While QMS Media’s print advertising revenue has flatlined, its expansion into digital advertising has driven its strong half year results, with revenue being up 25 per cent to $99m from $79m the year before.
Earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EEBITDA) was up 27 per cent to $22.7m. Statutory net profit after tax was up 11 per cent to $8.3m.
The company says its print advertising had a flat performance for the period, citing pricing pressures and volume mix. Print advertising revenue was at $12.8m, down 5 per cent from $13.4m the year before. Static advertising saw a revenue of $36.7m for this half, 3.3 per cent down from $37.7m the year before. Digital on the other hand, grew to $49.5m, 77 per cent up from $27.9m for the same period the year before. While landmark digital billboards increased from 61 in the half year before to 99 and small format digital screens from 3,531 to 3,805, static billboards saw a slight increase from 791 to 797 and small format static dropped from 662 to 653.
Digital revenue now represents 66 per cent of total revenue at QMS. The company says it had strong momentum in its digital roll-out last year with 99 landmark digital billboards operating as of December, with an aim to reach more than 112 by June. In the last half QMS won contracts for Canberra Airport and small format digital advertising across Gold Coast street furniture and Auckland Transport network.
QMS prints through its businesses Omnigraphics, BMG and MMT Print.
Barclay Nettlefold, CEO of QMS Group says, “This is a pleasing result, which has been driven by our continued focus on premium quality landmark digital expansion in strategic markets. Our landmark digital development roll-out has strong momentum, with 24 new billboards switched on during the half. As a result, we have updated our full year development target to over 112 sites to be operational by the end of June 2018. Our smaller format digital presence is an important complement to our landmark network, and we are continuing to invest in strategic expansion to support integrated campaigns across multiple formats.
[Related: Canberra gets first digital billboard]
“Out-of-Home industry growth was strong in the first half, with Roadside Billboards – the core of QMS’ portfolio, outperforming the market.
“We continue to see an attractive opportunity in Sport and are making good progress towards our goal of becoming the largest sports media rights holder in the market, with recent contract wins and renewals in FFA and NRL, and deepening audience engagement opportunities using virtual innovation. We are always looking at new ideas and technology globally, to bring the power of Sport to an expanded audience and will continue to assess further opportunities for growth in this key sector.
“Developing our digital and data capabilities remains an ongoing area of focus. Our DataLab is enabling us to better understand our audiences, and deliver more targeted and valuable campaigns for advertisers, and our investment in Digital Commons provides the capability to expand online and mobile media audience buying into outdoor media.
“We have also launched an industry-first Digital Transaction Platform in New Zealand during the half, which provides a significant opportunity for digital outdoor to be considered with, and compete for, online media investment.
QMS estimates it will reach EBITDA of around $44 to 46m for the full financial year.
Nettleford says, “Looking ahead, we continue to see significant opportunity to unlock additional value from our portfolio through harnessing the power of digital advertising across multiple platforms.”
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