Friday, 29 August 2008www.searchengineroom.com.au
Fresh research reveals that New Zealand’s online advertising industry is marching to a different beat, potentially creating major opportunities for savvy marketers prepared to buck local trends and embrace search engine marketing and optimisation.
A new study from IAB New Zealand and Pricewaterhouse Coopers shows that Kiwi marketers are putting most of their online dollars into classified and display advertising.
This defies global trends where search engine marketing – through the likes of Google - heads the online pack. Optimising websites for high search engine rankings is also very big in larger online markets.
IAB figures show Search leads online advertising spend in Australia (46% share) the United Kingdom (57% share) and the United States (41% share).
Yet in NZ, the IAB study shows that Search and Directories had just 25% of the country’s online ad market share during the June quarter, while classified had 44% and display 31%.
Why is NZ so different? Theories abound, mostly centred on complacency in both the business and advertising sectors, combined with a lack of online sophistication.
Jon Ostler from First Rate says: “NZ has always been a bit behind the curve with online advertising generally. For example, publishers have only just introduced rotating ads rather than fixed tenancies.” But according to Ostler, this lack of maturity means there’s a “massive opportunity” for NZ businesses prepared to embrace Search Marketing and Optimisation.
He says the cost of search engine advertising in NZ is currently half the cost of other markets. “The reality is at this stage that NZ is not a very aggressive search market apart certain categories such as travel.”
But Ostler warns that the door won’t be open forever, and the IAB agrees, forecasting that Search will grow the fastest of all on advertising categories in NZ.
http://www.searchengineroom.com.au/search15-nz-online-marketing-out-of-step-with-global-trend
