SWA and LSA launch "Media Price/Performance Index

Every year, advertising clients invest more than 5 billion Swiss francs in the use of their advertising media. That's why the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) and Leading Swiss Agencies (LSA) have long been keen to obtain more transparency on the development of prices and services for individual media types. With the "Media Price/Performance Index", launched in this form for the first time, the two associations are now offering an in-depth insight into the development of contact prices in various media, target groups and language regions.

"Transparency about Swiss media offerings is one of SWA's key issues. This index now makes it possible to improve transparency on a lasting basis and to make the data available to a larger circle of users on a regular basis," says a delighted Roland Ehrler, SWA managing director, about the launch of the Media Price/Performance Index.

At the start, the new statistics already contain data on print media, television, radio and cinema. Posters are still missing, because research in these areas changed currencies last year. Online offerings are also not currently included in the survey. The integration of digital advertising first requires reach research that is accepted by the industry. Solutions for this are being planned.

The first data publication shows, among other things, that print media have become 6 percent more expensive in the last four years. This is not due to price markups by publishers, but primarily to readership losses at many newspapers and magazines. In the case of TV, there was a price increase of 8 percent from 2014 to 2015 in the 15-59 target group. Since 2015, the index has shown only slight inflation in this target group. In the "advertising-relevant" target group of 15 - 49 year olds, however, TV inflation totaled 14 percent in the last four years! In radio, the index shows a moderate price/performance trend. Contact prices have even fallen slightly in western Switzerland and Ticino. Likewise, in cinema, the price development was moderate until 2016. Only in 2017 was there an increase of around 4 percent compared with the previous year.

"The index is the first time that the price-performance ratio of Swiss media has been measured by a generally applicable currency. The statistics represent an additional planning indicator for the advertising industry and create uniform price transparency - also for comparisons with other countries," explains Catherine Purgly, Managing Director of the LSA.

Media pioneer Urs Schneider was commissioned to conduct the first-ever survey. The result of the 2017 publication shows media inflation over the period of the last four years and will now be continued on a regular basis. The index is intended to provide advertisers, agencies and media with a new tool. At the same time, it is planned to publish the most important results.

The index is continuously updated with the latest data for prices and services and can be obtained in digital form from the two associations.