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Political, gov’t entities nab lion’s share of total ad spend in AU for Q1 

Sydney, Australia – Following the conclusion of the 2022 Australian federal elections, new data from IAB Australia and PwC reveals the dominance of political and government ad spending in the digital advertising space locally for the first quarter of 2022, reaching a value of $3.449b–an increase of 19.2% on the same period in 2021.

The political and government ad spending scene reached a 13.5% share of the general display market for the quarter, up from 3.9% in Q1 of 2021. By contrast, retail experienced the largest decrease in share, dropping from 16.4% to 13.5% share of general display advertising.

Meanwhile, all general display categories recorded growth on the previous year, with video advertising increasing 24% to reach $715.1m for the quarter, infeed/native by 5% to reach $349.80m, standard display by 11% to reach $167.7m and other advertising by 69% to reach $21.5m.

Lastly, spending on classifieds and search & directories grew quarter on quarter, increasing 4.3% and 3.6% respectively while general display advertising seasonally contracted by 15.1% as it does each year. Interestingly, search & directory spend in the quarter seized share from general display advertising as the recovery of travel accelerates.

Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, commented, “The digital ad market saw solid investment growth for the March quarter compared to the previous year with the standard slight seasonal decline from the December quarter. The make-up of the top advertiser categories was greatly disrupted by significant ad spend from the political parties and independents early into the campaign for the Federal Election.”

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Marketing Featured ANZ

Digital ad market in Australia saw 42% increase for September YoY

Sydney, Australia – The digital advertising market in Australia has been estimated to be valued at reaching US$3.232b for September quarter this year, or up 42.1% year on year. This is according to the latest data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia, in association with consulting firm PwC. 

According to the data, search and directory ads increased by 41%, while general display increased by 45.6% and classifieds up 37.3%. 

Meanwhile, retail advertising again held the number one advertiser category share of display advertising investment, now representing 14.4% of display investment and leading video advertising investment. Technology sector in advertising experienced the largest increase in share to reach 7.8%, while automotive advertising’s share of total spend continued to retract, reflecting the supply challenges. Meanwhile, the travel sector saw the largest decrease in share thanks to lockdowns reversing the increases experienced by travel in the June quarter.

In other sectors, video advertising’s share of general display advertising peaked this quarter at 62%, an increase of 72% year-on-year to reach US$784.1m. In addition, native advertising grew 30% year on year, while standard display advertising fell 21% year on year. 

Meanwhile, programmatic trading of content publishers inventory again increased in September quarter this year, delivering 45% of the total expenditure, versus 40% bought through agency insertion orders. Programmatic continues to dominate as the preferred buying method for content publishers’ video inventory.

Speaking about the state of the ad industry in Australia, Gai Le Roy, CEO at IAB Australia commented, “The September quarter had a mix of highs and lows with Olympics activity encouraging investment but the travel market pulling back again with local lockdowns. Overall though investment in [the] digital advertising market continued to impress, with the September quarter increasing 42% on the COVID impacted September 2020, but also increasing 36% compared to the 2019 September quarter.”

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More than half of Aussie audiences unaware on how free online content generate revenue

Sydney, Australia Despite 87% of Australian respondents saying that they support advertising measures among online content providers who offer free content, around 70% of Australian respondents are still unaware on how these online content providers generate their revenue despite being a ‘free service’ to customers, according to insights provided by market research company Ipsos during the latest IAB Australia MeasureUp conference.

The report leans heavily on facts relating to importance of transparency and control over data, stating that 81% of consumers stating they want ‘more control and choice’ over the collection and use of their personal information, and 46% stating they wanted companies to stop sharing their information with third parties without consent as a high priority.

Transparency on what data is collected and how it is used is the key driver to a high level of trust in providing personal information (43% ), however sound corporate values such as having a good corporate reputation (40%) and being ethical (39%) are nearly equally key trust drivers.

It also noted that customers who are loyal to certain brands are most likely to share their information out of brand trust. About 47% of respondents say that they are more comfortable about sharing their data, provided that brands need to be more upfront with how the data collected will be used.

In addition, 46% of respondents say that they are willing to share information to these online providers, provided they are the only data needed.

For specific instances, 38% feel comfortable sharing their purchase history with a brand online if requested, 34% feel comfortable sharing browsing history and 38% feel comfortable sharing personal details to online content providers such as email, phone, or address. 

For Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, while it is great news that consumers are so supportive of an ad-funded model to these online content providers, the insights suggests the industry has some work to do.

“Trust with a digital brand, including openness to provide data, goes well beyond reading consent notices and extends across all their interactions with the brand online and offline. To ensure the strength and sustainability of the industry, we need to build on existing levels of trust, and respect consumer’s preferences for more transparency and more control in relation to how their data is used,” Le Roy stated.

While nearly all Australians think privacy of their information is important when choosing digital content and services, only 3 in 10 people feel their understanding of data protection and privacy rights is of a high standard. Ultimately 8 in 10 people want more control and choice over the collection of their personal information, while 69% care about their data privacy but don’t know what to do about it.

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Marketing Featured ANZ

Australia’s online digital advertising hits US$11.4b for 2021: report

Sydney, Australia – Amid the pandemic, the Australian digital advertising market has dismissed any pandemic advertising woes to record a 24.2% growth, which is the strongest since 2016, reaching US$11.4b online advertising expenditure for the 2021 financial year, new findings by the association for online advertising, IAB Australia.

According to the association’s ‘Online Advertising Expenditure Report’ (OAER), which is prepared by PwC, the data confirms that while the overall advertising market has rebounded, digital advertising is leading the charge and now dominates expenditure. During the 12 months ending 30 June 2021, all sectors of online advertising experienced double-digit growth.

Meanwhile, video advertising also jumped 38.8% year on year to reach US$2.4bn, while the general display grew 29.7% to US$4.4b. For the period, the search and directories grew 22.3% to US$5.1b, with classifieds also seeing an upward trajectory with 17.4% growth to US$1.9b. 

Moreover, the same report revealed that for the financial year 2021, retail was the top advertising category with 16% of all display advertising, up from 11.4% share in the financial year 2020, with expenditure coming from both traditional and e-commerce retailers. Across other categories, FMCG and technology expenditure increased their share for the period to 7.2% and 6.4% respectively while finance share remained flat. On the other hand, both automotive and travel advertising expenditure decreased year on year.

Gai Le Roy, the CEO of IAB Australia, commented that the growth in digital ad investment over the last year has been extraordinary and it’s clear that marketers are confident using it as a key growth engine for their businesses across the broad range of available formats and environments. 

“While the evolution of retailing has become a major driver of investment in digital advertising and we expect some shopping will return to physical stores in the future, the broad reach, deep engagement, and data-rich offerings will ensure retailers continue to place digital at the heart of their advertising and marketing plans,” said Le Roy. 

The study also noted that the changing media consumption patterns, accelerated by COVID lockdowns, have resulted in strong growth for connected TV spend, increasing the share of all video spend from 38% to 47% year-on-year. While the desktop share decreased from 36% to 32% and mobile from 26% to 21% for the financial year 2021.

In addition, the programmatic trading has continued to hold strong with slight growth from 41% to 43% share of expenditure for the financial year 2021, against 41% of inventory purchased via agency and 16% direct.