The bulk of advertising expenditure went for many years to the daily press. Without receipts from advertising, the newspapers as we know them could not survive, nor could the magazines and other periodicals which are playing an increasingly influential role on the New Zealand publishing scene.

For the past quarter century, however, radio advertising has been making substantial inroads into allocations available for advertising, and the advent of television has both complicated the situation and intensified competition for the advertising pound. Most New Zealand advertisers are handicapped by the smallness of the market and do not have sufficient money available to use all three of the major media to the extent needed for adequate results. They must, too, on the advice of their advertising agency, make adequate allocations for all the other devices necessary for sales promotion, including salesmen's literature, pamphlets, posters, various kinds of point-of-sale material, screen slides, hoardings, and suchlike. Again, because of the smallness of the country, little money is available for research, and decisions have to be based on past experience and guesswork rather than on specific information. Although enormous sums are spent overseas on research there is no really convincing evidence that without it New Zealand advertisers are any worse off than their British or American counterparts. It appears to be an extremely useful but not infallible guide.