Australia's advertising market concluded the calendar year 2024 with a marginal decline in total annual agency bookings, down 0.9%. Despite this overall stagnation, certain media sectors experienced notable growth, marking shifts in advertising preferences.

Digital and Outdoor media achieved record market shares, while Cinema also reported significant growth. Video sites and streaming services saw a 17.8% increase in advertising demand compared to the previous year. Digital radio followed closely with a 17.4% rise in ad demand.

For the first time, video-based campaigns surpassed display as the largest ad format in 2024. The value of video campaigns grew by 12.4%, whereas display advertising fell by 3.4% compared to 2023. Jane Ractliffe, Guideline SMI APAC Managing Director, commented, "The growth in ad spend to Video/Streaming Sites also delivered another consequential metric as our Digital data shows Video-based campaigns overtook Display as the largest ad format for the first time in CY2024, with the value of video-based campaigns growing 12.4% while the Display total fell 3.4% on CY2023."

Retailers, particularly chemists, were instrumental in driving the growth of video-based ad spend across all digital sectors. Food, produce, dairy, and toiletries/cosmetics advertisers also contributed to this trend. Ractliffe noted, "Retailers – and in particular Chemists – drove a lot of the growth in Video-based ad spend across all Digital sectors, along with Food/Produce/Dairy and Toiletries/Cosmetics advertisers. Within the latter, video growth from the Skin Care subcategory delivered most of the gains within the Toiletries market."

Government category advertising spend increased significantly, with a 67.5% year-on-year rise in December. This trend is expected to continue ahead of the Federal election in May. Over the course of 2024, government ad demand rose by 18.2%, making it the fifth largest product category. Ractliffe stated, "This further cements our expectations that stronger Government category ad demand will be a key trend in the January quarter as those bookings continue to grow ahead of the expected Federal election in May this year."

Retail advertising demand grew by 0.9% in 2024, with the chemists subcategory bookings up 16.6%, counterbalancing a 16% decline in online retailers' ad spend. Auto brand advertising saw a 4.4% increase, while insurers reduced their media investment by 3.3%.

Digital media overall grew by 4.4% in 2024, with social media advertising up by 9.4%. In contrast, linear TV ad spend fell by 9.5%, and regional TV saw a decline of 3.2%. Radio advertising also decreased by 3.4%, with regional radio down slightly by 0.3% year-on-year.

Outdoor media experienced a 4.9% growth in 2024, reaching a record ad market share of 15.4%. Large brand campaigns were a significant driver of demand in the Outdoor sector. Ractliffe highlighted, "Outdoor’s growth of 4.9% this year has seen it hit a record ad market share of 15.4% and with our new visibility on Outdoor sector trends across all 150+ SMI product subcategories we can now see that large brand campaigns are driving demand in the largest Outdoor sector of Posters, with Bank Brand/Sponsorship bookings up 18.4% this year and Insurance Brand/Sponsorship campaigns up 41.4%."

In the December quarter, Australian ad demand fell by 4.9%, with Cinema being the only sector to report growth at 6.1%. For the first half of the financial year, the market was down 1.9%, with Digital up 2.8%, Outdoor up 2.3%, and Cinema up 10.3%.