Standard Media Index

New Zealand’s media agency ad market delivered its third consecutive month of growth in March with ad revenues up 0.9% from the same time last year to $96.1 million, Guideline SMI data shows.

Key highlights are as follows:

• Digital spend grew 1.4% YOY as Video/Streaming Sites (+42% YOY) and Social Media (+2%) continued to grow and Search declined
• Outdoor bookings rose 7.0%, boosted by Retail Outdoor (+24.4% YOY)
• Linear TV ad spend was back 7.9% with FTA bookings back 10.0% and Subscription TV revenues +8.2%
• Metropolitan and Regional Newspapers were up 11.4% and 15.3% respectively, but tighter National Press ad spend saw overall Newspaper spend back 5.9%
• Radio ad spend rose 3.6% YOY
• Cinema ad spend slipped 17.4%
• Among the key product categories Specialty Retailer ad spend jumped 9.1% while Restaurants were back 23.7% to $5.7 million
• March quarter ad spend is up 0.9% to $251.2 million compared with the first quarter of 2025
• And the financial year ended with a 2.2% decline in ad bookings in the year to March