Australia’s robust advertising expenditure in the face of continued Covid-19 disruptions might feel remarkable to some, but it’s no surprise to media industry thought leaders. And many agencies reporting a record-breaking year as a result.

Australia’s advertising spend has hit another record, with August figures up 26.6 per cent on last year’s tally and 11.6 per cent higher than 2019 results.

Nearly 40 per cent of digital media spend, or more than $54 million, was wasted by Australian brands pursuing advertising campaigns between July and September this year, a new report claims.

Woolworths retail media arm, Cartology, has partnered up with YouTube to connect the video platform with its advertising offering for FMCG customers.

Australia has had its fourth consecutive month of +40 per cent advertising growth across July and sales excluding digital are already up 15 per cent for the month of August.

All the latest martech and adtech news from Adobe, Seismic, Twilio, Qualtrics, InMobi, Liftoff, Vungle, Lytics and Bench.

Advertisers are increasingly looking to take direct control of their media spend and they’re looking for more ways to harness first-party data to improve these advertising efforts, a new report finds.

Australia’s advertising spend is expected to grow by 9.1 per cent in 2021 as the sector makes a quicker and stronger recovery than expected but will still trail 2019 investment levels as some channels take longer to bounce back from the global pandemic.

​A 30 per cent increase in free range chicken buyers and a 72 per cent lift in new brand buyers are two standout results for Ingham’s chief marketing officer, Seb Brandt, from its first audience-led outdoor campaign.

Against all odds, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are on. To many, this will be thrilling, surprising or even shocking. To advertisers, it will be unprecedented. And to the athletes, the culmination of hard work against the most difficult of olds.

Filmed entertainment and out-of-home were the worst hit sectors during the height of Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, while the winners were Internet advertising, streaming and broadcast video on-demand and esports, the latest PwC Entertainment and Media Outlook report finds.

Media channels vary greatly in their ability to generate sales growth over the short to long term, with the rate of diminishing returns, scale and risk key elements in achieving the optimal media mix for your brand.

It might be a catchy line, but the Federal Government’s latest Covid-19 vaccination advertising line campaign, ‘Arm yourself’, lacks punch and the right mechanisms to motivate Australians to change behaviour and get the jab.

​Almost one-quarter of Australian agencies traded digital out-of-home (DOOH) inventory during 2020, a third are getting into programmatic digital out-of-home and greater creative experimentation is on its way in FY22 and beyond, the IAB reports. The latest figures come as the Outdoor Media Association also reports a triple-digit increase in net media revenue across the category to $203.3 million for Q2, 2021, with DOOH picking up the lion’s share.

Half of the Federal Government’s $6 million digital advertising spend over the past 15 months has been related to Covid, but just $32,000 of it reflects vaccine-related messaging.

It’s been another month of strong advertising gains, with SMI reporting total Australian ad spend for the month of May soaring over 70 per cent year-on-year and exceeding pre-Covid results for the first time since the crisis began.

One of the silver linings of 2020 was the way marketers stepped up to assist their colleagues in sectors in need. So in September of last year, Share With Oscar launched a new campaign to alert its customers to the availability of unused hotel parking spaces around Sydney.

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has confirmed former CEO of Free TV Australia, Julie Flynn, as its new interim CEO.

The Lion’s Share has made its official debut in Australia and is calling on local brands to get behind its vision to support animal welfare and biodiversity through their advertising work.

Fresh SMI Australian advertising figures show record 39.7 per cent ad spend growth during April and put the industry on track to report growth this financial year.

The owner of women’s fashion brands including Katies, Millers and Noni B has been fined more than $600,000 for multiple breaches of the Australian consumer law relating to its health essential product line.