Ben Young: Are we really digital leaders?

Weta Digital may lead the world in digital effects, but is NZ really a digital leader? Photo / supplied

It's the question often thrown about, how are we doing? Do we, as everyone asks, punch above our weight?

On one hand we have Weta Digital leading the world in digital effects on the other hand our digital marketing spend is much lower than the US. So what's going on here?

I asked kiwi expat Andy Lark, Chief Marketing Officer of Dell USA a few months ago at a University of Auckland event, whether he thought New Zealand was ahead or behind the eight ball in terms of digital marketing. He said no, we're ahead - interesting.

We are however a nation of small businesses, of which there can be a heck of a lot of variance, in small competitive industries I'm sure there are huge pockets of innovation in the digital space. On the flip side some older traditional businesses just aren't leaping in.

They're comfortable and change is (perceived to be) painful.

Facebook does well here, with 1.75 million, or 40 per cent of our population which really is an incredible amount.

It represents a ripe opportunity for kiwi companies to present their offers to the market in a timely, rich and relevant way. So the markets there, we're logging in, and we're engaging - just brands haven't caught up yet.

It's kind of like the penetration of smart phones & iPads within the marketplace, yes you can block it, but you can't block people's devices. Consumers are effectively dragging companies along like balloons. Come on guys keep up!

I recall when the Playstation 3 was launched there were security concerns about people being able to wander into work with so much processing power in their backpack, those same concerned people must be very gray with today's gadgets and connectivity.

I've digressed but really how do perform? Wondering this question myself we've put together a Digital Leadership Survey to understand how we do fit in.

Inspired by two other surveys we want to use this to benchmark ourselves, are we really ahead? Especially with respect to digital marketing.

Recent IAB numbers suggest that we are behind but if you dig deeper we're catching up, IAB said.

What do you think? Are we ahead? Behind? Or just over analysing the situation? Give me your feedback in the comments.

Ben Young from bwagy is the author of The Best Ideas are Free and marketing director at Young & Shand.