Advertising market in March: plus thanks to Easter business
According to Media Focus, the «traditional» advertising market recorded gross advertising spending of 350.4 million Swiss francs in March, representing a 33.9 percent increase compared to the previous month, February. Compared to the previous year, however, there was a slight decrease of 1.2 percent.
The advertising market is therefore in its usual strong state in March, which is also thanks to the Easter business. A look at the first quarter of 2024 also shows a positive trend in the "traditional" advertising market. It closed with 885.5 million gross francs and an increase of 2.8%. Cinema increased by 31% compared to the previous year, while print recorded a deficit of 11%. The TV market remained almost stable with growth of 1%. Radio (+4%) and out-of-home advertising (+10%) also increased again compared to the previous year. This is shown by recent surveys by Media Focus.
The data for Livesystems is currently only available for 2024. The increase in the out-of-home segment excluding live systems is +1.1%, while the "traditional" advertising market excluding live systems declined by 2.9%.
Search engine advertising on the rise
In March, search engine advertising once again took the leading position in online advertising with a share of 64.6%. Compared to the previous year, however, this represents a decline of 28%, which can be explained by a core update from Google in March. Display ads take the second-largest share with 27.3%, followed by YouTube with 8.3%.
From 2024, we will report the traditional advertising market and the digital channels (search, YouTube, display) separately in order to ensure better comparability with the previous year. The volatility of data collection in the online sector, due to external influences such as adjustments by Google, can lead to major fluctuations over the course of the year. In the Search segment in particular, Google made numerous adjustments and changes in the last six months, which makes it difficult to compare gross advertising spendings with the previous year.
Advertising pressure in the traditional market
Development of traditional advertising printing as at March 2024 in million gross francs
Sector ranking in the traditional market
Top Advertisers & Products
The top advertisers and most advertised products and services (excluding assortment image advertising and collective categories) in March.
Media Mix Classic
Media Mix for the month of March
