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The Australian Commonwealth Government has claimed top spot as the country’s largest advertising group in 2021, with the Retail sector also scoring first place with the most adspend of any Australian industry, according to new data released today by Nielsen.
The data was recorded between January 2021 and December 2021, and saw the Commonwealth Government beat runner-up, Harvey Norman Holdings, amid a tumultuous year of restrictions, lockdowns and increasing vaccination efforts.
However, the folks in Canberra weren’t the only government on the podium, with state counterparts also ramping up advertising efforts and vaccine encouragement in the wake of Delta and Omicron outbreaks.
Government Victoria finished the year in third place, while Government NSW took out fifth place, and Government Queensland finished further down at 19.
As for the industry ranking, Retail resoundingly claimed first place with a whopping $2316.8M adspend over the previous year, more than doubling the Communications industry’s $1001.3M adspend, likely due to increasing number of bored, locked-down and house-bound Aussies engaging in retail therapy over 2021.
Finance claimed bronze with $731.2M, nudging the Motor Vehicles industry of the podium, which recorded $653.0M
While these recent adspend figures show little change from the first half of 2021, the top advertising rankings saw noticeable shifts.
At the end of H1 2021, Harvey Norman held first place ahead of Government Commonwealth and Government Victoria, the latter maintaining third place over the year.
Suncorp Inc dropped from fourth place during H1, to seventh at year’s end, as well as Amazon.com Inc, which slipped from sixth place to ninth.
Meanwhile, after failing to rank during H1, Sportsbet finally slipped into the top 20 at number 18, while Grammarly and Origin Energy completely dropped out of the top 20, being replaced by the likes of Competitive Foods—owners of Hungry Jacks—which ranked at number 12.
With more Aussies now jabbed, returning to work and returning overseas, it will be interesting to see how the governments and Retail industry rank at 2022’s end.
