The Standard Media Index (SMI) has released its October 2023 ad spend data, revealing a record-breaking surge in Outdoor media ad spend in Australia. According to the report, October bookings for Outdoor media saw a significant 19.3% year-on-year increase. However, the total market ad spend was 2.1% below 2022’s record year-to-date (CYTD) period.

Other media sectors also reported robust ad demand in October. Cinema, for instance, experienced a 12.6% year-on-year increase. However, Digital ad spend saw a slight dip, down 2.4% with revenues related to traditional media removed and back 1.3% overall. Linear Radio ad spend remained flat but showed growth when Digital Audio ad spend was included.

Jane Ractliffe, Guideline SMI APAC Managing Director, stated that the October result was the "second largest ever reported by GL SMI." Ractliffe also noted that the total value of Outdoor ad spend this calendar year-to-date is now 10.4% above that for the same period in 2019, reaching a record CYTD total of beyond $1 billion.

The financial year-to-date results show the market is back just 0.7% on the same record period last year.

Ractliffe said: "There’s a lot of market chatter about the decline in the ad market this year, but that pessimism is sadly misplaced as the SMI numbers confirm that ad spend over the January to October period is the second largest in SMI history. In fact if you remove Government and Political Party category ad spend to normalize for last year’s Federal election, then total ad spend in this calendar year-to-date period would be up as the Government decline this year is more than $100 million and the decline in Political Party ad spend is $50 million.’’