If you are looking at marketing your business as NZ comes out of lockdown, it’s not news that the media landscape has changed a lot over the last four weeks, and your pre-lockdown media plans might not work quite the same way post-lockdown.

With restricted travel and workplace shutdowns, large format OOH advertising like bus shelters, street posters and billboards have received a lot fewer eyeballs than usual. But, if you can advertise right now, you might be surprised at how affordable these formats will be for the next few weeks. Some media companies are providing eligible businesses with free or subsidised advertising packages to stimulate the economy, and as we move through the alert levels and as people begin moving about more, the performance of outdoor will improve rapidly. 

Social Media (Facebook in particular) has seen a massive increase in use over the lockdown, which seems like a good thing but again, advertisers who either can’t sell products right now or who feel it’s inappropriate to advertise have pulled their budgets, leaving even the mighty Facebook with significantly less revenue. For businesses, considering any advertising it’s important to think about how your ads will come across to your audience as we move out of lockdown, but because of great targeting options and availability of audience on Facebook, if your messages are appropriate and your product or service is desirable, it’s a great time to start a campaign. 67% of respondents to the Five by Five COVID-19 survey* say they are using social more than before lockdown, and 40% of them intend to continue to use it more after lockdown ends. The opportunity is there, just make sure your ads are sensitive to the audience, use audience data and targeting well and you should be able to achieve cost-effective results.

Also facing increased usage and reduced revenue at this time are NZ’s news websites. Businesses can advertise in a lot of different ways through our local and national mastheads (for example sponsored content, display ads and video ads), and with respondents’ readership up around 63% the traffic is there right now. After lockdown, 36% of respondents who have been reading online intend to continue to get their news that way – so there should be lots of available advertising inventory and an increased audience for a while yet.

But what does this mean for print newspapers? Well, when production resumes, 57% of people that used to read them say they intend to do so again. This sounds like revenues from print will drop, but don’t be misled, Newspapers are often a shared media, read at cafes, salons and workplaces and left for the next person, so assuming those patterns hold tue, circulation may not drop too much. For business thinking about buying print, an option to ensure good coverage for your brand is to buy packages of both print and digital ad space.

Radio and TV are where the big-bucks get spent when it comes to marketing, and the news for them is good. Interestingly, GFK’s latest survey results show radio listenership is up year on year, and once we start trudging back to the workplace again, the breakfast and drive-time timezones will again be perfect for brands wanting mass reach. TV, however, has not been so lucky in the last few years. With Subscription VOD services flooding the market, free to air TV has suffered a decline in audience year after year. During the lockdown though, 53% of respondents say they are watching more free to air TV, 27% are watching more PayTV and 41% are watching more free on-demand programming. This is understandable with all the spare time we have on our hands and great news for advertisers who have something to advertise, but the news is good for businesses who are considering how to come back strong too. 30% of people watching more TV now intend to keep up the behaviour and 36% of people watching On Demand programming intend to stick with it ongoing. If you have the budget to invest in a TV commercial, get a linear and digital video package to cover your bases. And through the likes of Mediaworks, Stuff, NZME and TVNZ, you can also buy display on their news sites to support your commercials.

It’s not an oversight that I haven’t mentioned Google, YouTube and other international media giants - right now, and very likely for quite some time, our borders are closed and our focus is on our neighbourhoods, local businesses and rebuilding our economy. New Zealand media provides us with local content that reflects the nation’s experience and because the audience’s interests are closer to home, brands should be seen to have the same approach. Domestic media is absolutely the best place to buy right now, for the economy and for your brand.

If you need any help planning what and where to buy media or just a chat about how to go about it, give me a call or an email - I’m happy to help!

*Five by Five’s COVID-19 survey ran between April 17th and 22nd 2020. Respondents were aged 25+ and were Facebook users. Confidence interval 95%, margin of error <7%.