Media Trend Award for Goldbach Media, Publisuisse and APG

The number of media companies polled for the Media Trend Award was two smaller than last year. There were 44 applicants in the media provider category, and 22 in the media marketer category (see box). Broken down into media genres, this means: 23 print media companies, 9 poster providers and 32 electronic media companies. Two do not fit into this grid. If you want to win the Media Trend Award, you have to convince both the top 750 advertising clients, the biggest advertising agencies and all media agencies with good performance in planning and handling media orders.

When querying the individual media companies, each respondent can decide for him/herself which company he/she wants to assess and which not. He/she is therefore not forced by the survey system to give an answer that he/she cannot or does not want to give at all. This differentiated assessment leads to a decrease in the number of incoming assessments and to individual companies receiving a different number of assessments. Naturally, larger companies or those that have been in the market for a long time receive more assessments than smaller ones.

Goldbach Media best media marketer - together with Publisuisse

Last year, it was already a close race between Goldbach Media and Publisuisse. Goldbach Media took the win with a slim lead of 0.06 score points. It clinched this victory through better scores in the two disciplines of "awareness" and "price/performance ratio," the same disciplines in which it again came out ahead of Publisuisse in 2015.

The level of awareness corresponds to the number of marks a media company receives from its market partners (clients and agencies). In this year's survey, 226 clients and agencies rated at least one of the 12 electronic media marketers surveyed. 174 rated Goldbach Media and 137 Publisuisse. This results in a score of 7.70 for Goldbach Media and 6.06 for Publisuisse. Compared to last year, Publisuisse was able to catch up slightly in this discipline. Last year, Goldbach Media received 186 ratings and Publisuisse 142.

In terms of the overall impression of clients and advertising agencies, the average scores of both Goldbach Media and Publisuisse remained virtually unchanged from the previous year. In both disciplines, Publisuisse is 0.4 score points ahead of Goldbach Media.

There is more movement in the grading structure in the media agencies' assessment of individual services (service performance, consulting expertise and value for money). Both marketers were rated significantly lower for their services in 2015. Compared with 2014, both lost a whole grade point. Goldbach Media -0.5 for service, -0.3 for consulting and -0.25 for value for money. Publisuisse -0.2 for service, -0.66 for consulting and -0.15 for value for money. In comparison, third-placed Belcom is very well off with a loss of -0.2 grade points.

Publisuisse is clearly ahead of Goldbach Media in terms of service with a score of 8.00 (+0.96). In terms of consulting, its lead is +0.4 score points. And when it comes to value for money, Publisuisse's real Achilles' heel, Goldbach Media has to be content with a lead of +0.5 points.

What the two big marketers can do, the smaller ones can do too

The synchronization of the two big marketers at the top of the rankings continues with the smaller ones. For the past two years, Belcom and Joiz have followed in third and fourth place, with a certain respect gap, but not a big one. Belcom is 0.43 points behind the top, and the gap between the two is just 0.06 points for the second year in a row.

Looking at the media agencies' ratings of the three individual services in total, Belcom comes out ahead of all the other marketers. Viewed individually, Belcom shines with the top score for its consulting expertise (7.79), Joiz with the second-best (7.53). Joiz is the marketer with the second-best services (7.76), Belcom the one with the third-best (7.68). Finally, Belcom also enjoys the second-best price-performance ratio (7.37) and Joiz the third-best (7.27).

The best online marketer is slowly advancing

Goldbach Audience has steadily worked its way up the rankings over the past three years. In 2013, it was still in 10th place behind Adello, the best online marketer at the time, with a score of 6.29. Last year, it slipped into the role of best online marketer itself and moved up to 7th place. And now Goldbach Audience is already in 5th place, just 0.2 score points away from a podium spot. The advance of Joiz and Goldbach Audience has pushed Mediabox out of third place. Since 2013, it has lost 0.4 rating points and subsequently three places. It is now ranked in 6th place.

The development at Publicitas is more encouraging. After the one-time winner of the Media Trend Award 2013 fell back to an uncomfortable 15th place, Publicitas regained its footing last year and improved its ranking to 12th. It has continued on this path this year and is now already back in 7th place.

The trend at Ringier TV (TF1, LandliebeTV) is the opposite. Its score has deteriorated by 0.35 score points since 2013. This meant that the 5th place of 2013 could no longer be maintained. It now finds itself in 8th place.

