NZ Ad Market Delivers Record FY Ad Spend | Records Also Fall For The March Month And Quarter

New Zealand’s media industry has shattered previous ad spend records for the financial year, lifting 19.2% from the prior year to move through the $1.1 billion mark for the first time, according to the latest ad spend data from Standard Media Index (SMI).

SMI, which collects and aggregates actual ad payments from all of NZ’s major media agencies, has now reported consistent year-on-year growth in every one of the past twelve months as the market has moved strongly out of the COVID period.

And that higher demand continued into March with the value of total ad spend lifting 3.5% to another record level for any March month, driven by stronger demand for the Digital and Radio media.

SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Ractliffe said the result reflected the strong level of consistency now evident in the market following the huge disruptions during the COVID period.

``New Zealand’s ad market has not only been rebuilding since COVID, but it’s also entered a new period of stability as there’s been year-on-year growth in monthly ad spend for 17 consecutive months,’’ she said.

``And to have now broken through the $1 billion market for the first time in a financial year really is an extraordinary turnaround from the dark days in mid-2020 when the impact of the COVID pandemic was at its peak. Now the ad market has followed the economy in learning to live with COVID and that ensures more certainly for all media stakeholders.’’

The Government category again emerged as the largest in March with total ad spend soaring 42.5% year-on-year with Retail ad spend the second largest category, up 7.6%.

March quarter ad spend has also broken all previous records, with the total up 6.4% as Digital media ad spend soared 14.8% and Radio bookings grew by 10.8%.

And for the financial year, the value of NZ’s ad spend grew 19.2% to $1.1 billion with Digital media bookings lifting 26.1%, TV ad spend growing 10.9% and bookings to Outdoor media increasing by 28.2.

More detail on the March ad spend trends can be found below.

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