Global advertising market grows faster again

The growth drivers are the developing markets, whose advertising investments will increase by an average of 8% in the coming year and which will contribute a total of 61% of advertising market growth by 2015. In contrast, the developed advertising markets will only grow by 2%, after shrinking by 4% in the countries of the eurozone periphery in the coming year and only growing slightly again in 2015.

"The biggest risks to growth in 2013 remain a collapse of the eurozone that still cannot be ruled out, the worsening financial situation in the USA and the unrest in the Middle East and the associated rise in oil prices," explains Frank-Peter Lortz, Chairman of Zenithoptimedia. "In relative terms, Germany is still in a very good position, so we are forecasting an average annual increase in advertising investment of just under two percent until 2015."

The situation in Switzerland

Compared to other Western European countries, the general economic situation and unemployment figures in Switzerland are still relatively good at the moment. Nevertheless, there have recently been a number of worrying reports of job losses in industry and the financial sector. The export industry and the tourism sector in particular are suffering long-term from the still overvalued franc and the difficult economic situation in the eurozone. A difficult year is therefore expected in 2013, but a recovery should be expected in 2014/2015.

The 2012 advertising year got off to a surprisingly good start with clear growth, but it slowed very sharply in the third quarter, meaning that the year as a whole will only close with a slight forecast increase of +0.8% compared to 2011. For 2013, Zenithoptimedia expects a slight decline in gross advertising investment of 0.8%.

Online advertising was the fastest growing advertising segment in 2012. With an estimated increase of 11.6%, this segment once again recorded a double-digit growth rate. Nevertheless, online advertising in Switzerland still has a lot of growth potential, as the advertising market share (Switzerland: 10.9%) is still relatively low in relation to the actual high media usage compared to other Western European markets such as the UK or Germany.

Out-of-home advertising also had a very good year in 2012, recording the second-highest growth rate in Switzerland with a forecast increase of 10.6%. The main reason for this growth, in addition to the providers' constantly innovative product portfolio, is the fact that many advertisers are increasingly using the medium to support sales.

The TV advertising sector also enjoyed a pleasing growth rate of 2.9% compared to 2011. This growth, despite years of almost full capacity utilization, is due on the one hand to price increases and on the other to the new Swiss advertising window on TF1, which has been available since the end of 2011.

The print media have had a difficult year. Despite largely stable usage figures, newspapers (-5.3%) and magazines (-3.4%) came under enormous economic pressure. Many advertisers are increasingly focusing their budgets on TV and online. One of the key existential issues for publishers in the coming years will be how to at least partially offset the losses in the print business with the growing online sector. Many Swiss newspapers are beginning to experiment with the paywall model. Le Temps, the Schaffhauser Zeitung and the NZZ are already letting users pay for online services, and BLICK plans to introduce this soon. Unfortunately, there is no patent solution here. From Zenithoptimedia's point of view, each print product must develop its own suitable strategy.