Brisk month for ad spending, at last

Following a rough start to the year for many media, including television, ad spending got back on track in July.

Out of home and digital soared, while big spending on the Women’s World Cup offset the losses broadcast TV has been seeing in recent months.

And auto had its biggest year-to-year gain so far in 2015, contributing to the best month for advertising so far this year.

Spending grew 7 percent over last year, according to the latest monthly ad report from Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending on the part of 80 percent of U.S. agencies.

Digital accounted for a big part of that rise. It grew by 28 percent over last year, including a 93 percent rise for social media.

“Better environments for advertisers and the success of video on social platforms is really driving this social media growth, and we expect this to continue at a similar rate into the foreseeable future,” James Fennessy, SMI’s chief commercial officer, tells Media Life.

Out of home also surged, up 32 percent in July.

“It’s a medium that can’t be ignored and reaches mass audiences, and these factors really appeal to brands,” Fennessy says.

“We have also seen new and innovative creative hit the market which adds to the draw of the medium.”

While TV continued to see ad spending declines versus last year, the drop was less severe than in recent months.

Total TV spending was off 2 percent, including a 2 percent drop for broadcast. That was largely attributable to tough comparisons from last year, when Univision carried the World Cup. Remove that, and broadcast would have been up.

The Women’s World Cup gave Fox a big boost and Telemundo, which has been seeing ratings gains on rival Univision, surged by double-digit percentages.

Other traditional media didn’t fare quite as well. Radio fell 9 percent, while newspapers were down 3 percent.

But it was a strong month for auto, which posted a 12 percent gain.

“This is the best performing month for the year for the category and was driven in large part by the significant amount of advertising the FIFA Women’s World Cup on Fox attracted,” Fennessy says.

Tags: 2015 ad spending, ad spending, advertising, july ad spending, media economy, standard media index