Upswing at year-end

At the end of the year, the traditional advertising market recorded gross advertising pressure of CHF 367.4 million in December, 3.1 percent above the previous year. This is the strongest increase of the year besides July (also +3.1%) and one of a total of three positive monthly developments.

Cumulatively for the whole of 2025, traditional advertising pressure amounts to CHF 3,930.8 million, a decrease of 1.7 percent compared to 2024. The YTD balance thus remains largely stable compared to the previous months October and November.

With regard to media, the month-on-month comparison presented a mixed picture. Out-of-home registered significant growth of +26.2 percent year-on-year. Print was also slightly up on the previous year (+0.8%). In contrast, TV (-2.8%), radio (-10.9%) and cinema* (-23.4%) saw declines, after all three media categories showed neutral to positive performance in November.

The digital advertising market reached CHF 234.8 million in December, up 32.2 percent on the previous year. Compared to the previous months, digital advertising pressure declined slightly, but remains at a high level overall. The cumulative digital market amounted to CHF 2,076.7 million up to December, representing a drop of 3.8 percent.

*Bookings from December 29 to 31 will only be published as part of the January month-end closing and will be included in calendar week 1 (January).

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Advertising pressure in the market as a whole

Advertising pressure development up to December 2025 in CHF million gross.

Increase in 11 sectors

More than half of the sectors recorded significant year-on-year increases in December. The strongest performance was in the tobacco industry, which was up 145.6 percent, due in part to increased advertising activity for the products Velo nicotine pouches and Davidoff cigarettes.

Significant growth was also recorded by the sectors telecommunications (+124.3%) – driven by increased advertising activity by Swisscom compared to the previous year – media (+48.5%), public transport (+24.1%) and leisure, gastronomy & tourism (+22.4%).

The clear winners in December also included beverages (+15.0%), pharmaceuticals & health (+9.2%), finance (+9.0%) and construction, industry & furnishings (+8.4%).

Moderate but stable growth was also recorded in the services (+6.8%) and digital & household (+5.9%) sectors.

Declines in several sectors

Although the retail sector continued to occupy a leading position in 2025, it was down 8.8 percent on the previous year. This development is largely attributable to lower advertising volumes for the major distributors Coop, Migros and Denner.

The food sector (-3.2%) and initiatives & campaigns (-9.0%) also showed a decline, despite their strong position in terms of annual spending (second and third place).

The most significant decrease was recorded by the cleaning sector, which saw a drop of 26.9 percent. Cosmetics & toiletries (-14.9%), fashion & sport (-11.7%) and energy (-8.3%) were also well below the previous year’s levels.

While less significant, vehicles (-3.5%), personal care (-2.0%) and events (-0.7%) also saw declines.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for December.

Top advertisers and products

The top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding range, image and other advertising) in December.

Media Mix

Media mix for December.

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Advertising pressure in the digital market

Development of advertising pressure up to December 2025 in CHF million gross.

*The traditional advertising market and the digital channels (search, YouTube, display) are shown separately to enable better comparability with the previous year. Fluctuations in online recording can be exacerbated by external influences – in particular, by technical updates undertaken by major platforms such as Google or YouTube. This applies in particular to search, which sees regular changes that may affect the ability to compare gross advertising pressure with the previous year.

Sector ranking YTD: traditional vs. digital channels in comparison

In traditional advertising channels, the retail, food and initiatives & campaigns sectors lead the ranking. In the digital channel, on the other hand, leisure, gastronomy & tourism dominate, followed by finance and retail. While food and initiatives & campaigns only rank in the lower half of the digital table, leisure, gastronomy & tourism and finance occupy ranks four and six respectively in the traditional channel.

The vehicles industry consistently ranks in seventh place in both markets, thus confirming its stable presence throughout the year.

In the middle of the rankings for both markets are fashion & sport, pharmaceuticals & health and beverages.

At the bottom of the traditional rankings are media, energy and tobacco – the latter despite the strong growth of the tobacco industry. In the digital market, events, tobacco and the cleaning sector are once again at the bottom. Here, too, media and energy are in the lower third of the table.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for December.

Top digital products

The most advertised products and services (excluding range, image and other advertising) in December.

The digital advertising market once again experienced strong momentum across all channels in December.

In the display sector, Migros mobile subscription and Alao.ch defended their top positions, while Apfelkiste.ch moved up from fourth to third place, pushing Energy.ch back one position. This is followed by a wide range of product providers, ranging from the financial sector to retail and tobacco.

It is a similar story in the search rankings: Booking.com and Comparis.ch remain at the top, while Axa.ch has pushed Skyscanner.ch down to fourth place. Yallo.ch has also secured fifth place. In contrast, Zurich.ch and Opodo.ch are losing ground.

Disney+ has taken the lead in the YouTube ranking. This is followed by Donkey Kong Bananza (ranked seventh last month) and McDonald’s Restaurants (ranked fourth last month). ZYN tobacco-free nicotine pouches and Joyn were not able to maintain their position from last month, but remain within the top 10 at places five and nine respectively.

It is worth noting that ZYN tobacco-free nicotine pouches are the only product represented in the top 10 for both display and YouTube.

Overall, the digital advertising market was very heterogeneous in December. While display and YouTube were shaped by a diverse mix of telecommunications, retail, FMCG and entertainment, search remained clearly dominated by travel and insurance.

Media Mix

Media mix for December.

Contact: mediafocus@mediafocus.ch, Tel.: +41 43 322 27 50