New Zealand’s media Agency market in June has recorded the highest monthly ad spend total ever seen in the first six months of the year and the seventh highest monthly advertising total in history.
Media agency bookings soared 67 percent year-on-year to $103.7 million, with that total also representing growth of 13 percent on the June 2019 pre-Covid result.
SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Ractliffe says the advertising recovery in New Zealand was one of the strongest in the world.
“We always expected to be reporting strong advertising demand in June given the impact of COVID last year, but this result is really quite phenomenal as no one would have expected any advertising market to recover so rapidly and so strongly,” she says.
“If you look back over time this June total is much larger than any ever reported and a full $5 million more than what was booked in June 2017.”
Unsurprisingly, all major media benefited from the booming conditions and both the Digital and Outdoor media achieved the highest level of June ad spend on record.
And the strong demand looks set to continue, with SMI’s NZ Forward Pacings data showing July ad spend already 26.3 percent stronger than that achieved last year (ex Digital) while the value of ad spend already confirmed for August equates to 85.4 percent of the total booked for the whole of August 2020.
“We also see especially strong advertising demand continuing into September with an incredible 67.5 percent of the value of last year’s total September bookings already confirmed, and that’s a far higher level of future bookings then you would normally see this far in advance,” Ractliffe says.
The huge growth in June ad spend has pushed the market’s June quarter growth rate to an incredible 64.3 percent against the toughest Covid conditions seen in the June quarter of 2020, with the total even 5.7 percent higher than the pre-COVID June quarter 2019 total.
“The New Zealand advertising recovery is truly in full swing as the market has now reported five consecutive months of year-on-year growth and that’s delivered an impressive 30.6 percent increase in ad spend across the first half of this calendar year,” Ractliffe adds.
SMI NZ: June 2021 Ad Spend Trends
| Media Type | Variance |
| Television | 63.2% |
| Digital | 55.0% |
| Outdoor | 153.1% |
| Radio | 41.6% |
| Newspapers | 70.8% |
| Magazines | 132.7% |
| Other | 62.1% |
| Cinema | 549.2% |
| Grand Total | 67.2% |
