Weekly magazines continue to slip in readership and circulation but there’s signs of life for lifestyle and niche magazines, according to the latest readership and circulation results from Nielsen and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
Digitally connected consumers in New Zealand use wireless and mobile technology to make their lives easier and save time, shows the latest report from Nielsen. But other studies show technology hasn’t made life easier or more fulfilling at a fundamental level. PLUS: an infographic on the state of digital play in New Zealand.
TVNZ is currently taking a bit of flak over the direction—and the fairly significant decline in ratings—of its new primetime show Seven Sharp. But one of its faithful servants has continued to perform, with the first episode of the fourth season of MasterChef increasing its total audience by almost 100,000 viewers compared to last year.
The magazine industry is doing better than its counterparts in newspapers when it comes to retaining readers, with the majority of New Zealand publications showing stable or increasing readership according to Nielsen Consumer and Media Insights.
There is little value in reminding agency folk that magazines are well targeted and engaging, says MPA’s commercial director Katrina Horton, as a recent survey shows everyone’s pretty much in agreement there. But there is value in talking about why magazines are well targeted, how readers are engaged and what this means for advertisers.
MediaWorks showed off its new season nuggets yesterday, and TVNZ is doing the same next week. So we thought it was high time we took a look at Nielsen’s TAM figures to see what shows tickled the fancies of New Zealanders from the key demographics in 2012.
The quarterly number fest that is the Nielsen CMI Readership and Audit Bureau of Circulation data has been released, and while only a few magazine titles bucked the general downward trend in paid circulation, a majority of titles experienced readership increases, making it the third consecutive survey showing an improvement in total readership.
The primary sector has played a massive role in propping up the New Zealand economy during this recessionary period and while farmers might not be tucking quite as much cash under their mattresses as they have been in recent years, they’re still very lucrative targets, as evidenced by the massive number of companies greasing up to them at Fieldays. And now Nielsen has released results of its inaugural Nielsen Rural Survey to show how they can best be reached.
Buy the assets of one of the world’s most respected brands. Then throw that brand equity on the scrapheap and start from scratch. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but for Z energy, the decision to create a new, more localised, customer-centric brand was a master-stroke.
Just as New Zealand’s advertising industry is world renowned, so too is the local market research industry, routinely succeeding in the face of tight budgets, big tasks, and an ever-increasing need to do more with less. And the people and companies behind some of the industry’s recent achievements were acknowledged at the 7th biennial Market Research Effectiveness Awards at the Hilton last week, with Ipsos coming out on top as the supreme winner for the third time in a row.
The latest newspaper readership and circ figures might not be much to boast about, but there’s plenty of life left in The Press according to advertising creative agency Simpatico. And to prove that point, it recently launched its direct marketing campaign ‘smell the numbers’, whereby the offices of 100 North Island media agencies were exposed to a pungent smell in a bid to encourage them to smell the positive readership numbers the newspaper has been generating.
The magazine sector was celebrating a mostly positive swing after the latest readership, circ and, importantly, engagement figures were released last week. And while the numbers aren’t quite as good for the newspaper sector, the sky is still not falling.
It’s a rather interesting period in the history of magazines and, despite the prevailing belief that shiny new digital toys are killing off paper, the latest readership and circulation numbers have once again showed the market is still in fairly good health in New Zealand.
Prime didn’t quite manage to beat TV One’s 2008 ratings for the Olympic opening ceremony, but, not surprisingly, broadcasting the Games has certainly helped steal some eyeballs off the other channels, with Prime’s share and time spent watching numbers increasing substantially over the previous four weeks and all channels except for Prime and Sky losing share.
There was a bit of chatter in Australia about viewer numbers for the opening ceremony being the lowest since OzTam ratings began in 1999. So what happened in New Zealand? And how did the numbers compare to Beijing in 2008? And what’s this about the Prime Underclass?
After almost two years of consultation and development, Nielsen has launched its new online audience measurement solution, Nielsen Online Ratings, which measures people rather than computers and claims to paint a more accurate picture of the whole online consumer and digital universe. But while the new system has already been endorsed as the official measurement currency by the Australian IAB, that’s not the case in New Zealand.
According to Nielsen’s Online Retail Report, the number of online shoppers in New Zealand has now reached over 1.6 million (49 percent of the total population aged 18+), an increase of 122,000 on the previous year and more than double since 2004.
The magazine sector had some pretty good news to report in the latest round of readership and circulation figures and, given what’s happening internationally, the New Zealand newspaper sector should also be fairly pleased with the results, which show there’s still plenty of life in the old dogs yet.
It’s time to get back to our ABCs. And our Nielsens.
For only the second time, the new magazine circulation methology has spewed its quarterly data, coinciding with the Nielsen Magazine Comparatives Q2 2011 – Q1 2012 readership results.
