Advertising market in February 2025: OOH defies the negative trend
The traditional advertising market remains under pressure, while out-of-home is the only media category to grow. In the digital sector, Search remains the leader despite declines, while YouTube continues to grow. These are the figures from Media Focus for the month of February.
The advertising market in Switzerland also closed down in February 2025. Advertising pressure from "traditional" media amounted to 255.8 million gross francs, which corresponds to a decline of 3.6% compared to the same month last year. Print, TV, radio and cinema were particularly affected, while out-of-home was the only media category to increase, with growth of 8.7%. Nevertheless, the ranking in the media mix remains unchanged, with TV ahead of print, followed by out-of-home, radio and cinema.
After the first two months of the year, cumulative traditional advertising expenditure amounted to CHF 517.3 million, which corresponds to a decline of 4.8% compared to the previous year.
Digital advertising: Search remains ahead, YouTube continues to grow
Search continues to hold the top position in the digital advertising market with a share of 45.4%, although Google adjustments led to a decline in advertising pressure. Display advertising follows with 35.5%, while YouTube is the only category to record a positive development with 19.1%.
Retail trade dominates the traditional advertising market
Of the 21 sectors analyzed, only seven were able to escape the general negative trend. Retail led the ranking with growth of 32%, further extending its lead. The telecommunications sector (+15.6 %), financial services (+13.6 %) and the energy sector (+38.4 %) also showed a positive trend.
The tobacco industry recorded the largest losses (-84.3 %), which is attributable to the new advertising bans. Food (-8.5 %), leisure/hospitality/tourism (-24.7 %) and pharmaceuticals/health (-17.2 %) also suffered significant declines.
Digital vs. traditional advertising: a comparison of sectors
The leisure, gastronomy and tourism sector leads the digital advertising market, followed by retail and financial services. In the traditional advertising market, however, the retail trade is in the lead, while the financial services sector is only in fifth place.
Tobacco products, events and cleaning products occupy the last places in the digital advertising market, although some of them were able to make year-on-year gains. In the traditional market, the tobacco industry remains in last place, directly followed by the energy, media and transportation sectors.
Most popular products in February
In the display area, spusu.ch is at the top, while booking.com has the highest advertising presence in search. On YouTube, the Audi A6 E-Tron is in first place. Tui Reisen and Tui.ch also made it into the top 10 digital advertising campaigns.
