What you need to know:

• The Australian ad market surged 39.7 per cent in April to $584.4m.
• The positive result means the market will grow this financial year, despite the Covid pandemic.
• Spend in Video, Digital, Outdoor, Audio and Cinema jumped by double digit percentages, Magazines rose by 3.5 per cent, and News Media fell by 12.3 per cent.
• May is set for a resurgence in Outdoor media, and Travel is up an astounding 525 per cent so far.

The Australian advertising market has come surging back, with Standard Media Index (SMI) declaring the Covid downturn is over after a 39.7 per cent jump in spend in April.

The resurgence of spend, to $584.4 million for the month, means the Australian market will report growth this financial year, SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Ractliffe said.

“Australia’s advertising recovery is being characterised by explosive growth as we can already see the value of confirmed ad spend for the month of May is well above what we saw in April with the total so far 50.4 per cent above that achieved in May last year (ex Digital media),” she said.

 “Australia’s advertising market is in uncharted territory as we’ve never before seen such levels of meteoric growth.”

Outdoor media is set for a huge jump next month, with bookings more than doubling year on year (up 126.2 per cent), while Cinema media are up 88 per cent for May so far.

In April, five of seven major media are reporting double digit growth.

• Video (TV and digital) bookings are up 43.7 per cent.
• Digital bookings are up 47.1 per cent.
• Outdoor bookings are up 48.7 per cent.
• Audio (radio and digital) are up 40.6 per cent.
• Cinema is up 11.8 per cent.
• Magazines are up 3.5 per cent.
• News Media is down 12.3 per cent.

In the audio category, digital audio rose 97.1 per cent compared to this time last year. News Media digital bookings were up 30 per cent, but were pulled down by a 31.7 per cent reduction in newspaper spend.

For May, Travel is set for “mind-boggling” growth, with total ad spend up 525 per cent – an extra $15m in spend.

In June, Ractliffe said, the total value of bookings was just 2.3 per cent below that reported for all of June 2020.

“We all know these huge gains are coming from a very low base but even so it’s hugely encouraging to see advertising revenues flow strongly across our major media after such a prolonged period of reduced advertising demand,” she said.

Australia’s “meteoric” growth for April is, however, below the rate of some other sophisticated media markets. Canada grew 74.9 per cent, New Zealand grew 56.1 per cent, the US grew 43.2 per cent and the UK grew 24 per cent.

April’s strong results mean Australia’s ad spend this financial year are 0.9 per cent higher than last year, a positive result that will increase when higher May and June data is added.

“Given the Australian media market has suffered through the toughest financial year in its history the fact we will report higher ad demand for the financial year is simply incredible,’ Ractliffe said.