The latest numbers from aggregated media agency bookings are ugly, according to Ben Willee, executive director at Spinach.
“But they are not the apocalypse either,” he said.
Australia’s advertising market ended 2025 softer, with December ad spend down 9.2%. The Guideline SMI data shows full year ad spend down 2% overall, with the 1.6% market growth in the first six months of the year, buoyed by the federal election, wiped out in the second half with a 5.2% fall.
“This is not advertisers falling out of love with advertising, it is advertisers sitting on their hands, watching interest rates, consumers and governments like hawks, wallets clutched tightly,” Willee told AdNews.
“Budgets have not vanished, they have shortened, fragmented and become brutally accountable, which explains why brand channels can wobble while anything promising flexibility, performance or a neat spreadsheet survives.
“The real risk right now is not spending less, it is going into a defensive crouch, turning the volume down, and then acting surprised when the brands that kept their foot on the accelerator drive past waving.”
