Richard Thompson, chief executive of KPEX

Given the amount advertisers are spending on Google and Facebook, do local marketers actually care whether businesses are local or international? Is this something they should care about?

Yes, absolutely. There are a couple of factors to take into account when considering why they care that go beyond the obvious and more emotive reasons.

Firstly, a recent Communications Council NZ report has demonstrated that advertising contributes $6 billion to the New Zealand economy each year and helps employ over 44,000 people. New Zealand’s advertising industry ranks fourth in the world for creativity and if marketers expect to see such an outstanding output and business results into the future then we are all very incentivised to support the New Zealand advertising ecosystem.

Secondly, marketers care about the performance of their activity and there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate that local content works harder from a brand perspective.

Why do we see so many New Zealand brands associate themselves with New Zealand’s culture, sporting teams or events? The answer is simply a more engaged and invested audience. New Zealanders care about, engage with and can relate best to our Kiwi culture. The same applies to content, it’s no surprise that the majority of the top rating TV shows every year are New Zealand made. Of course there is value in New Zealand content for brands and we should protect this fervently.