Decline in the traditional advertising market - digital and radio up, print and cinema down
Trend Report by Media Focus: After two months of growth, the Swiss advertising market fell by 4.2% in September. Radio is the only media group to grow, while print and cinema are losing ground significantly. Only 8 out of 21 sectors are showing positive trends.
After two months of positive development, the «traditional» advertising market recorded a decline again in September. With gross advertising expenditure of CHF 376.7 million, the result is -4.2% down on the same month last year. The market is thus losing some of the upward momentum gained in July and August.
The traditional advertising market trend is at CHF 2,747.3 million gross YTD so far this year, representing a percentage decline of 2.5% compared to 2024.
Within the media groups, the picture in September is mixed. Radio was the only group to remain in positive territory with growth of +3.6%. All other media groups recorded declines: print was hit hardest with -7.2%, followed by cinema (-6.4%), out-of-home (-6.0%) and TV (-1.1%).
Digital advertising pressure in September was significantly higher than in the previous year. The driver is Search. The channel closed with a clearly positive result, while Display (-3.5%) and YouTube (-3.8%) recorded slight declines*.
Less than half of the sectors are convincing
Overall, only 8 out of 21 sectors were able to escape the negative trend in September. Although the retail trade is still in the lead in YTD, with growth of 14.4%, it is outperformed by the food industry (CHF 44.5 million) in terms of September spending (CHF 35.0 million). In percentage terms, the media sector recorded the most significant growth, although it is still in the bottom third of the ranking. Other winners included tobacco products (+35.2%), digital & household (+17.0%), services (+14.4%) and events (+7.8%).
Vehicle sector collapses
In September, 13 sectors recorded declining trends. The biggest losers include the automotive sector (-27.8%), transportation (-19.9%) and fashion & sports (-19.4%). Although the finance and telecommunications sectors also both recorded declines (-6.9% and -0.5% respectively), they are above the previous year's level in a cumulative year-on-year comparison. Initiatives & Campaigns (-1.4%) and Beverages (-0.9%) are also only just in negative territory.
The whole report on mediafocus.ch
