Standard Media Index

The New Zealand ad market gained 4.3% year-on-year to $92.6 million in July, as major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup finals and Commonwealth Games helped boost spend, Guideline SMI data shows. July marked the seventh consecutive month of year-on-year growth, following a run of declines last year.

Key highlights

• Digital rose 9.1% year-on-year to $43.6 million, with Digital Display up 16.5% to $20.5 million and Digital Video jumping 40.8% as Food, Produce and Dairy advertisers more than doubled last July's spend in the format.
• FIFA World Cup finals activity on SVOD/BVOD services drove streaming site spend up 40.8% to $6.1 million, contributing 61.2% of the total Digital Display increase for the month.
• Newspapers posted the biggest percentage gain of any major media sector, up 13.5%, with National Newspapers rising 15.5% and Regional Newspapers jumping 41.8%.
• Outdoor continued to grow, up 8.4% to $16.8 million, led by Billboards, which rose 18.2% to $8.8 million.
• Television slipped 5.3% overall, although Free-to-Air's decline eased to 4.5%, an improvement on its year-to-date trajectory.
• Radio dipped 3.4%, while Cinema gained 15.2%.

Advertiser categories

• Food advertisers led category growth, up 27.8% across all media.
• Communications grew 27.6% and Banking increased 20.6%, with each adding more than $1 million in incremental spend.
• Household Supplies fell 42%.

Financial year to date

Financial year-to-date ad spend is up 3.6% to $379.3 million.

Forward pacing

Forward pacing shows August tracking at 88% of last year's benchmark, with Retail and Automotive Brand among the bullish categories.