Inaugral post

Welcome to our first post! So what's happening in the interactive scene in New Zealand? Lots actually - in a time of recession (no one knows how deep yet) many web publishers, advertisers and their agencies are battening down the hatches, but not necessarily for the normal reasons. There's evidence of brands spending more, publishers doing more and agencies booking more. So the hatch is much more likely to belong to a Sherman tank than some sort of hurricane room or bunker. Think of it more as toughening up and thinking smarter and more strategically about what we do.

Online ad-spend is up (particularly display) both year on year and qtr on qtr. Can't tell you how much yet - but stay tuned for further evidence that online advertising, in particular, continues to grow and outstrip traditional media channels. This doesn't mean that traditional media is completely f*&^d, but don't expect it to look feel or perform in the same ways that it has in the past.

Speaking of which - I had an interesting discussion with a traditional media ad-man who said, quite rightly, he was sick of new media guys (like me :) telling him the end is nigh! He quoted some stats that suggested television viewer-ship was actually up (if you believe the antiquated people meter system still used by broadcasters). To me it's not a question of online, mobile or digital outdoor killing their predecessors - it's more a question of the changing times spent with all media. Like an amicable break-up with your ex. - the intention to stay connected, spend time and remain friends sounds great, but as time drifts so too does that connection - until at last that flashy new "someone" occupies more and more of it (time that is)!

Total time online in this country (with the wired consumer) now occupies more space than any other media according to this report. So the issue isn't so much what is still used and what isn't - it's more a question of how much time your intended audience is spending engaged in it. Online media spend in this country is under 7% yet time spent is (arguably) in excess of 30%. So unless you want to end up like the ex - buy more online advertising now!

The other thing that popped up recently at TIB's advertising Symposium was a certain minister's reference that around 90% of NZ traffic spends their time on over-seas sites. This (like his calculation for the average IQ in our industry) is some serious bollocks. The real figure is more likely between 40 - 60% (check-out Hitwised data if you have access to it). So what does that mean for the local industry or your advertising dollars? Very simply - we need to produce more great local content online and you need to seriously look at how much of your local advertising is being viewed by overseas audiences.

Which leads me to another bit of news - we have launched an online ad network called AdHub. Thankfully - some 80 +% of our audience is local across our sites flicks.co.nz, grownups.co.nz, getfrank.co.nz and weddings.co.nz. See the growth curves for these sites if you want some examples of great content online and how it grows share!