Olympics helps TV ad spend in July jump above pre-COVID levels

August 16, 2021 2:38

Australia’s advertising market continues to remain resilient according to the Standard Media Index (SMI) early July data, which sows a double-digit growth, partly boosted by the Tokyo Olympics broadcast on Seven, which resulted in an impressive 41.9% increase in TV ad spend, with the TV total coming in $33 million above what was reported for July 2019.

The results follow the resent results of ad spend returning to pre-COVID levels of June 2019 and also being the highest ever month recorded in a first half in SMI history.

SMI AUNZ managing director, Jane Ractliffe, said SMI’s interim July data release – which does not yet have late digital media bookings included – showed the value of advertising demand was already up 18.3% from last July, and when digital media ad spend was removed to make the data like-for-like then total growth soared 40.8%

On that basis July bookings are so far just $6 million below that achieved in the pre-COVID levels of July 2019.

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Olivia Kruimel

Olivia Kruimel was the managing editor at Mumbrella. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, communications and marketing. Her journalism career began at Fairfax Media (now part of Nine) and includes various B2B publications such as B&T, Travel Today and ALB. As a marketer Olivia has worked for Standard Chartered and various global law firms.