Advertising statistics Switzerland: net advertising sales stagnate
The upward trend in advertising revenue for Swiss advertisers has come to a standstill: The Swiss advertising statistics show a very low growth rate for 2023, while the advertising revenues of foreign advertising platforms continue to grow.
The Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation has calculated the advertising expenditure for the Swiss advertising market in 2023. Net advertising sales amount to a total of CHF 4.2 billion. The increase of just CHF 1 million therefore represents stagnation compared to the previous year.
The weak development of advertising sales also corresponds to the subdued general economic growth. Gross domestic product rose by just 0.7% in 2023. As a result of the low sales growth, the Swiss advertising market remains 6.3% below the level before the pandemic in 2019.
Nevertheless, some media categories were able to increase their revenues compared to 2022. Radio (+0.4 %), online excluding foreign platforms (+1.8 %), cinema (+6 %), out-of-home advertising (+8 %) and advertising/promotional articles (+8.6 %) recorded higher advertising income. By contrast, print (-3.2 %), direct advertising (-5.8 %) and television (-7.3 %) recorded a decline.
Massive outflows abroad for online advertising
Promotional products, direct mail and print are among the media types that generated the most advertising revenue in 2023. Despite slight losses, they continue to have one of the highest market shares this year. TV and online also continue to achieve high shares of measurable revenue. However, online advertising does not include the revenues of global tech platforms because they are not included in the advertising statistics survey.
To close this gap, a well-founded expert assessment was carried out again, as last year. The estimated revenue from YouTube, search engine advertising and social media, which flows almost exclusively abroad, amounts to a total of CHF 1.83 to 2.24 billion. This means that foreign advertising platforms continue to secure the largest slice of the Swiss advertising pie, which has grown by a further 8% compared to the previous year, according to the experts' estimates.