Last year, the IAB New Zealand Digital Audio Working Group released the Digital Audio Buyers Guide: a resource designed to help media planners and buyers better understand the role digital audio can play in the modern media mix. This year, they're expanding on that work with a series of articles exploring the evolving audio landscape in more depth. This first article written by our Digital Audio Working Group Lead Hannah Merritt, Strategy Director at PHD examines the scale of digital audio within New Zealand’s broader audio ecosystem, and why it deserves greater consideration in your media planning.
Audio offers the greatest reach potential of any media channel
Today, 92% of New Zealanders consume some form of audio every week. That places audio ahead of online video viewing (91%), ahead of social media, and ahead of many of the channels that dominate modern media conversations.
By audience reach and habitual consumption, audio remains one of the country’s most pervasive media environments. Yet despite this, many media plans continue to treat it as a secondary consideration.
Importantly, audio consumption is no longer confined to traditional broadcast environments.
Of that 92%, more than half now engage with audio digitally:
76% listen to live radio online each month
70% stream music
55% listen to podcasts
Weekly audio consumption has remained consistently high over time. What has changed is the way audiences move across the category. Listeners now engage fluidly across a broad ecosystem that includes terrestrial radio, streaming platforms, podcasts, connected devices, and on-demand audio content.
In other words, audio has not fragmented into irrelevance. It has expanded. According to GWI, New Zealanders now spend almost 14 hours per week listening to audio - an increase of 90 minutes year-on-year.
For media planners, this presents an important strategic question: if audio represents one of the most consistently consumed forms of media in the country, are media investment decisions reflecting that reality?
Audience consumption has outpaced advertising investment
Despite strong and growing audience engagement, digital audio remains significantly underrepresented in advertising investment.
Digital audio currently accounts for just 4% of online video advertising spend. Not 40%. Four percent.
That disparity is particularly striking when consumption patterns are considered. Digital audio engagement is substantially larger than the investment allocated to it, creating a gap between audience behaviour and advertiser response.
The market is beginning to correct. Digital audio advertising revenue increased 16.3% year-on-year, according to IAB New Zealand Digital Advertising Revenue Report figures. However, the category remains comparatively uncluttered relative to more mature digital channels.
For advertisers, this matters.
Periods of media underinvestment often create disproportionate opportunities for brands willing to establish an early and consistent presence. Lower competitive density can improve share of attention, strengthen familiarity, and create efficiencies that become harder to achieve once a channel reaches maturity. Digital audio appears to be entering that phase.
Digital audio should be planned as an ecosystem, not a platform
One of the most common misconceptions in media planning is treating digital audio as synonymous with podcasts or a single streaming platform. In reality, digital audio encompasses a much broader set of listening behaviours, from live radio streaming, through to music, and original narrative podcasts.
This distinction matters because audiences do not consume audio through a single environment. They move seamlessly across formats, devices, and platforms throughout the day.
Podcast advertising, for example, is bought against content rather than platform. A listener may consume the same podcast via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or Rova, and similarly the advertising relationship remains tied to the content itself. That’s where the phrases “wherever you get your Podcasts” comes from and is true for advertising too.
The exception being YouTube, where advertising in New Zealand is currently only bought through Google. Overseas, Podcast content providers have started offering advertising on their content on YouTube, so we may see similar agreements come to New Zealand in the future.
For planners, the implication is clear: effective audio strategy requires identifying the right content environments and listening contexts for the audience, rather than focusing exclusively on distribution platforms. Each audio format plays a different role within the day and reaches audiences in moments that are often inaccessible to visual channels. Audio accompanies routines and behaviours that occur away from screens: commuting, exercising, walking, cooking, working, and household tasks.
These are often high-attention environments with relatively low advertising competition.
When digital audio is considered alongside the scale of terrestrial radio, the total reach opportunity becomes significantly larger than many single-platform buying approaches suggest. The ecosystem is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Excluding digital audio means excluding part of the audience
The strategic risk of underinvesting in digital audio is no longer theoretical. Today, 14% of New Zealanders consume audio exclusively online. They do not engage with terrestrial radio or AM/FM broadcasting. If digital audio is absent from a media plan, this audience is effectively unreachable through audio advertising.
That audience also skews younger. New Zealanders aged 18–24 record the highest rates of online-only audio listening of any demographic group. For brands targeting younger consumers, excluding digital audio increasingly means excluding a meaningful share of audience attention.
Importantly, this trend is unlikely to reverse. As younger cohorts age and their media habits mature, the proportion of consumers reachable primarily through digital audio will continue to grow. The current 14% figure is likely an early indicator of broader behavioural change across the market.
For media planners, the implication is straightforward: digital audio is no longer an emerging extension of audio strategy. It is becoming fundamental to achieving complete audience reach. For a deeper look at how to approach planning, measurement, and strategy within the category, download the Digital Audio Buyers Guide.
This article was written by Hannah Merritt, Strategy Director at PHD and lead of the IAB New Zealand Digital Audio Working Group.
IAB New Zealand Members can download the full Digital Audio Buyers Guide here
For further information or to become an IAB New Zealand Member, please get in touch.