NZ online advertising grew 67pc in Q1

Online advertising in the first quarter of the year grew 67.2 percent from a year ago to new record $46 million, according to a survey reported by NZPA (via www.publicitas.com).

IAB Insight said the advertising was up 17.91 percent up on the previous quarter despite the first quarter traditionally being slower than the fourth quarter.

The IAB report shows dramatic increases over last year in all three categories of advertising measured by the report. Display was up 68.3 percent to $11.5m, classified up 52.4 percent to $19.2m and Search & Directories up 93 percent to $15.1m.

IAB chief executive Mark Evans said the increases were not unexpected.

“We’ve been saying consistently for some time that we expect strong growth as New Zealand plays catch-up with other markets, and that’s what we’re seeing here.

“This growth is clear evidence that more advertisers are starting to spend more money online, and we expect that trend to continue for some time to come as more and more advertisers start to spend more of their advertising budgets online.”

IAB chairman Lee Williams said new advertisers were starting to spend online while existing advertisers were spending more, and there was growth right across the sector.

While overseas businesses were spending 15-20 percent of their advertising budgets online, in New Zealand online advertising is still less than 6 percent of total advertising.