Advertising market dominated by the referendum campaign
The Media Focus Advertising Market Trend Report shows that January saw a slight decline compared to the previous year and was dominated by the referendum campaign.
The advertising market's start to the year is only just below the previous year's figure. In January 2014, advertising print was measured at 327.2 million Swiss francs. Compared to the previous year, this equates to a slight decrease of 0.8 percent (-2.6 million Swiss francs).
Final spurt in the voting thriller
January was dominated by the referendum campaign. In the month before the national referendums, the third-highest advertising pressure of the overall market was recorded in the area of initiatives & campaigns (+15.9 percent, CHF 28.5 million). The largest share of this was achieved by the mass immigration initiative with 5.3 million Swiss francs.
Over the course of the campaign as a whole (October 2013 to January 2014), the No campaign to the mass immigration initiative faced the Yes committee with an advertising print of 5.6 million Swiss francs. In the same period, the proponents of the initiative generated advertising pressure of 2.1 million Swiss francs. Broken down to the individual vote, this means that each No vote was based on 3.85 advertising francs and each Yes vote on 1.45 advertising francs.
Strong start for the food market
The food market started the new year with a plus after a mixed advertising year 2013 (-1.8 percent). In January, the industry grew by 14.6 percent (+4.0 million Swiss francs) compared to the same month last year. The driving forces behind the increase were the manufacturers of cornflakes, oatmeal, cereals (+1.8 million Swiss francs) and chocolate bars (+1.1 million Swiss francs).
The flu no chance
The pharmaceutical sector achieved the largest percentage increase in the total market in January 2014 (+42.1 percent, +5.4 million Swiss francs). According to the media, January was the first flu month of this winter period. This is also reflected in the product groups, which accounted for the highest advertising share in the industry in January. Namely, these were the product groups cold/flu remedies (CHF 2.3 million) and sore throat remedies (CHF 2.0 million).
Read the whole Media Focus Advertising Market Trend Report 2014/1 (PDF)
