Automotive industry increases advertising pressure the most in April
In April, advertising spending declined only slightly compared to March, totaling 638.9 million Swiss francs (gross). Compared to the same month last year, this represents an increase of 3.6 percent.
Cumulative advertising pressure for the first four months of the year amounted to CHF 2,401.2 million gross. This represents a year-on-year increase in annual advertising pressure of 2.2%.
Development of advertising pressure as at April 2019
After the podium places in the sector ranking remained unchanged in the first three months of the year, the construction, industry, furnishings sector overtook the automotive sector in April to take bronze. First place remains unchanged for leisure, gastronomy and tourism. At 60 million gross francs, the sector recorded the highest advertising pressure of the month, with a wafer-thin lead of 0.6 million gross francs over the second-placed service sector. YTD, the energy sector recorded the strongest year-on-year growth in gross advertising pressure (20.8%). This is thanks to solid increases in all four months of the current year.
The largest year-on-year increase was recorded by the passenger car product group (+34.9%), with the vehicle industry increasing its gross advertising pressure by a good 20%. The service sector increased by 18.8%, but is still just behind leisure, gastronomy and tourism in the monthly ranking, as this sector also increased its advertising pressure by 14.8% compared to the same month last year. The personal needs sector (+27.1%), the cleaning sector (+22.7%) and the energy sector (+18.9%) also increased their gross advertising pressure compared to the same month last year.
As in the previous month, the tobacco industry sharply reduced its advertising pressure (-47.4%). The pharma & healthcare sector also reduced its gross advertising pressure in April by 18.4% compared to the previous year. The slight increase in the Political Campaigns product group (+8.8%) could not prevent the Initiatives & Campaigns sector's gross advertising pressure from falling by 15.1%. The Digital & Household sector (-5.6%), including the IT, Hardware & Software (-17.7%) and TV & Home Entertainment (-14.6%) product groups, also saw a year-on-year decrease in gross advertising pressure. The Initiatives & Campaigns sector recorded the most significant decrease in gross advertising pressure YTD with a drop of 12%.
Advertising pressure in the sectors with year-on-year comparison
The top 10 advertisers and most frequently advertised products and services (excluding product range and image advertising) in April
The integration of Search data, Desktop (January 2017) and Mobile (July 2017) into the Media Focus advertising statistics has led to a significant increase in the share of Internet in the media mix. Since January 2018, Search data has also been collected for French-speaking Switzerland (Search share: 85% DE/15% FR).
