NEW YORK—Standard Media Index (SMI) is reporting a slight increase of 1% for U.S. advertising in May of 2022 compared to a year earlier and an increase of 2% for linear television in May.
But TV advertising is tracking downwards by 10% in the first two months of Q2 2022 compared to a similar period in 2021.
The report is based on SMI Core data, which captures the actual spend data from the SMI Pool partners of major holding companies and large independent agencies, representing up to 95% of all US national brand ad spending on TV, OTT, digital, out of home, print, and radio.
While the total May 2022 advertising spending was relatively flat year-over-year with a modest amount of growth, it was the second-highest spend month so far in 2022 and the best May on record per SMI Core data, since 2017, SMI reported.
Based on pre-bookings, total June 2022 spending is projected to be relatively flat vs. June 2021, SMI said.
Digital and out-of-home continued to post the largest percent spend increase vs. 2021 and the shift in ad dollars towards digital continued, with online channels representing a 56% share of dollars.
The SMI report noted that the linear TV spend receded in Q2 2022 to date, as gains in the sports genre (+15%), primarily NBA and NHL, failed to balance out the pull-back across entertainment (-14%) and news (-4%).
In terms of the major media players, SMI reported that only Facebook and Disney sustained ad spend gains into May 2022 vs. 2021.
Facebook reached a new high for the month, with ad revenue growing 8% vs. 2021 and +61% vs. 2020.
Disney ad revenue grew +5% vs. March 2022 and +46% vs. March 2020. Disney was the only top-five traditional media owner to display increased spending in the linear TV space (+8%). Warner Bros. Discovery Digital ad revenue rose +46% vs. 2021, counteracting linear TV declines (-5%) but not enough to tip the scale toward overall growth.
