Government falls from first to fifth in adspend league

Tim Burrowes

March 27, 2009 3:44

The Federal government almost halved its advertising spend in 2008, according to new figures prepared by research company Nielsen. The government’s spend fell by 47.7%, according to today’s print edition of AdNews. It means that in just 12 months the Commonwealth Government has gone from being Australia’s number one advertiser to fifth biggest, with an estimated spend for the year of around $115m.

The drop in spend was not entirely unexpected, given that the Rudd Government has sent strong signals that its communications budget would be much lower than the dying days of the Howard government, but nonetheless, the fall has not helped Australia’s beleaguered media owners.

According to the numbers – which for the first time also take in estimated online spend, Wesfarmers (which includes Coles, Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Liquorland) is now Australia’s biggest advertiser with an estimated spend of around $225m.

In the top 25 advertisers, David Jones was estimated to have grown its expenditure the most – rising by 27.3% to around $50m, while Qantas was close behind with an increase of 25.3% to $60m.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.