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The latest IABNZ/PwC Insight report released in mid-February has revealed that total online advertising spend in New Zealand for 2011 was $328.11 million, up from $257.46m for 2010 (an increase of 24.16%).

According to Liz Fraser, IABNZ Chair & General Manager MSN New Zealand: “The full year results are exceptional with 24.16% growth year-on-year for total online revenue. No other media will be reporting growth anywhere near this figure, which shows advertisers are shifting their marketing budgets rapidly to online. Even with a softened economy, digital advertising is making tremendous gains.”

Mobile ad spend reporting

In their latest insights report the IABNZ and PwC have for the first time released an annual figure for mobile advertising spend during 2011. Despite it being very early days for mobile advertising in NZ, evidence from overseas suggests that there is massive room for growth in this area. What’s more the significant increase in smartphone penetration in NZ over recent years, (around 30% of all handsets) means we’re likely to see more advertising dollars being allocated to this channel.

“The Mobile platform opens up more positive opportunities to connect with consumers ‘on the go’, and we believe New Zealand will follow the international trends of Mobile online advertising spend increasing as the population of smartphone and tablet users continues to grow.” - Chris Perree, Partner, PwC

What can we expect from the year ahead?

As we look forward to the trends we’re likely to see in 2012, Sandra King (Group Sales & Marketing Manager at Fairfax Media) suggests that more spend will allocated to online video and mobile advertising, particularly due to the strong audience performance of these platforms: “New Zealand still lags investment in video and mobile advertising when compared to the rest of the world and we believe is set to change".

Given the data from the latest report together with the strong ROI we’re seeing from our search marketing clients, we too believe that 2012 is a very exciting year for online advertising in New Zealand with recent figures reinforcing the fact that businesses simply cannot ignore the exposure and ROI that online marketing can deliver.