A word about the revived radio scene. Swiss Radioworld, which was launched two years ago, went to the start of the Media Trend Award far too early in 2014. A hopeless endeavor. The result was only 22nd place. This time, things went much better. With a score of 6.40, it moved into the top 10. This already brings back memories of old Radiotele times, when this rather small company succeeded several times in teasing the big ones and picking up the award.

APG best media provider for the second time in a row

A year ago, APG narrowly edged out the long-time winner (20 Minuten won the award seven times in a row) to enter the winners' list for the first time. This time, APG was able to clearly distance itself from its main rival. It once again made slight gains and, with a score of 8.09, was the only contender to achieve a score above 8.0 and thus the best score of all 66 media companies surveyed.

Only the scores for overall impression among clients (-0.07) and for awareness (-0.04) are slightly lower than in the previous year. APG was able to improve in all other disciplines: the overall impression among advertising agencies +0.14, services +0.28, consulting competence +0.04 and the price/performance ratio +0.06.

20 minutes falls behind

The score sheet of the first runner-up, 20 Minuten, looks quite different. They were only able to gain in terms of clients (+0.07) and awareness (+0.18). In the other four disciplines, they had to accept losses: the overall impression among advertising agencies -0.33, services -0.18, consulting competence -0.32 and value for money -0.41. This pushed their overall score down by -0.17 to 7.8, just enough to leave Clear Channel, which is getting stronger again, just behind.

Clear Channel advances at the expense of NZZ

Last year, Clear Channel dropped two ranks (from 3rd to 5th). This time she made up for the lost ground. Not much was missing, 0.02 points, and she would have even placed second together with 20 minutes. At Clear Channel, the development is quite similar to APG. It achieved better scores in almost all disciplines, most clearly in awareness (+0.65). It has to swallow a drop of bitterness in the price/performance ratio (-0.32). This results in an overall score of 7.78, 0.14 better than in the previous year. This makes it the only top 10 media provider besides APG with an improved overall score.

And just as the scores of the two billboard providers are similar, the scores of the two top print media, 20 Minuten and NZZ, are very similar, just in the other direction.

The NZZ was only able to gain in awareness (+0.3) and maintain its very high score among clients (8.32). In the other disciplines, however, it suffered significant losses. Its overall score of 7.58 is thus -0.18 below that of the previous year.

The best online provider, 20min.ch, was tied back

In 2013, 20min.ch had moved up from far behind to fourth place as the best-rated online provider and was able to maintain this position last year. This year, they only lost one place. In terms of scores, however, they suffered an even greater setback than the two top print media, 20 Minuten and NZZ (-0.21 points). A lower score was achieved in all six disciplines. The biggest drop was in advisory skills (-0.49).

However, 20min.ch remains the only online provider to make it into the top 10. NZZ Netz, the second best, is only in 13th place. Google follows one place behind. Based on the results of the last few years, it doesn't look like they will make it to the top anytime soon. This year, Google was only able to improve its ranking for clients. In all other disciplines, the result was a minus.
Also still in the top 20 are Blick.ch/Blickamabend.ch and Search.ch, the latter being the only one with a better overall score.

The major print media maintain their good positions

If we look at the ranking positions 6 to 10 of the last few years, we see that these places are occupied, in different order but always by the same five print media. Their overall scores are very close. In 2015, the difference from sixth to tenth is only 0.13 grade points. In 2013, it was even lower (0.08).

Tamedia Magazines was ranked 6th twice in succession. The Ringier Blick Group also ranked 7th twice. This is followed by SonntagsZeitung, Axel Springer Publikumsmedien and Tamedia Tageszeitungen DCH. What these five print media have in common is that they lost significantly fewer score points in 2015 compared with 2014 than the two top print media ahead of them, 20 Minuten and NZZ.

It is extremely difficult to make a forecast about the further development. 20 Minuten is still out of reach of this group of 5. However, it could become dangerous for the NZZ next year. Its lead over the best of the group of 5, Tamedia Zeitschriften, is just 0.08 points.

Walter Weder is the owner of the Media.Research.Group and initiator of the advertising market study.

Information on the methodology and the list of abegraften media providers and marketers