Media Use Index: Media in the polycrisis
The ongoing crisis is changing our behavior—and our media consumption as well. The annual Media Use Index by Ingo Zürich and Ogilvy Switzerland highlights which media are benefiting from this shift and which are losing ground.
Humans are creatures of habit. Once you have become accustomed to a certain routine, it takes a long time to change this habit. This is no different with eating habits than it is with media use. Nevertheless, something is happening in the media landscape in Switzerland - and these changes become visible with the Media Use Index.
Together with the media agency EssenceMediacom, Ingo Zürich collects the most important data on media usage in Switzerland once a year. In the previous year, 2023, it was already apparent that media use had clearly changed after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic: People wanted to spend less time on the sofa and in front of the big screen again and instead meet more with others in public spaces.
"Normalization" of media use
This "normalization" of media habits is now continuing this year and media usage is slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, this development is mixed with another trend that is directly related to the current socio-political situation in the world. The succession of different, unrelated crises - Covid, Ukraine, Gaza and, last but not least, the climate crisis - is also known as a polycrisis by sociologists. And such a polycrisis puts people under massive psychological pressure.
According to a global survey conducted by Ingo in collaboration with WPP, 64% of respondents see the cost of living as the most pressing problem at the moment and 42% are concerned about economic instability. The resulting stress is seen by 52% as the biggest problem for their health.
The topic of "mental health" is also an enormous challenge for the majority of Swiss people, and the changes in media use are a reaction to this. People no longer want to be permanently reachable, they limit their cell phone use and no longer blindly follow every hype.
"Digital Detox" shows the desire to slow down
Younger people in particular are showing an increased desire for a "digital detox". For example, in the area of gaming, where both active and passive use is declining significantly. While gaming was still the big winner among the channels during the pandemic, usage figures are clearly falling this year. Fewer games are being played (-13%) and fewer live gaming streams are being watched (-13%).
The decline in gaming can be observed primarily on smartphones (-9%). Gen Z in particular is apparently aware that it spends a lot of time in front of digital screens and is now trying to limit its consumption of digital media. For example, the messenger app WhatsApp is losing significant reach (-9%), while monthly internet usage is also down by 3% overall. The Ingo trend study "Future 100" also found that smartphones are increasingly being switched off and sometimes even replaced entirely by a so-called "dumb phone", which offers no other functions apart from telephony.
Switzerland saves on media expenditure
The current sense of economic uncertainty is also causing the Swiss to change their viewing habits. For example, it is clear that Switzerland is cutting back on its spending on video for the first time. In 2023, the use of streaming platforms averaged two subscriptions; this year, the average is just one and a half. At the same time, the use of traditional cable TV is increasing from 19% to 24% - a significant increase of 26%.
In other words, you no longer pay for multiple streaming services as often and instead use a service that is included in the rent in most households anyway.
The "TikTok-ization" of moving images
Traditional linear television is still the norm - two thirds of the population watch TV on the big screen in their living room. However, non-linear offerings are growing steadily and are increasingly being used, with the "short videos" category in particular becoming an integral part of daily media consumption - 46% of the population watch videos in their social feed every day. By far the fastest growing category is "snackable videos", which are shorter than one minute. The "TikTok-ization" of the world is increasing significantly.
As early as 2023, it was determined that the role of social is changing overall. Away from a medium for exchanging information with friends and family or staying in touch, towards a classic entertainment channel. We called this "lean back": Social media as a "sprinkling channel".
An observation from this year now supports this thesis. Although the use of social media is stable overall compared to the previous year, more platforms are being used overall, such as the messenger apps Telegram and Discord. The time spent on social media is therefore spread across more channels. A phenomenon that we are traditionally only familiar with from TV can also be seen on social media: channel hopping. People zap through the various platforms, watch one mini-video after the next and don't stay anywhere for more than a few minutes.
The Swiss are obviously not quite as "analog" as the apologists of the "digital detox" would like them to be. After all, cherished habits are slow to change.
* Peter Petermann is Head of Strategy at Ingo Zürich and has been responsible for all in-house studies since September 2021, including the Media Use Index, the BrandAsset-Valuator and the Future 100.
The Media Use Index has been surveyed annually since 2009. In the period from August to October 2023, Ingo, Ogilvy and EssenceMediacom surveyed around 2,500 people aged between 16 and 69.
