Determinants of advertising expenditures: aggregate and cross-media evidence

Advertising expenditures account for 1 per cent of developed country GDP, having grown at an average real rate of 5 per cent p.a. over the 1980s. Trends in New Zealand have been similar to trends overseas. Hence analysis of the determinants of advertising in New Zealand should assist understanding of the determinants of advertising expenditures in other developed countries. We discuss changes in NZ's advertising industry and use a multi-equation co-integration framework to model the determinants of NZ advertising expenditure, both in total and across different media. We find that expenditure on advertising in all media is strongly pro-cyclical, that the allocation of expenditures depends on circulation patterns, and that press and magazines are complementary media and are substitutes for TV advertising.     

A longitudinal study of the professions' attitudes towards competition & advertising

The attitudes towards competition and advertising of the members of five professions in New Zealand were monitored in three surveys carried out in 1985, 1988 and 1994. This paper reports on the changes in attitudes that occurred over this nine-year period, noting marked trends in all the professions towards an acceptance of a competitive orientation and advertising in particular. A partial exception to the general trend favouring competition has been the attitudes towards matters directly related to money (for example, fees and credit facilities), where there was markedly less enthusiasm for competition. Attitudes towards advertising by professional practices have relaxed sufficiently to question whether advertising needs to be a matter of concern to the professions.     

Exploring the link between obesity and advertising in New Zealand

This paper reviews the debate on the causes and potential solutions to growing obesity and whether there is a proven correlation with advertising, particularly among children. The paper first considers this debate from the context of the burgeoning literature on this topic. The findings from an empirical study with parents of primary‐age children in New Zealand are then presented. However, any kind of proposed relationship between obesity and advertising tends to be as much emotive as evidential, with for‐and‐against camps lined up to defend entrenched positions. However, it does seem fair to argue that, while advertising does present a problem in relation to food selection choice, many other issues, such as peer pressure, quality of life, in‐school food services, nearby retail outlets and social class criteria, exacerbate the problem. Thus, easy solutions based on insufficient evidence that have failed to substantiate causal effects between advertising (ostensibly) directed at children and nutrition can be seen as inequitable and, thus, ineffective in their intended aims. Although here the paper considers the problem from a New Zealand perspective, the findings may have implications for research elsewhere in the world.     

Workplace Union–Management Partnership: Prospects for Diffusion of Contemporary British Approaches in New Zealand

The level of interest in workplace union–management partnership (WUMP) in Britain in recent years contrasts markedly with New Zealand experience. The characteristics of contemporary notions of WUMP are discussed before considering how it has developed in the UK and examining the historical New Zealand experience with more co-operative models of union–management engagement. With this backdrop, we consider the factors that may explain why there are differences between NZ and Britain in this style of industrial relations. The small scale of New Zealand enterprise (and of unions) and the absence in New Zealand of EU politics and regulation are seen as the major factors in any explanation.     

Thriving on Turbulence

Although there is widespread evidence of links between market orientation and company performance, there is debate over whether the market environment moderates the market orientation-performance relationship. Until now empirical evidence has been limited to the USA, UK and Ghana. This study is based on a large multi-industry sample of firms from New Zealand, a more turbulent country-economy. The results show that although environment can have a direct (and often negative) effect on performance, it can also have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between market orientation and performance. This suggests that more market-oriented firms may actually thrive in more turbulent environments.     

Tobacco Consumption and Advertising Restrictions: A Critique of Laugesen and Meads (1991)

The report of the New Zealand Toxic Substances Board (1989) analysed data from most OECD countries over many years, and concluded that a total ban on advertising would reduce tobacco consumption by 7 per cent. The rather simple method of analysis used has been subjected to some criticism. The scientific editor of the report has recently published a paper in a learned journal in which he subjects the data collected for the report to a more formal statistical procedure, with essentially the same conclusion.

This article is an assessment of the recent paper. It demonstrates that the data used are so flawed that no form of analysis could yield valid conclusions. It also argues that the regression model used is based on an invalid assumption, resulting in a mis-specified model which proves only that advertising restrictions tend to be more severe in countries with lower 27-year average tobacco consumptions.     

