WELLINGTON: Interactive Advertising* in New Zealand passed $200m in a quarter for the first time in Q3 2015. The 21% increase year-on-year was fueled by significant spend increases in the Mobile (98%), Social Media (53%) and Search and Directories (28%) categories.
The Display category grew by a relatively modest 8% year-on-year, reaching $36m. Growth in Video advertising spend slowed while Programmatic continued its inexorable march reaching $3m over the period. The Search and Directory category extended its market leading run reaching $110m for the quarter and 55% of all interactive spend.
Social Media revenue (vendor-based Agency bookings reported by the Standard Media Index) showed a 53% year-on-year improvement, reaching $10m for the reported period. Full-year revenue from this sector is expected to reach $38m. Mobile advertising generated $7m for the quarter and the category has written $16.9m year-to-date already outstripping the 2014 full-year figure by some $4m.
The report reflects this advance has been driven by smartphones, with phone based advertising revenue increasing 123% year over year, while tablet revenue grew 22% in the same period. Overall mobile advertising expenditure now makes up 4% of total online advertising expenditure and continues to present an open goal for marketers.
Year-to-date revenues for the New Zealand Interactive industry reached $580 million – a 33% increase year-on-year. On current run rates, the IAB estimates the full-year interactive revenue number to be just short of $800m.
