Highlights in January

Following a sharp decline in January 2021, the Swiss advertising market made a strong start to 2022, at CHF 487.7 million. This represents an increase of 75.9% compared to the previous year.
In 2022, the advertising market also performed better than in 2020 (+12.8%) and 2019 (+3.1%), before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

This positive trend could be seen across all media groups, while 17 of the 21 sectors recorded a significant increase in their advertising pressure in January 2022. Only the beverages (-0.6%), transport (-1.8%), cleaning (-44.5%) and tobacco (-80.0%) sectors declined. Initiatives & campaigns was another sector with significant growth (+76.7%), which included the campaigns for the individual initiatives of the Swiss referendum on February 13. Our advertising market trend appendix shows which initiative generated the highest advertising pressure and how this was distributed between the yes and no camps.

Advertising Pressure in the market as a whole

Development of Advertising Pressure as per January 2022 in million francs (gross)

Seven sectors record a twofold increase year on year

The advertising market climbed by 75.9% in January 2022 compared to the previous year. This trend can mainly be attributed to the seven sectors that more than doubled their advertising pressure year on year.

These were events (+173.1%), fashion & sport (+173.0%), construction, industry, furnishings (+163.9%), leisure, gastronomy, tourism (+144.7%), personal care (+119.4%), digital & household (+116.8%) and services (+113.1%).

In the events sector in particular, which experienced a considerable decline in advertising pressure in previous years due to coronavirus restrictions, there appears to be positive prospects for advertising in 2022.

Tobacco falls sharply

Advertising pressure declined in just four sectors compared to the previous year. The sharp fall in the tobacco sector (-80.0%) is of particular note within the context of the popular initiative ‘Yes to the protection of children and adolescents from tobacco advertising’. Although advertising in the tobacco sector also got off to a weaker start in previous years, advertising pressure has never been so low (< CHF 50,000).

Cleaning also recorded a significant decline (-44.5%). Transport (-1.8%) and the beverages sector (-0.6%) were only slightly down on the previous year.

Top of the month

The top advertisers and most widely advertised products and services (excluding range, image and collective categories) in January

Media Mix

Media Mix for the month of January

Appendix: Referendums on February 13, 2022

Media package has the greatest advertising visibility

On February 13, 2022, the Swiss electorate once again voted on four federal issues, namely the tobacco initiative, the Federal Stamp Tax Act, the prohibition of experiments on animals and a package of measures to benefit the media. Only the popular initiative ‘Yes to the protection of children and adolescents from tobacco advertising’ was adopted (Results).

Therefore, the advertising campaigns of the respective camps were only effective for the ban on animal testing. Only the no camp actively advertised, generating around CHF 700,000 of advertising pressure, the lowest of the four initiatives. The media package generated the most advertising pressure (CHF 7.5 million). This was also rejected, despite a great deal of extra yes camp advertising (69%) and notable advertising pressure back in December (CHF 0.5 million). The tobacco initiative was second, with CHF 4.5 million of advertising pressure. Opponents of the ban were responsible for 85% of advertising visibility – to no avail. Which left the Stamp Tax in third place (CHF 1.7 million). Here too, the camp with the clear majority of advertising visibility (92%) was unable to gain the support of the electorate.

Please note that the final figures with February’s complete advertising pressure will not be available until March.

Annual review 2021 Advertising Market Trend February