MEDIA
PLANNING
NZ
Independent, data-driven media planning and buying across every channel in the New Zealand market, built around your audience and objectives, with no bias toward any media owner.
Data-led. Audience-first.
Always independent.
Media planning in New Zealand is both science and craft. The science is in the data, Nielsen TAM television audience measurement, GfK radio survey data, Roy Morgan consumer research, comScore digital audience data, and OOH audience movement analytics from QMS and Ooh!media. The craft is in knowing how to interpret that data for the specific rhythms of the New Zealand market.
New Zealand has distinct media consumption patterns that differ from Australia and other comparable markets: higher radio reach per capita, strong free-to-air TV among 35+ audiences, a rapidly growing BVOD market, and an OOH landscape increasingly dominated by digital inventory. Our media plans reflect these realities.
Full-Channel Planning
TV, radio, OOH, digital, print, cinema and ambient, every available NZ medium evaluated against your audience and objectives.
Audience Research
Primary NZ audience research and syndicated data from Nielsen, Roy Morgan, GfK, and comScore, calibrated to your specific target profile.
Budget Modelling
Reach, frequency, and CPT modelling at multiple budget levels, helping you understand the trade-offs before committing spend.
Post-Campaign Analysis
Detailed performance review against plan targets, with channel-level learnings fed directly into the next campaign's strategy.
Media Planning and Buying in New Zealand: How It Works
Media planning in New Zealand is the process of determining the optimal combination of advertising channels, placements, and scheduling to reach a defined target audience with sufficient frequency to drive brand awareness, consideration, or direct response, within a defined budget. Media buying is the subsequent process of negotiating and purchasing that inventory at the most competitive rates available.
The NZ Media Planning Process
A rigorous New Zealand media plan begins with a precise audience definition, not a broad demographic (Women 25-54) but a behavioural and attitudinal profile that describes who the brand most needs to reach and what media environments they inhabit. This audience profile is then mapped against New Zealand media consumption data to identify the channels and properties that index most strongly against the target.
The media mix recommendation that emerges from this process specifies not just which channels to use, but how much budget to allocate to each, which specific properties within each channel to prioritise, what scheduling approach (burst vs drip, seasonal weighting, daypart targeting) will deliver the required reach and frequency, and how channels will complement each other to create a coherent cross-media experience.
Media Buying in New Zealand
New Zealand's media buying market is relatively concentrated. TVNZ and Three dominate free-to-air television. NZME and MediaWorks divide the majority of commercial radio. QMS and Ooh!media lead outdoor advertising. Google and Meta dominate digital display and social respectively. This concentration means that media agency relationships, negotiating leverage, and volume commitments play a significant role in the rates and positions available to clients. As one of New Zealand's established independent agencies, Pulse Media maintains strong direct relationships with all major media owners while remaining structurally free from any conflicts of interest.