After the Internet, radio is the most important medium for Swiss
In terms of usage, radio lags behind the Internet, newspapers and television, but when it comes to subjectively perceived importance, radio beats most other media. This is the result of initial analyses of the latest MediaBrands study by Publicom.
Radio remained a constant companion through everyday life for many people in 2017. 85 percent of Swiss people have used a radio program at least once in a three-month period. This puts radio far ahead of social media, which have a quarterly reach of only 59 percent.
As part of this year's MediaBrands study, over 5,000 people across Switzerland provided information on their media usage and qualitative perception of a total of 180 media brands. Radio's qualitative strengths were particularly surprising. When asked about the subjective importance of the media in everyday life, classic radio usage achieved the second highest value, directly behind the Internet. This means that radio use is "more important" to the Swiss than television and clearly "more important" than newspapers or social media. It is clear that traditional radio use on a special stationary or mobile radio set (FM or DAB+) is still far more important than the use of streaming offers from the internet: Four-fifths of the adult population use radio at home or on the move via a traditional radio set, while only 30 percent listen to radio via the (stationary or mobile) Internet. The number of people who listen to the radio exclusively via the Internet is even a tiny five percent. So when people listen to Internet radio, it is mostly in the form of parallel use, i.e. they listen to the radio both in the traditional way and via the Internet, depending on the usage situation.
High acceptance of radio advertising
The qualitative strength of radio is also evident when it comes to the acceptance of advertising. Advertising in the form of radio spots is far better accepted than TV advertising or even advertising on smartphones - and in all age groups. Only print advertising in particular has even greater advantages in this respect.
With the MediaBrands study, Publicom annually determines the brand performance of media brands among the Swiss population. The 2017 survey was conducted in April and May and is based on a representative sample of 5,098 people aged 15-79. The statistical margin of error is +/- 1.4 percent.