Cultural differences affect interactive television advertising

Comparing results from the UK and the USA, this study shows that even subtle cultural differences between two very similar countries can affect new forms of advertising such as interactive television (iTV) commercials. The UK pioneered the mainstream use of iTV advertising, and now it is a mainstream advertising option in the USA on cable networks and online TV networks like Hulu. This study tests whether effective iTV-ad execution factors identified by a previous study of 500 UK iTV campaigns are similarly effective in the USA based on data from 257 iTV campaigns run on the experimental Wink platform between 1998 and 2004. It finds that specific cultural differences make iTV advertising in the USA unique, but also identifies potential globally effective universals for iTV ads. The results of this study allow advertisers to predict the most effective alternative ideas for iTV advertising campaigns run in the USA and potentially in other countries around the world.     

An Analysis of Consumer Complaints about Social Marketing Advertisements in Australia and New Zealand

While social marketers are rarely targeted in discussions of the ethics of advertising, we are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of ensuring that social marketing messages are developed and conveyed in an ethical fashion. The article reviews complaints made by members of the general public in Australia and New Zealand to the advertising regulatory bodies in those two countries for the five years 2000–2004; examining the number, type, and nature of these complaints – including the categories of advertising, and the types of appeals, which generate complaints from the general public in both countries. We find that, as for commercial advertising, there is a need for further research to explore “community standards” in relation to social marketing messages; and that there is a clear need for social marketers to consider consumer attitudes towards advertising when developing communication strategies and messages.     

Client-Agency Relationships

Abstract

The increasing occurrence of client turnover and agency switching among client/agency relationships is of concern to advertising agencies throughout the world. It is proposed that small firms could provide a substantial alternative client base for agencies in order to dampen the impact of uncertainty. This study investigates the perceptions held by owner/managers of small firms toward agencies within New Zealand. We identified two groups of respondents–those who perceived agency contribution to store performance as high and those who perceived it to be low.Significant differences were found between the two group' response ratings on advertising agency services, agency attributes and selection criteria. We conclude by discussing the managerial implications of this study and provide directions for future research in this area     

Global & satellite versus local and terrestrial: an exploratory study of advertising within the UK

This study assesses the impact of the growth of satellite television in the UK on terrestrial channels. The paper outlines the debate concerning satellite television's potential role in globalisation and pan-European marketing processes, provides background information on the development of satellite television in the UK, and gives an insight into the structure of the main UK satellite service, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). An exploratory study into the advertising content of terrestrial commercial (TTV) and satellite television (BSkyB) is discussed and findings are presented. Differences and similarities in advertising content between terrestrial and satellite, in particular the extent of global, national and regional advertising on both channels, are indicated.     

Extending the communication process: the significance of personal influencers in UK motor markets

It has been common practice among members of the advertising community to talk of there having been fashions for particular styles of advertising at different times, but little work has been carried out to investigate the substance of this belief. To evaluate this ‘fashion’ proposition, usage levels were measured for 56 variables in 2,208 advertisements over a 46-year period in magazines from four countries; the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The findings indicated that there had been a tendency for systematic variations in the frequencies of usage in many of the variables measured. The general form of these variations was of cyclical movements about an underlying long-term trend, which were observable for all types of variable studied. While the underlying trends often appeared to reflect developments in the wider society, the cyclical variations appeared to be self-sustaining and largely independent of outside forces. Such behaviour is consistent with the ‘fashion’ hypothesis.     

Retailer Advertising and Retail Competition in the UK

Radical changes have occurred in distribution in the UK over the past three decades. These structural changes have stimulated most retailers to increase their real advertising expenditure. The author analyses the main factors that have brought about the growing intensity of retail advertising as a form of non-price competition.     

