First quarter slightly up, despite March ending in the red

The traditional advertising market wrapped up the first quarter with a total of CHF 865.2 million. This marked a slight increase of +0.6 percent due to the strong figures for January and February.

While March met expectations and generated the highest gross advertising pressure of the year to date (CHF 334.8 million), this represented a slight decline of 2.0 percent compared to the previous year.

Out-of-home remained strong with significant growth of 24.1 percent, supported in part by Migros’s campaigns. The other traditional media categories, by contrast, recorded declines across the board. Cinema was hardest hit, with a downswing of 54.9 percent, followed by print (-10.1%), TV (-8.4%) and radio (-1.5%).

In the digital market, the gross advertising pressure in March amounted to CHF 189.4 million. This was shaped by a channel-driven media mix: search remained the leader of the pack with a market share of 63.5 percent, followed by display(27.7%) and YouTube(8.9%).

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Advertising pressure in the market as a whole

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

Positive trends in nine sectors

A total of nine sectors recorded positive performance. The energy sector saw the largest percentage increase (+39.1%), driven largely by Axpo’s energy image campaigns, but continued to languish in penultimate position in the rankings. Beverages (35.2%), personal care (24.2%) and vehicles (22.5%) also displayed strong performance, while leisure, gastronomy, tourism took third place with a moderate increase of 3.4 percent.

Downward trend in 12 sectors

By contrast, 12 sectors recorded a decrease in advertising pressure compared to the previous year. The largest percentage decline was found in the tobacco sector, which dropped 72.2 percent after seeing the biggest increase in the previous month. Media (-31.3%) and fashion & sport (-31.1%) also fell sharply. Despite ending the month in the red, retail trade (-3.1%) and food (-3.6%) remain among the sectors with the highest advertising impact. Double-digit reductions in advertising pressure were additionally noted in the services and cosmetics & toiletries sectors (-14.8% and -18.0% respectively). By contrast, finance (-3.9%), pharmaceuticals & health (-3.2%) and telecommunications (-3.7%) only dipped slightly.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for March 2026.

Top advertisers and products

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

Media Mix

Media mix for March.

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Advertising pressure in the digital market

Development of advertising pressure up to March 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

Retail trade took the lead in the traditional market in March, followed by the food and leisure, gastronomy, tourism sectors. The latter was first in the digital market, ahead of finance and services. In the traditional ranking, by contrast, these two only managed to take fifth and ninth place, while retail trade and food dropped to place four and 12 respectively.

The fashion & sport and pharmaceuticals & health sectors sat in the middle of the table across both markets, while the tobacco products, energy, media and cleaning sectors were in the bottom third of both markets.

Telecommunications ranked fifth in the digital market, but only managed to reach 13th place in the traditional market. The opposite is true for initiatives & campaigns: this sector came in seventh in the traditional market, but slid down to 14th place in the digital ranking, suggesting that digital channels play a comparatively smaller role in communication strategies in this industry.

Sector ranking

Sector ranking for March 2026.

Top digital products

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

March was clearly channel-driven in the digital market: while search remained strongly performance- and travel-oriented, display and YouTube featured a more diverse mix of different products and services.

SPUSU.CH led the ranking in display, as in the previous month, with Outdoor Chef gas grills and Coffee B coffee balls taking the next two spots. Travel provider Booking.com has held pole position in search since the beginning of the year, with Yallo.ch and Opodo.ch in pursuit. The food manufacturer Knorr took first place on YouTube with its Knorr bouillon – after being ranked third in the previous month – with Digitec.ch and Axa private pensions in its wake.

Neither a product nor a service held the top slot for multiple channels at once. However, the international insurance company Axa took fourth place in search with Axa.ch and third place for YouTube with its Axa private pensions product.

Media Mix

Media mix for March 2026.

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