SMI: Market braced for softer end to 2016 as major events take their toll on September

Ad spend in September dropped 4.8%, year-on-year, with the Standard Media Index and media buyers citing a lack of big ticket events in the month as contributing factors.

The Olympics sucked ad budgets forward according to media buyers

Overall the market is up 1.6%, year-to-date, according to SMI, but with the Federal Election, Census and Olympics shifting ad budgets to earlier in the year media buyers are predicting a soft run in to Christmas.

Theo Zisoglou, trading director for independent media agency, Bohemia, said: “I don’t think there will be a massive year-on-year increase, I think it will stay quite stable.”