a remarkable 39.4%, which represents an extra $2.5 billion in advertising bookings.

“At this rate the market’s value will be well north of $10 billion in the next few years.’’

From a demand perspective, the first half of the year was by far the strongest, with bookings for the six month to June up 11.6% to a record $4.29 billion (in part driven by the Federal election campaign), with the growth rate falling to 2.8% in the second half and then -0.2% for the December quarter as booking for the December month are so far back 10%.

But Ractliffe says the Q4 result is just $5 million below the record level achieved at the same time last year, and comes off sustained growth in Q4 ad spend.

“The fourth quarter period was the first in CY2019 to turn positive following the depths of the COVID decline that year, and every year since Q4 ad spend has continued to deliver strong growth so it’s no surprise to see the market try to find a new baseline.’’