Unlike its counterpart in the US, the New Zealand Interactive Advertising Bureau reports strong year-on-year growth for the first quarter of 2009.

In its PriceWaterhouseCoopers-audited survey for the first three months of the calendar year, the IAB found online ad spend had increased 7.99% over the same period in 2008, hitting $46.26 million.

During the same period, advertising in traditional media was down at least 10%.

The IAB’s trailing 12-month total for NZ’s online ad spend has now hit an all-time high of $196.55 million.

While the growth is not as go-go as previous IAB surveys (the last quarter of 2008 showed 22% year-on-year growth), PwC partner Chris Perree says “Given that we are still in the grips of a recession, it’s gratifying to see that the online advertising industry is still performing.

“Online advertising is seen by the market as value for money, especially when there is an anecdotal decease in advertising spend in general.”

Online ad spend by category, Q1 2009
Search/directory: $18.77 million (38%)
Classified: $17.55 million (36%)
Display/banners: $12.94 million (26%)

Classifieds down, display & search up
The first quarter of the year saw online classifieds fall 8.55% year on-year to $17.55 million, hit by a steep decline in job ads. Motoring and realestate online classifieds were also down.

Display advertising grew 11%.

But search and directory advertising grew faster, rising 27% to $18.77 million, cementing its number one slow with 38% of the market by value. The category includes Google and Yellow.co.nz.

IAB NZ chairman (and YahooXtra chief executive) Kevin Bowler says he expects classifieds to struggle for the rest of the year, but continued growth in search and display.

Category breakdowns
Telecommunications spending was down from 13.42% to 8.85% as Telecom kept its power dry in the first quarter ahead of its pending XT launch.

Government Department advertising was down from 13.37% to 10.51%, which the IAB says reflects National’s new tighter spending controls.

Travel and accommodation was the top category with 15.39% share of total online ad spend.

Second was investment, finance and banking on 14.43%.

Automotive stayed steady on 7.79%, just ahead of the growing food and beverage category at 6.87%.

Retail dropped from 4.70% in Q4, 2008 to only 2.94%. The IAB puts the dip down to a seasonal trend.

Earlier, IAB chief executive Greig Buckley told NBR he is sticking by his prediction that online advertising will clock double digit growth this year.

If so, it could well pass radio and magazines to move into third place behind newspapers and TV.

Radio and magazines maintained their lead over online during 2008 (see table below) but with online charging through the recession, and all other media falling, 2009 could be the year that the gap is closed.

The IAB has an expanded version of its Q1 2009 report onsale for $100 via its website.