Standard Media Index’s (SMI) latest data shows that September’s cross-media ad investment was down 3% compared to last year, making it the fourth month of 2022 to report a year-over-year dip.

“Our September data brings a full picture of Q3 to the market. When compared to Q3 2021, cross-media investment is down 6%,” further adds SMI. However, when compared to Q3 2020, ad investment is up 20%, and lined up against pre-pandemic Q3 2019, investment is up 7%.

The top-five product category groups from a cross-media share perspective for Q3 2022 were CPG (23%), automotive (13%), financial services (13%), retail (10%) and restaurants (7%).

Meanwhile, September digital investment was down 1% compared to last year although some areas did see year-over-year growth. Digital audio reported a 7% increase, search was up 13% and pure play video saw a 3% rise. These sectors also finished Q3 up versus Q3 2021, with increases in digital audio by 9%, search by 11%, and pure play video by 21%.

September 2021 saw digital holding a 57% share of cross-media spend while full Q3 saw 61% share of cross-media spend. These results showed a +1.0 point increase versus September 2021 and a +4.0 point increase versus Q3 2021, respectively.

Within digital investment, the top five category groups were CPG (22%), automotive (17%), financial services (15%), retail (9%) and entertainment and media (5%).

September linear television ad spend was down 6% compared to last year and finished the quarter down 19% versus Q3 2021. “When excluding the 2020 Tokyo Olympic programming that was displaced into the 2021 schedule due to the pandemic, linear TV finished the quarter down 13% versus last year,” states SMI. “September TV declines were driven by both conventional (-3%) and specialty (-9%).”

TV held a 28% share of total cross-media spend for the full Q3, a -4.0 point decline versus the same quarter last year.

When it comes to linear TV spend, the top five category groups were CPG (29%), retail (12%), restaurants (11%), financial services (10%) and automotive (8%).

Overall, considering total cross-media spend per industry, CPG, financial services and automotive took the top three spots in September 2022, similarly to both July and August. CPG saw September year-on-year growth of 1%, financial services had declines of 4%, and automotive 2022 was flat to 2021. Full Q3 saw CPG down 3%, financial services up 1%, and automotive down 9% compared to Q3 2021.

There were a few outliers that managed to finish the quarter up versus last year’s quarter in addition to financial services. General business was up +2%, and pharma was up +7%. However, since total cross-media ad spend was down 6% year over year for Q3, most categories finished Q3 showing declines.

That does not mean that investments weren’t made. “Eight category groups invested more in September 2022 than they did in pre-pandemic 2019. Additionally, nine of twelve category groups invested more in September 2022 than they did in August 2022,” adds SMI.