TV commercials annoy more and more
The Baromedia study identifies growing advertising fatigue, particularly among German-speaking Swiss
The Baromedia study identifies growing advertising fatigue, particularly among the German-speaking SwissBy Daniel SchifferleTrust in advertising and attention to it is dwindling. The latest edition of the Baromedia study by Ringier Romandie shows that German-speaking Swiss audiences are increasingly annoyed by TV advertising.
What is going on with Swiss media consumers? According to the latest edition of Baromedia, Ringier Romandie's annual study (see box), the population's trust in advertising is in decline. And the drop is striking: on a national average, only 10% of those surveyed said they had "some or complete trust" in advertising.
This is by far the lowest value measured since the start of the study, which is now in its seventh year. Three years ago, 18% of respondents trusted advertising and last year it was still 15%.
The poor performance is primarily due to the Swiss-German audience. On this side of the language border, only just
7 percent of respondents expressed their trust in advertising, while in French-speaking Switzerland the figure was more than twice as high at 17 percent.
What could have led to this accelerated advertising saturation in German-speaking Switzerland? The study does not provide an answer. One conceivable interpretation is that the German-speaking Swiss audience has by far the largest free TV offering. Although the large selection is very attractive, the audience also has to cope with a lot of advertising. This ambivalent situation could have a negative impact on sensitivity towards advertising in particular.
One consolation: trust in the media in general remains phenomenal in Switzerland, even if a slight decline has been noted here. However, the media still perform far better than most state institutions and authorities. In terms of credibility, four of the top five places go to the media. Teletext is the undisputed leader (84%), followed by schools/education (78%), radio (75%), television (69%) and the press (67%). Only the Internet (53%) scored worse than the cantonal authorities or the Federal Council (both 65%). When it comes to the question of trust, however, the Internet still scores better than the churches (45%).
Attention to advertising: All advertising media slightly weaker
What is particularly unpleasant is the fact that not only is less trust being placed in advertising, but the attention paid to it has also shrunk. A comparison of the new data with that of the previous year shows that all media types had to drop a few percentage points in terms of attention to their advertising. The only exception was radio advertising, whose value remained roughly at the same level as the previous year. Cinema advertising, on the other hand, lost a lot of ground, with only 39% of viewers claiming to be attentive (previous year: 45%). At 27% (previous year: 33%), advertising in daily newspapers also lost a significant amount of attention.
The frequent responses that simply dismiss commercial advertising as "annoying or very annoying" are also very thought-provoking (see chart). Most unease is expressed about TV advertising, which 69% feel disturbed by. However, this strikingly high figure is mainly attributable to the German-speaking Swiss public. Here, as many as 75 percent want TV advertising to go away, while in French-speaking Switzerland only 52 percent feel disturbed by advertising program interruptions.
A large proportion of Swiss people also find unsolicited advertising in letterboxes (52%), on the radio (45%) and on the Internet (42%) annoying. In terms of advertising acceptance, posters (18%), daily newspapers and teletext (23% each) are at the top of the list.
In view of the sometimes less than pleasing results, we can already look forward to the 2002 edition of Baromedia, which would be dramatic if the bad mood towards TV advertising were to become even more pronounced.
Baromedia
What is going on with Swiss media consumers? According to the latest edition of Baromedia, Ringier Romandie's annual study (see box), the population's trust in advertising is in decline. And the drop is striking: on a national average, only 10% of those surveyed said they had "some or complete trust" in advertising.
This is by far the lowest value measured since the start of the study, which is now in its seventh year. Three years ago, 18% of respondents trusted advertising and last year it was still 15%.
The poor performance is primarily due to the Swiss-German audience. On this side of the language border, only just
7 percent of respondents expressed their trust in advertising, while in French-speaking Switzerland the figure was more than twice as high at 17 percent.
What could have led to this accelerated advertising saturation in German-speaking Switzerland? The study does not provide an answer. One conceivable interpretation is that the German-speaking Swiss audience has by far the largest free TV offering. Although the large selection is very attractive, the audience also has to cope with a lot of advertising. This ambivalent situation could have a negative impact on sensitivity towards advertising in particular.
One consolation: trust in the media in general remains phenomenal in Switzerland, even if a slight decline has been noted here. However, the media still perform far better than most state institutions and authorities. In terms of credibility, four of the top five places go to the media. Teletext is the undisputed leader (84%), followed by schools/education (78%), radio (75%), television (69%) and the press (67%). Only the Internet (53%) scored worse than the cantonal authorities or the Federal Council (both 65%). When it comes to the question of trust, however, the Internet still scores better than the churches (45%).
Attention to advertising: All advertising media slightly weaker
What is particularly unpleasant is the fact that not only is less trust being placed in advertising, but the attention paid to it has also shrunk. A comparison of the new data with that of the previous year shows that all media types had to drop a few percentage points in terms of attention to their advertising. The only exception was radio advertising, whose value remained roughly at the same level as the previous year. Cinema advertising, on the other hand, lost a lot of ground, with only 39% of viewers claiming to be attentive (previous year: 45%). At 27% (previous year: 33%), advertising in daily newspapers also lost a significant amount of attention.
The frequent responses that simply dismiss commercial advertising as "annoying or very annoying" are also very thought-provoking (see chart). Most unease is expressed about TV advertising, which 69% feel disturbed by. However, this strikingly high figure is mainly attributable to the German-speaking Swiss public. Here, as many as 75 percent want TV advertising to go away, while in French-speaking Switzerland only 52 percent feel disturbed by advertising program interruptions.
A large proportion of Swiss people also find unsolicited advertising in letterboxes (52%), on the radio (45%) and on the Internet (42%) annoying. In terms of advertising acceptance, posters (18%), daily newspapers and teletext (23% each) are at the top of the list.
In view of the sometimes less than pleasing results, we can already look forward to the 2002 edition of Baromedia, which would be dramatic if the bad mood towards TV advertising were to become even more pronounced.
Baromedia
Ringier Romandie is publishing its annual Baromedia study for the seventh time. It observes the usage habits of the Swiss public in the areas of media and advertising as well as their environment and developments. In collaboration with the market research institute Érasm, 501 people between the ages of 14 and 74 were surveyed in both French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland using the random quota method. Survey period: January 26 to February 17, 2001.