And the news: it’s all up for most and a …
Supporters of publicly-funded media in New Zealand are feeling fairly tormented at present, with the National Government’s apparent ‘nice to have’ stance manifesting itself in a five year funding freeze for Radio New Zealand and the imminent switch-off of TVNZ7. But Nielsen’s Year That Was report, which includes info on New Zealand media trends, has provided more proof of the importance—and popularity—of Radio New Zealand National by showing it was the top ranking radio station in New Zealand in 2011 with a market share of 11.1 percent.
Media multi-tasking is on the rise in New Zealand, with nearly a third of us consuming multiple forms of media simultaneously according to Nielsen’s Year That Was, a new report exploring the key consumer, retail, media and advertising trends that have shaped New Zealand over the past year.
Nielsen’s managing director of media Stuart Jamieson is set to depart after around ten years in the hotseat to take up a role running the Nielsen business in the Philippines based in Manila. Rob Clark, who was appointed managing director, consumer group in August 2009, is set to take over the new position of country head, but a replacement as MD of media has yet to be announced.
Looking for some words to read and pictures to look at? We’ve got just the thing: a freshly minted copy of NZ Marketing magazine. It’s out now, and there’s plenty to sink your eyes into. Our cover star Dave Walden feeds our own Vincent Heeringa some humble pie, during a very long, very expensive and very overdue lunch; James Hurman shares a few parting shots; we look at whether it’s the best or worst time to be in the TV biz, head outdoors to see if 2011 was just a fluke, and talk to some recruitment high-rollers to find out where job hunters should be looking; Nielsen’s AIS figures show 2011’s big spenders–and where they spent it; and there’s a rundown of all the winners of the RSVP and Nexus awards.
Looking for number-based sneakiness and selective/creative use of statistics comes with the territory in this job. Whenever audience data for magazines, newspapers, radio, TV or online is released, we can generally look forward to a host of releases from proud media owners that, understandably, aim to portray the results in a positive light—and, by extension, portray their competitors in a negative light. And, with the battle for online eyeballs heating up, MSN NZ and Yahoo! NZ are currently engaging in some data-related fisticuffs.
The latest magazine circulation and readership figures came out last week, replete with a few significant changes to the research methodology and mostly downward-trending numbers. But, as ex Saatchi & Saatchi big wig and current Assignment Group don Peter Cullinane discussed at the Nielsen Innovation Seminar this week, magazines still have a very good story to tell because they have higher levels of engagement than other mediums, something a few publishers are trying to tap into with recent changes to their products.
Nothing endures but change, and the latest newspaper and magazine stats from Nielsen and the Audit Bureau of Circulation are no exception, as the ABC changes both its methodology, and its frequency of audits. The ABC will now be sending out quarterly rolling averages, instead of the six months end-on-end averages it has been doing. The key benefits for marketers and agencies will be receiving more regular data, and the methodology of releasing rolling annual totals is aligned with readership.
Nielsen has now implemented its new Unitam model, which takes into account both overnight viewing and time-shifted viewing and also features an expanded panel, so it marks a new step in the way TV ratings are gathered in New Zealand. Added to that, the two major broadcasters are both back into full swing and many of the big new and returning shows that were trumpeted at the vastly different new season launches last year are now on the box. So how is New Zealand watching? And how are the new season ratings stacking up?
In case you hadn’t noticed, the way we watch TV is changing. Appointment viewing is still surprisingly popular and according to Nielsen’s new Unitam figures, which factor in time-shifted viewing, just three percent of total viewing last week was time-shifted and 97 percent was live. In homes with personal video recorders (PVRs), time-shifted programming made up about nine percent of total viewing and people with PVRs watched about seven percent more TV in peak time than those in homes without. Away from the living room, however, the ‘what you want, when you want it’ culture and more reliable streaming means Ondemand content is becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand. And to push its online viewing platform iSky, Sky and two of DDB’s up-and-coming creatives Jay Hunt and Pete Gosselin have created a very funny campaign about a woman spurning her old, decrepit and rather bitter old telly for a shiny, vibrant and cocky new laptop. And, just like ‘Your Happy Place’, the slogan ‘Cheat on your TV’ is spot on, too.
Due to a short lapse in brain-functionality late last year as we dreamed of festive leisure, we made a bit of a whoopsie in the Jan/Feb edition of NZ Marketing by mistakenly running a graph that had featured in the previous issue. The graph was meant to show Nielsen’s TAM statistics about the huge number of New Zealanders who watched RWC games but, because of our error, it obviously made no sense at all and caused a fair bit of confusion. We apologise to all those who were befuddled by it. Here’s the correct graph, with the original story from Nielsen’s Caroline Atford.
The times they are a-changin’ in print media land. Display ads are harder to come by and publishers are being forced to come up with creative solutions to help brands spread their gospel. And, to reference the increasing amount of revenue such creative executions contribute to the magazine industry’s coffers, the MPA has agreed to a new protocol that it hopes will capture more of the spend occurring in magazines for Nielsen’s Advertising Information Services.