Guideline SMI’s media agency data for January 2025 indicates a 5% decline in Australian advertising expenditure compared to the same period last year. This downturn is reflected across various media channels, although certain digital segments aligned with traditional media content have demonstrated growth.

Digital bookings overall saw a 5% decrease in January. However, streaming services of linear TV stations and audio services of linear radio stations continue to experience growth. Jane Ractliffe, Guideline SMI APAC Managing Director, stated, “It’s clear that there’s continued growing demand for Digital quality media aligned with traditional media content as we can see ongoing growth in the streaming services of the linear TV stations and also the audio services of the linear radio stations.”

Linear TV advertising spend declined by 5.2%, but when streaming bookings are included, the decline is reduced to 3.9%. Metropolitan TV ad spend fell by 1.7% year-on-year, marking its best result since the Paris Olympics. Radio’s linear revenues dropped by 9.6%, yet with Digital Audio bookings included, the decline is mitigated to 7.6%.

Traditional magazine media experienced a 7.1% decline in print bookings. However, digital bookings have surged, resulting in a 19% growth when combined. Ractliffe noted, “And this month the traditional Magazine media has seen its related Digital bookings more than double due to huge growth in direct bookings to sites such as Taste.com.au and Vogue.com.au. And that’s transformed a 7.1% decline in print magazine bookings into growth of 19% once those related Digital bookings are included.”

Outdoor media emerged as the best performing sector in January, with a 0.3% increase in ad spend. This growth was driven by the Posters/Billboards and Sporting Venues sectors. Regional media also showed resilience, with Regional Radio down just 0.1% and Regional Press bookings up by 4.6%.

The Government category saw a significant surge in ad spend, increasing by 43.6% in January. Linear TV benefited the most with a 91.1% increase, followed by Radio at 59.7%. Ractliffe commented on future trends, “We can already see strong growth in both Government and Political Party ad spend in our forward bookings data, with the Government category’s spend on Digital media already in positive territory in February and that’s highly unusual given the way Digital media is booked and paid.”

She further added, “It’s definitely a strong indicator of demand as Digital media inventory is infinite so this shows the various Government departments are more keen than usual to secure prime Digital placements directly with the Digital publishers in advance in this likely election period.”

In contrast, New Zealand’s advertising market reported an 8% year-on-year increase in January, marking the third consecutive month of growth. Ractliffe remarked, “The New Zealand ad market is coming out of a prolonged malaise and is now delivering very significant increases in ad spend.”

New Zealand’s Outdoor ad spend grew by 32.6%, Radio by 26.2%, Subscription TV by 45.9%, and Magazine bookings doubled. Ractliffe observed, “In January alone we are reporting NZ Outdoor growth of 32.6%, Radio growth of 26.2%, Subscription TV growth of 45.9% and a doubling of Magazine bookings. It’s clear the New Zealand economy and consumer confidence is rebounding and that’s now being reflected in strongly growing ad demand.”