Australian market set for modest media spend growth in 2012: Starcom research

The discrepancy highlights the different perspectives of the two groups, particularly coming off a tougher year for media executives, according to John Sintras, chief executive officer of Starcom Mediavest Australia. It is not unusual for the figures to be different, he said, but added that advertisers' estimates are typically more conservative than media agency expectations.

"Media executives are coming off a year of flat or zero growth in Australia," he said.

Expectations had originally been for around 6 per cent growth at this time last year, but a year of slow international growth, as well as several natural disasters at home curbed much of the expected spending. That left many media staff struggling to live up to the budget expectations left for them. "[Those budgets] were always going to be difficult in hindsight," Sintras said.

Both groups have had their expectations buoyed by what will be an Olympics year in 2012. "The largest anticipated revenue spike for TV executives is being driven by sports and special events, with the London Olympic Games most likely driving this expected growth," the Media Futures report states.

The research also indicates a (slight) slowing of the extraordinary growth in digital advertising, particularly in search. While media executives expect stronger growth in mobile this year, the recent surge in search dollars is likely to moderate, they say.

“Advertisers are following eyeballs as consumers are spending more time using the internet on their mobiles, tablets, and desktops,” Sintras said. As such, the Media Futures survey predicts a faster migration of advertising dollars to mobile.