Harvey Norman tops Australia's biggest ad spenders as finance and travel surge
Sydney February 9, 2026 - Nielsen's Biggest Ad Spenders of 2025 Report shows that Harvey Norman was Australia's largest advertiser in 2025, with retail and major consumer brands once again dominating the country's Top 20 advertiser rankings. The annual analysis, powered by Nielsen Ad Intel, tracks advertising investment across the market and highlights where competition intensified year-on-year as brands fought harder to win attention across a rapidly evolving media environment.
Nielsen's latest research shows ad investment concentrated in categories where Australians are actively reassessing costs and shopping around, most notably finance and insurance, while retail remained the clear heavyweight of the market. Travel and accommodation also climbed, reflecting strong demand in a crowded environment, as airlines, hotels, tourism bodies and booking platforms increased spend to stay front-of-mind.
Rose Lopreiato, Nielsen Ad Intel's Australia Commercial Lead, said: More than ever, where you spend matters as much as how much you spend. With retail still dominating overall investment and faster growth coming through finance, insurance and travel, advertisers need a clear view of the battlegrounds, both the categories pulling the most dollars and the brands increasing pressure. Independent measurement like Ad Intel helps marketers pinpoint the moments and sectors where competitors are most active, so they can invest with confidence, defend share, and avoid being outgunned in the categories where customers are actively shopping around.
A wave of new entrants reshaped the 2025 list, including Westpac, Big W, Stan Entertainment, Budget Direct, Nestle Australia, Allianz, KIA and QANTAS.
Australia's Top 20 advertisers for 2025 1. Harvey Norman, 2. Reckitt Benckiser, 3. Amazon.com, 4. Hungry Jack's, 5. Westpac, 6. McDonald's, 7. Chemist Warehouse, 8. Commonwealth Bank, 9. Woolworths, 10. Coles, 11. Youi, 12. Big W, 13. Disney, 14. Mondelez International, 15. QANTAS, 16. Stan Entertainment, 17. Budget Direct, 18. Nestle Australia, 19. Allianz, 20. KIA
The most notable movement year-on-year came from finance and insurance. Westpac entered the Top 20 at number 5, while Commonwealth Bank climbed from 12th to 8th. Insurance brands also strengthened their presence, with Budget Direct (17) and Allianz (19) entering the Top 20, while Youi rose from 17th to 11th.
Retail remained the market's dominant ad investor in 2025, attracting $2.312 billion, well ahead of every other category. Finance ranked second with $756 million, followed by Travel & Accommodation on $684 million, underscoring how fiercely brands competed in sectors tied to big household decisions and discretionary spending.
Top 20 ad categories by investment in 2025 1. Retail: $2.312b, 2. Finance: $756m, 3. Travel & Accommodation: $684m, 4. Communications: $656m, 5. Motor Vehicles: $646m, 6. Entertainment & Leisure: $549m, 7. Insurance: $493m, 8. Food: $407m, 9. Services: $368m, 10. Computers: $348m, 11. Education & Learning: $302m, 12. Real Estate: $265m, 13. Community & Public Service: $264m, 14. Pharmaceutical: $230m, 15. Government: $224m, 16. Appliances (Home & Outdoor): $207m, 17. Clothing & Accessories: $172m, 18. Gambling: $171m, 19. Media: $152m, 20. Toiletries & Cosmetics: $152m
Despite ongoing economic pressures, the spread of investment across the 20 categories shows that brands continued to prioritise advertising, protecting share and maintaining presence.
Finance led the gains, up $123.3 million ( 19.5%), while Insurance rose $57.2 million ( 13.1%).
Travel & Accommodation also increased $76.5 million ( 12.6%), suggesting demand remained strong, but competition for bookings intensified across airlines, accommodation providers, tourism organisations and booking platforms. There was also growth in Computers ( $52.4 million, 17.7%) and Services ( $40.1 million, 12.2%).
About the report Nielsen's Australia's biggest ad spenders of 2025 report provides an independent, comprehensive view of advertising investment across Australia, identifying the nation's top advertisers, the categories attracting the highest spend, and the key shifts compared with 2024. The report is underpinned by Nielsen Ad Intel, offering an authoritative perspective on where the advertising market is heading, and what it signals about competition, consumer behaviour and brand strategy in the year ahead.
About Nielsen Ad Intel Ad Intel provides the most complete source of cross-platform advertising intelligence available today. With intuitive software, review-and-compare ad activity across media, company, category or brand, plus historical data.
Note: Nielsen monitors gross advertising expenditure in major media at published rate card values. While discounts are made available from some media owners, rates are not openly available. Please also note that the category and brand/product groupings figures are grouped at Nielsen's discretion.
Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram).
About Nielsen Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
Media Contact Dan Chapman
Assoc. Director, Communications, Nielsen APAC
dan.chapman@nielsen.com
61 404 088 462
More from Nielsen
09/02/2026
Harvey Norman tops Australia's biggest ad spenders as finance and travel surge
Sydney February 9, 2026 - Nielsen's Biggest Ad Spenders of 2025 Report...
06/02/2026
Despite most never having strapped on skis or skates, Aussies are keen for some ...
05/02/2026
During this period, streaming comprised the majority of ad supported TV (45.6%),...
04/02/2026
Pilot To Launch with Super Bowl LX on February 8 and Continue with High Profile Live Events, Entertainment and Sports
Nielsen to Use State of the Art Wearable...
29/01/2026
Bluey' Wins Second Consecutive Top Streaming Title of the Year with 45 Billi...
28/01/2026
Airlines, cruise and tour operators double down on ad spend as Australians' prioritise travel
Sydney January 28, 2026 - New Nielsen Ad Intel data shows a...
27/01/2026
Nielsen will continue to drive growth and provide local audience measurement
in...
23/01/2026
Multi-year deal utilizes Nielsen's full suite of local audience marketing in...
23/01/2026
New York, NY January 21, 2026 - Neptune BidCo US Inc. (the Issuer or the Co...
22/01/2026
Strategic hire marks latest milestone in Gracenote's continued expansion into CTV advertising & monetization
New York - January 21, 2026 - Nielsen's Gr...
21/01/2026
The Living Room Remains Central: Nielsen Highlights Growing TV Screen Dominance ...
20/01/2026
December, the first month of winter and the holiday season, has traditionally encouraged families to spend time together in front of the television. During this...
20/01/2026
During December, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.3%, an increase of 0.1 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...
20/01/2026
Christmas Day is Most-Streamed Day Ever with 55 Billion Viewing Minutes, led by...
19/01/2026
The Majority of Those Surveyed Prefer to Buy Brands Who Advertise in Content Tha...
13/01/2026
Singapore - January 13, 2026 - Nielsen today announced the appointment of Matty Lin to its Commercial Organization as APAC regional sales leader.
Based in Sing...
06/01/2026
First-of-its-kind SSP capability delivers program-level insight and brand suitab...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
18/12/2025
During November, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.2%, an increase of 0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI TV,...
18/12/2025
November continued the upward trend in television viewership. The significantly colder weather and a rich programming lineup encouraged viewers to spend more ti...
18/12/2025
As viewers turn to sports highlights, recaps and documentary programming, expand...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
11/12/2025
A Majority of the World's Population (51%) Identify As Soccer Fans
The 2025 MLB postseason notched 58.2 billion viewing minutes, up +24% from the prior y...
10/12/2025
During this interval, streaming comprised the majority of ad supported TV (46.4%...
08/12/2025
Nielsen's robust data offering enables marketers to connect with their target audience more effectively and drive better results throughout Amazon's adv...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
02/12/2025
NGID volunteers in the United States
NGID volunteers in Mexico
NGID volunteers in India
NGID volunteers in Spain
NGID volunteers in Australia
NGID voluntee...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
25/11/2025
Nielsen will now measure both Lionsgate's FAST channel MovieSphere and Movie...
24/11/2025
Mumbai - November 24, 2025 - In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in coll...
24/11/2025
Disney Achieves Largest Monthly Share Increase, Followed by FOX and Paramount, w...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
18/11/2025
During October, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 23.7%, a marginal shift of -0.8 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI...
18/11/2025
Broadcast Builds On Lead Over Cable, Driven by Football and Drama Programming Ga...
11/11/2025
Rural connectivity rising fast
Traditional media still matters
Rural Filipinos...
06/11/2025
With nearly 50% of streamers willing to cancel a service based on difficulty fin...
05/11/2025
A Nielsen survey of 500 directors and millions of monday.com workflows reveals t...
05/11/2025
Prime Video's VoD offerings included for the first time in standardized AGF Measurement
Frankfurt, October 28, 2025. AGF Videoforschung, together with Ama...
04/11/2025
New York, NY - November 3, 2025 - Neptune BidCo US Inc. (the Issuer or the Co...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
24/10/2025
Warsaw - Poland, October 20, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has published its latest All Screens Video Landscape r...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
16/10/2025
60% say infotainment systems are a critical purchasing or leasing consideration,...
14/10/2025
From bowser to basket, 9 in 10 Aussies are feeling the impact of rising prices
26% of households earn over $160k, but are still concerned about rising prices...
Harvey Norman tops Australia's biggest ad spenders as finance and travel surge