The ‘Smee Report’ as a Contribution to The Tobacco Advertising Debate

The UK Department of Health's consultative document on tobacco advertising (informally known as the ‘Smee Report’) occupies a curious position with respect to debates on public policy about advertising. While its conclusions have not been accepted by the UK government, they continue to be used, uncritically, elsewhere in the world as part of the ‘justification’ for bans on tobacco advertising. This article examines the basis of the Smee Report's key conclusions concerning the UK, Canada, Norway, and Finland, and argues that its claims with respect to the effectiveness of advertising bans are untrue.     

Has Advertising Lost Its Meaning? Views of UK and US Millennials

The findings of a study of Millennials in USA and the UK—an increasingly important and digitally savvy segment of consumers—reveal that they see advertising as Companies promoting a product or service to people through media. Their perception is simple and all-encompassing with no evidence that they distinguish between different types of media or different types of communication. Some variation between the views of Millennials in the two countries is also identified, although this is less than expected. The findings contribute to an important and continuing debate among academics and marketing practitioners over how advertising should be defined in today’s multichannel environment. The findings are also compared with other recent definitions of advertising, and their implications are discussed.     

Multinational Headquarters Control of UK Subsidiaries' Advertising Decisions

This study confirms the relative importance of the multinational headquarters international coordinator as a main player in UK subsidiary-advertising agency relations. Five alternative headquarter strategies towards the subsidiary's advertising decision making are identified and their rationales discussed. In general, international headquarter advertising personnel are shown to have substantial control over strategic advertising decisions but allow local adaptation at a tactical level. The research also suggests that during the 1980s such control increased, and that a greater degree of standardized advertising decision making may be expected in the future.     

中国与新西兰水果及加工品贸易竞争性与互补性测算

随着中国-新西兰自由贸易区谈判的逐步深入,中-新水果及加工品贸易必将取得更迅速的发展。援引FAO数据,运用贸易竞争指数,测定中新双方的竞争性和互补性水果产品及其排序。在当前贸易条件下,新方潜在的年额外收益空间要显著地超出中方,并且,中方的互补性优势在加工品贸易中,而新方的互补性优势在鲜果贸易中,这与一般的认识是相反的。今后中国的水果及加工品生产与贸易应采取相应对策在出口量和新品种上争取更大突破。     

Food Miles: Starving the Poor?

Food miles measure the distance food travels to reach consumers’ plates. Although substituting local food for imported produce will not necessarily reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the food miles movement is widely supported by consumers and import‐competing producers, especially in some parts of Western Europe. We investigate the economic implications of food miles preference changes in the UK, France and Germany on other nations using an economy‐wide model. Among the regions we consider, New Zealand is the most distant from Western Europe and Madagascar and Malawi export the most agro‐food products relative to GDP, so food miles movements have the largest impacts on these regions. When there is a linear relationship between distance and preference changes, food miles campaigns decrease welfare in New Zealand, Madagascar and Malawi by 0.30, 0.12 and 0.28 per cent, respectively. When there is a preference shift away from imported food unrelated to distance, proportional welfare losses in the three countries are, respectively, 0.11, 0.08 and 0.24 per cent. With the exception of New Zealand, these findings indicate that some of the world’s poorest nations will suffer the most from European food miles lobbying. We conclude that food miles campaigns will increase global inequality without necessarily improving environmental outcomes.     

International Advertising Expenditure Trends

From the early 1990s, marketing literature began to feature a number of articles suggesting that integrated marketing communications (IMC) would have a major impact on advertising as we know it, and on client—advertising agency relationships. A counter-view appeared at that time in the literature suggesting that IMC was nothing more than co-ordinated promotion and that many companies had been doing ‘it’ for some considerable time. More recent articles have lamented that the concept has not been embraced by marketing communications specialists and that implementation has proven difficult. A common definition of IMC—and how it differs from traditional advertising, both in philosophy and in implementation—has not evolved despite considerable academic discussion on the subject. This paper reviews the most comprehensive definitions of IMC and the competing paradigms—‘new’ versus ‘nothing new’—and summarises the results of a recent two-part study that compares the perceptions of clients with those of senior ad agency personnel in New Zealand regarding how and in what ways IMC is developing there.