The House, coUNDco and Mediaschneider with the greatest digital expertise of all advertising market players
In its 2017 advertising market study, the Media.Research.Group added the criterion "digital competence" to the existing criteria for the various awards. This has proven its worth. And so this criterion is now a permanent feature of the three awards.
The question for the three awards is identical and very simple ("How do you rate their digital competence?") The person judging is the same for all three questions. And, just as importantly, all respondents are advertising clients. This makes it easy to compare the results of these three questions.
A total of 90 players in the media and advertising market compared
A total of 90 players in the media and advertising market were compared in terms of "digital competence": 14 media and 24 advertising agencies as well as 52 media companies. This is three more than in the previous year.
4 players were rated with a score of 8.5 to 9.0. Last year, there were still 10 players with this top rating. 11 players received a score of 8.0 to 8.5 (2017: 17). This is a clear indication that the 2018 assessment of digital competence was worse than last year's.
In fact, the average score fell by 0.38 grade points to 7.16. All three player categories suffered losses: the lowest fall was recorded by media agencies (-0.12 grade points). Advertising agencies saw a fall of 0.23 grade points. The sharpest decline was reported by media companies (-0.48 grade points). This clearly shows that media agencies are closest to their expectations in terms of digitalization. The media companies are (still) a long way off.
6 media and 4 advertising agencies in the top 10 places
The top 10 places are occupied by 6 media agencies and 4 advertising agencies. At the top are the two digital agencies The House and coUNDco, followed by Mediaschneider as the first media agency. Mediaschneider is thus the only player that has been able to place itself at the top of the 90-strong field in the last two years, an image that we have come to expect from Mediaschneider. The House was in fourth place in 2017, coUNDco still in eleventh place.
Mediatonic, the second-best media agency, is also striving for progress. It has moved up from 7th to 5th place. Jim & Jim was surveyed for the first time in 2018 and immediately took fourth place. The situation is very different for last year's two high-flyers, Google and Facebook. Both have plummeted. Google from 1st place to 20th place, Facebook from 3rd place to 25th place.
A little further down the rankings, in 24th place, we find the first traditional Swiss media company, Goldbach Media, winner of the Horizont Medien Award in the Media Marketer category. In 2017, Goldbach Media was still in 33rd place, with the first print media company, NZZ Media Solution, a little further back in 34th place. This means that NZZ has moved up 16 places compared to the previous year. Right behind it is Tamedia Advertising Zeitungen, last year's winner and this year's runner-up of the Horizont Medien Awards in the media provider category.
