29 June 2015

USA: Digital and Out of Home star in May ad market

Digital’s growth, which leapt +24 per cent in May on a year-on-year basis, continues to keep the ad market in positive territory. Digital ad types across the board delivered healthy double-digit gains, with social media sites jumping by close to 60 per cent and almost half of the digital spend bought programmatically. Digital’s share has expanded by five percentage points to 30 per cent of all spend in the calendar year-to–date.

SMI’s data also shows that out-of-home ad spending bucked recent trends and grew by eight per cent in May on a YOY basis.

“May’s results are a mirror image of the last few months. Digital continues to surge at the expense of other media. TV ratings were soft in May and we see SMI’s numbers following in lock step with these results. Digital video continues to grow, and as audience measurement on mobile devices improves, we are confident that these gains will accelerate and positively impact the spend going to the major networks,” said SMI’s chief commercial officer James Fennessy.

Television continues to face a challenging ad market, with broadcast falling by minus 8 per cent for the month and minus seven per cent for the quarter so far, in comparison to 2014. Cable fared a little better, contracting by minus three per cent in May and minus four per cent for the quarter-to-date compared to last year.

Continuing the trend of previous months, major advertiser categories including telecommunications, automotive and financial services grew significantly in digital at the expense of all other media types.