SMI: TV spend falls despite surge in election related political ads

The latest figures show total media agency spend contracted 0.8% in May despite a surge in spending by the major political parties.

According to Standard Media Index (SMI), the Federal Election campaign has failed to deliver a big enough boost to the ad market to prevent a negative result in agency spend, despite the poll being called on May 9 and the first three weeks of the campaign falling within the calendar month.

While print categories newspapers and magazines were the worst impacted – recording double digit declines – both digital and television also went backward, year-on-year, falling 2.8% and 1.5%, respectively.