Slight dip after the summer peak

Although the previous months ensured a positive start to the quarter, the upswing did not continue in September, after the summer break. Advertising pressure amounted to CHF 370.7 million in September, 1.8 percent below the previous year’s level. The cumulative analysis (YTD), by contrast, still reflects a slightly positive trend: with advertising pressure totaling CHF 2’768.0 million, the Swiss advertising market is 0.7 percent up on the previous year.

The traditional media groups painted a predominantly negative picture in September. Only out-of-home (+13.0%) recorded growth, with all other media groups experiencing a downturn. Cinema fell the most (-28.3%), followed by print (-8.1%), radio (-6.7%) and TV (-6.1%).

Four of the five traditional media groups also recorded negative figures in the cumulative analysis (YTD). Only out-of-home saw growth – of 17.0 percent – compared to the previous year. All other media groups, however, showed negative development.

Gross advertising pressure in the digital market amounted to CHF 171.0 million in September, falling below the previous year’s level for the second time this year (−28.9%).  However, this decline should not be interpreted as an organic market development; rather, it is largely shaped by external technical factors affecting data collection.*

A comparison to the previous year – especially for search and YouTube – remains limited. Search dominated with a share of 58.9 percent, followed by display with 32.7 percent and YouTube with 8.4 percent.

*Google implemented another global security update in September, which led to higher volatility in data collection. The situation improved again over the course of the month. We are working on stabilizing data collection in the long term.

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Advertising pressure in the market as a whole

Advertising pressure development up to September 2026 in CHF million gross.

Positive trends in just nine sectors

In September, the vehicle industry recorded the strongest percentage growth at +26.2 percent. This is mainly attributable to the OOH campaign for the Volvo EX60 and just about helped the sector to remain in the top third of the table. The food industry topped the rankings with an increase of 1.6 percent, continuing its leading position from the previous month. Leisure, gastronomy, tourism recorded the lowest growth (+0.1%), but still made it into the top third. In addition, the following sectors also saw percentage increases: public transport companies (+21.0%), telecommunications (+17.4%), building, industry, furnishings (+10.5%), energy (+10.0%), finance (+5.0%) and finally events (+0.6%).

Negative performance in twelve sectors

In contrast, twelve sectors experienced a year-on-year decline. The most pronounced slump was recorded in the tobacco products sector, with a fall of 89.0 percent. Significant reductions were also noted in the services (-24.0%), personal care (-22.3%), cleaning (-16.4%), cosmetics & toiletries (-14.8%) and initiatives & campaigns (-13.7%) sectors. The other sectors affected saw more moderate downturns of less than 10 percent in each case.

The retail trade sector remained in second place, as in the two previous months, despite a percentage decline of 5.1 percent.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for September 2026.

Top advertisers and products

The top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding range, image and other advertising) in September 2026.

Media Mix

Media mix for September.

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Advertising pressure in the digital market

Development of advertising pressure up to September 2026 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 the traditional advertising market, the food industry maintained its leading position in September, followed by the retail trade and the financial sector in second and third place. This means that the ranking has remained unchanged since June.

 The distribution was similar in the digital market: while the food sector only occupied twelfth place, the financial sector and the retail trade sector likewise held second and third place. Leisure, gastronomy and tourism clearly leads the digital ranking YTD, although the sector was listed second behind retail trade in September. In the traditional market, the sector is ranked fifth and posted a slight increase of 0.1 percent.

The vehicle industry came in seventh in both advertising markets. The pharmaceuticals & health and fashion & sport sectors fared similarly, with both finding themselves in the middle third. The media, energy, cleaning and tobacco products sectors are in the lower third of the leaderboard in both markets.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for September 2026.

Top digital products

The most advertised products and services (excluding range, image and other advertising) in September 2026.

Search continued to dominate the digital media mix with a share of 58.9 percent, despite technical difficulties with data collection as a result of Google’s core updates (see above). As in previous months, the advertising environment was dominated primarily by travel, comparison and financial offers. Booking.com maintained its top position in the ranking – which it has held since the beginning of the year – followed by Trivago.ch in second place. Swisscom.ch, for its part, had to cede its third place to Edreams.ch, dropping down to fifth place. This means that the two providers have swapped positions compared to the previous month.

The display and YouTube channel rankings are characterized by a diverse mix of industries including telecommunications, consumer goods, entertainment and tourism. The mobile communications provider Spusu.ch once again defended its leading position in the display segment in September. This was followed by the Schweizer Obstverband (Swiss Fruit Association) in second place and McDonald’s Restaurants in third place.

On YouTube, the YouTube Music Mobile app took the lead, after being in third place in August. Pepsi Zero came in second place, while Die Post My Post 24 completed the podium in third place.

McDonald’s Restaurants is the only product to have made it into the top 10 for both display (3rd place) and YouTube (7th place). Its direct competitor Burger King Restaurant is ranked sixth on YouTube. The major Swiss bank UBS was also present on two channels: with UBS.com, it takes sixth place in search, while UBS Sponsoring is ranked fifth on YouTube.

Media Mix

Media mix for September 2026.

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