Highlights in April 2024
In April, the “traditional” advertising market recorded gross advertising pressure of CHF 346.5 million, a decline of 1.1 percent on the strong figures for March. Compared to last year, however, it rose by 5.2 percent.
This increase can mainly be explained by the out-of-home media group, which recorded significant growth of 20 percent compared to last year. Please note that the data for Livesystems is currently only available for 2024. The increase in out-of-home advertising without Livesystems was +6.0 percent. The “traditional” advertising market without Livesystems rose by just 2.3 percent.
Figures for the TV (+2%) and print markets (+1%) were stable, with only a marginal increase on last year. Cinema, however, recorded a sharp fall of 13 percent compared with last year. Radio (-4%) also declined.
Display and YouTube both recorded a 7 percent increase in April compared to last year. The display figure was 27 percent, with YouTube accounting for 7.8 percent of the digital advertising market. Although search engine advertising fell by 7 percent compared to last year, it continued to lead the pack, with 65.2 percent.
From 2024, we will be reporting the traditional advertising market and digital channels (search, YouTube, display) separately to ensure better comparability to the previous year. Volatility in recording in the online sector, due to external influences such as adjustments made by Google, can lead to larger fluctuations throughout the year. In the search sector in particular there were numerous adjustments and changes made by Google in the last half of the year, which made comparing gross advertising spending with the previous year difficult.
Advertising pressure in the traditional market
Advertising pressure development in the traditional market in April 2024 in CHF million gross.
Tobacco products rose sharply
The tobacco products and cleaning sectors achieved the biggest increases in April, recording growth of 200.1 percent and 133.4 percent respectively. Other sectors such as personal care (+68.0%), cosmetics and toiletries (+48.3%) leisure, gastronomy and tourism (+46.8%) and transport (+32.1%) also rose compared to last year.
Just 8 sectors decline
The digital & household (-21.3%) sector performed the worst compared to last year, followed by the retail (-15.0%), food (-13.6%) vehicles (-11.8%) and fashion & sport (-8.4%) sectors. Services (-7.9%), construction, industry and furnishings (-2.0%) and events (-1.3%) declined the least.
Sector ranking in the traditional market
Top of the month
The top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding range, image and other advertising) in April.
Media Mix Traditional
Media mix for April 2024.
Advertising pressure in the digital market
From 2024, we will be reporting the traditional advertising market and digital channels (search, YouTube, display) separately to ensure better comparability to the previous year. Volatility in recording in the online sector, due to external influences such as adjustments made by Google, can lead to larger fluctuations throughout the year. In the search sector in particular there were numerous adjustments and changes made by Google in the last half of the year, which made comparing gross advertising spending with the previous year difficult.
Advertising pressure development in the digital market in April 2024 in CHF million gross.
Sector ranking: traditional vs. digital channels in comparison
The retail sector achieved an excellent ranking in both the “traditional” and digital market, taking second place in the “traditional” advertising market and topping the digital ranking, followed by finance and leisure, gastronomy and tourism in second and third place. These two sectors were also relatively well placed in the “traditional” market, occupying positions seven and four respectively. In the “traditional” market, food finished first and construction, industry and furnishings in third, but only took tenth and fifth place respectively in the digital market.
The vehicles and pharmaceuticals & health sectors were in sixth and ninth place in the “traditional” market, while finishing ninth and 11th in the digital market, and thus both occupying the center ground.
The energy and cleaning sectors finished bottom in the “traditional” and digital markets respectively, although cleaning maintained 16th place in the “traditional” market. Tobacco products finished second to last in both sector rankings.
Industry ranking in the digital market
Industry ranking by share of advertising (SoA) as at April 2024.
Top products
The most advertised products in the Search, Display and YouTube segments in April.
In the display channel, Temu.com and Tex Mex Snacks claimed the first two spots, while TikTok Mobile App and Disney+ achieved this ranking in the YouTube channel, as did sunrise.ch and booking.com in the search channel.
Three digital products appeared in more than one media group. Disney+ finished bottom in display, but took second place in YouTube as mentioned above. The display front runner, Temu.com, claimed ninth place in search. Meanwhile, Migros Cumulus Card finished seventh in display and ninth in YouTube.
Media Mix Digital
Media mix for the month of April.
Contact: mediafocus@mediafocus.ch, Tel.: +41 43 322 27 50
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