WAN-IFRA Staff
2025-09-03 07:45:00
Results from two newly released Swiss-focused studies from PwC and gfs-zürich highlight that credible, fact-checked environment is vital for advertisers and consumers.
Compared to social media, journalistic media score significantly higher in terms of both trust and credibility.
PwC analysed the Swiss advertising market through interviews with 20 experts and an online business survey. The research institute gfs-zürich conducted a consumer survey as well as a comparison test between traditional media and social media.
“Quality journalism offers a safe environment for advertisers, generates higher ad recall, creates lasting impressions and makes brands more visible,” states PwC’s report.
The results from the studies highlight the major potential for journalistic media in Switzerland’s advertising market.
“The great opportunity for Swiss journalistic media is their credible environment,” notes the PwC report. “This must be built upon in order to find a way out of the conflict between short-term performance and long-term brand positioning. Success will also depend on whether media companies manage to pick up on trends while maintaining the integrity of their quality offering.”
‘Credibility Works Better’ campaign launched
To help publicise these findings, the Swiss Media Publishers Association (VSM), has launched a campaign “Credibility Works Better,” to promote the advantages of journalistic media.
“Fake news has a major impact on how advertising environments are perceived – by both consumers and advertisers,” said VSM President Andrea Masüger, in a statement announcing the campaign. “The two studies commissioned by VSM and conducted by PwC and gfs-zürich clearly show the advantages of journalistic media over social media: they perform better across credibility, trust, likability, and professionalism.”
More about the new Swiss campaign (German-language)
‘Brand Safety’ highly relevant for advertisers
“The figures from our study reveal a tension: in the short term, performance goals are pushing budgets towards social media,” said Gustav Baldinger, CEO PwC Switzerland, in the same statement. “At the same time, companies want to strengthen their brands over the long term. To achieve this, they rely on Swiss media, which provide credible journalistic environments.”
Advertisers know the credibility of their advertising goes hand-in-hand with the credibility of the environment their ads appear in, and among the highlights of the report, are the following:
82 percent of companies consider “brand safety” increasingly important when placing ads (i.e. advertising should only appear in safe environments).
Half of the companies surveyed spend 30 to 60 percent on traditional media, and 40 to 70 percent on digital media.
Above, from PwC’s report: Responses to the question: How is your budget for digital advertising distributed approximately in percentage terms across the various online media? Representation of the mean value.
Traditional media outperform social media
The gfs-zürich study validates PwC’s findings from a consumer perspective with 96 percent of respondents report encountering fake news more often in the past two years than before – with 95 percent expecting further increases in the future. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they mainly encounter fake news on social media, while just 2 percent find information on social media credible.
The results also align with perceptions of advertising quality and effectiveness.
Consumers judge advertising in a fact-checked environment to be more credible (71 percent) and more likely to lead to purchase. Some 70 percent say they are more likely to buy a product if the ad appears in a fact-checked advertising environment.
This finding also mirrored the PwC study where 81 percent of advertisers surveyed said a credible advertising environment is becoming increasingly important, especially for brand image and awareness.
‘Journalistic media win on credibility’
“Journalistic media win on credibility,” says VSM Vice President (and WAN-IFRA President) Ladina Heimgartner, CEO Ringier Media Switzerland. “It is remarkable how strongly the fake news issue undermines the credibility of social media platforms, while trust in journalistic media remains so high.”
With the campaign, VSM highlights journalistic media as advertising environments while also reminding the public of their importance as trustworthy, fact-checked sources of information.
Launched in late August, the campaign targets both decision-makers and the general public. The advertising measures include print and online ads, posters, radio, and TV spots.
The promotions will appear among VSM members and partners in German-speaking Switzerland. A sister association, Stampa Svizzera, also launched its campaign in Ticino at the same time, and Médias Suisses will follow later in Romandy.
The 28-page PwC report, in English, is available as a PDF here.
The full PwC and gfs-zürich German-language studies are available at: www.schweizermedien.ch.
