Cold rain in advertising march
Expenditures fell into the red, in some cases sharply
Compared to the same period last year, gross advertising expenditure in March in the media analyzed by Media Focus fell by a total of 3.3% or CHF 12.4 million - the worst monthly result since December 1998!Nevertheless, a few rays of sunshine were primarily enjoyed by media with low sales, such as the selection of trade journals (up 0.3 % or 65,000 francs), posters (up 3.3 percent or 1.3 million francs), radio (up 5 % or 0.6 million francs) and teletext (up 5.3 % or 80,000 francs)
Newspapers and consumer magazines, on the other hand, were caught in the persistent rain and recorded a gross decline of CHF 6.2 million (minus
3.8 %) or CHF 3.5 million (minus 5.2 %) compared to March of the previous year. Television fell by CHF 3.8 million (minus
5.6 %). The cinema also recorded its first decline in the current year with a loss in sales of CHF 0.5 million (minus CHF 10 %). And the first heavy downpour hit the Internet, which has been in operation since January 2000, which slumped by 26.4 percent (minus CHF 0.5 million).
Despite the poor month of March, gross advertising expenditure in the first quarter of 2001 was 0.2 percent or CHF 1.5 million higher than in the same period of the previous year. Over the quarter as a whole, the Internet was able to maintain its top position with growth of 6.6 percent despite the slump in March, followed by trade magazines (plus 6.1 %), cinema (plus 5.4 %), posters (plus 2.9 %) as well as TV and teletext (plus 2.5 % each). The losers, on the other hand, are newspapers (down 1.4 %), magazines (down 1.7 %) and radio (down 3.1 %). Markus Knöpfli
Gross advertising expenditure by media March 2000/2001 in comparison in 1000 Fr. 2000 in 1000 Fr. 2001 +/- in %
Daily newspapers 162 095 155 918 -3.8
Publ. journals 67 751 64 252 -5.2
Trade journals 21 371 21 436 +0.3
TV 67 470 63 687 -5.6
Radio 11 887 12 480 +5.0
Cinema 4,549 4,095 -10.0
Teletext 1 507 1 587 +5.3
Poster 38 623 39 898 +3.3
Internet banner 2 017 1 484 -26.4
Total 377 270 364 837 -3.3
Corrigendum
In WerbeWoche 16/01, we made a mistake in the content for which we apologize. In an interview with Pierre-Paul Vander Sande, CEO of RMB International, we claimed in a question that Radio 105, which is managed by RMB Switzerland, was reporting losses in the millions. This claim was false; we do not know the corresponding figures. The question had already been asked incorrectly during the interview and should actually have read as follows: "RMB Switzerland manages Radio 105, but this is obviously a loss-making business for RMB due to the guarantee contract with Radio 105. The contract expires at the end of this year. Will you be renewing it?" The current situation: Radio 105 and RMB have now signed a letter of intent stating that they intend to continue working together. The exact modalities are still being negotiated.
