This is how visible the Swiss brands were last year

• Visibility: 6.4 billion Swiss francs (Ø 12.3 million per fire)
  • The total measured visibility of the 523 brands in 2018 is 6.4 billion gross francs.
• Quarterly increase in total visibility
  • The highest visibility was achieved in Q4 - this comprises around 30 percent of the annual total. Q3 comprises a share of 24 percent, Q2 and Q1 each 23 percent.
• 182 brands = 53 percent of brand presences
  • The three largest sectors, Retail & Food, Vehicles and Finance, generate over half of the total visibility.
• Brand visibility: 51 percent not controllable
  • Paid and earned visibility balance each other out in 2018. The ratio between advertising and media presence is 49:51.
• Most visible industries: Retail & Vehicles
  • The Vehicles sector generates the greatest earned visibility at CHF 866 million. Retail & Food generates the most advertising impressions with 848 million Swiss francs.
• Summer flu: pharma slumps
  • The Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare sector records a high decline in brand visibility in Q2 (-18%) and Q3 (-35%) and is only able to recover from this in Q4 (+51%). The driver of this development is paid visibility.
• Christmas boom: increase of 24 percent
  • In Q4, total brand visibility increased by 24 percent compared to Q3. The reason for this, in addition to the advertising campaign for the Christmas season (+28%), is an increased earned presence (+22%).

There are no surprises at the top of the visibility ranking for 2018 as a whole. The two retail giants Migros and Coop dominate the Swiss brand sample. Migros maintains its lead over its big rivals thanks to significantly higher visibility in earned media.

SBB, Swisscom, and Apple follow at a great distance in places 3 to 5, but the differences between these brands in terms of overall visibility are minimal. The Swiss Federal Railways lift themselves onto the podium thanks to the second highest earned visibility. Swisscom and Apple, on the other hand, benefit more from paid brand visibility and have a more balanced paid-earned ratio than SBB.

The top 10 are completed by brands from the automotive and banking sectors. Mercedes is the most visible car manufacturer and UBS the most visible financial institution. The 10 most visible brands account for 22 percent of the visibility of the entire Swiss brand sample.

Over the whole of 2018, UBS, Nestlé and Canon emerge as the three most viral brands. UBS benefited at the beginning of the year from articles in financial media with a high level of circulation. Nestlé, as the most valuable brand in Switzerland, has per se a high potential for dissemination. And Canon - like Sony - is often mentioned in connection with pictures and videos on social networks and benefits from customer usage of its cameras.

The automotive industry experiences a viral high in March with the Geneva Motor Show, which is exemplified by Audi. After that, the popularity of car brands wanes. Tesla is the only exception. Media contributions about the American electric pioneer spread reliably throughout the year.

SBB and MySwitzerland.com, on the other hand, benefit from the distribution strength of travel and tourism images, which are particularly popular with the media in the second half of the year.

In addition to Total Industry Visibility, Media Focus also compares two brands from the same industry segment in the "Battles of the Brands. This time from the "Beverages", "Banks" and "Telecoms" sectors. In the "Twin Analysis", strategic twins are compared with the values of SBB. Irrespective of the industry, brands with similar visibility characteristics are shown.

• Rivella (4th place) is clearly ahead of Emmi (7th place) in terms of beverages.
• Rivella achieves this result with almost twice as much advertising pressure (CHF 13.4 million) as Emmi (CHF 7.4 million). Rivella (CHF 4.7 million) is also superior to its competitor from Lucerne (CHF 1.7 million) in the earned area.
• Despite the lower gross spend, Emmi does particularly well in terms of Internet search: in Internet Ads, which also includes SEA visibility, the company ranks fourth. In organic search, it is even good enough for third place.
• The fact that paid advertising plays a higher role for the beverage industry than earned visibility is illustrated by the paid-earned ratios of both brands.
• Both beverage companies invest mainly in TV and out-of-home advertising and are therefore similar in their paid media mix.

• PostFinance (CHF 52.7 million) and Raiffeisen (CHF 48.2 million) have an almost equally high overall visibility in Switzerland. PostFinance is the third most visible bank, followed by Raiffeisen in fourth place.
• Raiffeisen achieves this visibility mainly through earned mentions (CHF 42 million), but these are strongly negatively driven in the light of the Vincenz affair. The cooperative bank is therefore unlikely to be pleased about the lively coverage in the earned media.
• PostFinance, on the other hand, has a balanced paid-earned ratio. Its advertising print of 26.3 million Swiss francs is the top value among the 20 most visible banks. This advertising pressure is heavily concentrated on TV media, through which the bank plays out its commitment to sports sponsorship, among other things.

• In the telecommunications sector, UPC (2nd place / CHF 33 million), Sunrise (3rd place / CHF 32 million) and Salt (4th place / CHF 26 million) are engaged in a fierce battle for the second-highest visibility behind primus Swisscom (1st place / CHF 125 million). With the acquisition of UPC at the end of 2019, Sunrise is likely to decide this battle in its favor for the time being.
• Salt therefore needs a smart brand strategy to maintain its visibility in 2019 despite the concentration of the market environment and despite the lower advertising pressure (CHF 16 million at Salt vs. CHF 22 million each at UPC and Sunrise).
• Salt keeps pace with Sunrise in TV and out-of-home advertising, but loses out decisively in paid brand visibility in print and Internet advertising.
• In terms of earned presence, Salt (CHF 9.8 million) and Sunrise (CHF 9.7 million) are evenly matched.