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3rd Party Content Appears More Credible
by Jack Loechner, Tuesday, April 1, 2014 6:15 AM
According to a new study from inPowered and conducted by Nielsen, consumers rely on credible, third-party content more than branded content or user reviews when making decisions. (credible:
third-party articles & reviews). Several key findings from the research indicate that the credibility and unbiased nature of the content was critical for consumers:
- 85% of
consumers regularly or occasionally seek out trusted expert content (credible, third-party articles & reviews) when considering a purchase
- 69% of consumers like to read product reviews
written by trusted experts before making a purchase
- 67% of consumers agree that an endorsement from an unbiased expert makes them more likely to consider purchasing
The
study, to determine which type of content was most impactful across the different stages of the consumer purchase process, and to help marketers identify the most effective blend of content types to
effectively inform consumers, showed that expert content, articles from credible journalists, was the only content type to exhibit a strong lift in all 3 areas of the purchase cycle. It provided the
most familiarity lift for 7 out of the 9 products, the most affinity lift for 5 of the 9 products, and the most purchase intent lift for 6 of the 9 products.
Brand Lift Based on Information Source Average Brand FamiliarityContent Before
ExposureAfter exposureAverage Lift Trusted
content 61% 76% 15% User generated content 60 70 10
Branded content 66 74 8 (How familiar are you with the following brands of products?… top two boxes)
Source: inPowered/Nielsen, March 2014 On average, expert content lifted brand familiarity 88% more than branded content and 50% more
than user reviews; it lifted brand affinity 50% more than branded content and 20% more than user reviews; and it lifted purchase intent 38% more than branded content and 83% more than user
reviews.
Purchase Likelihood Based on Information Source Average Purchase IntentContent Before ExposureAfter exposureAverage Lift
Trusted content 40% 51% 11% User generated content 36 42
6 Branded content 46 54 8 (How likely are you to consider purchasing ‘product’?…
top two boxes)
Source: inPowered/Nielsen, March 2014 According to the report, here were
certain categories where either branded or user-generated content had even greater lift than
trusted content from journalists. For example, when it comes to home appliances, many consumers just
want to see the spec of the appliance, and they trust the
brand’s own content is the best source for accurate specs. And in gaming, most gamers value
other gamers’ reviews
because they view their fellow gamers as experts in that field.
Content With Greatest Lift
Across Purchase Funnel Purchase FunnelCategoryFamiliarityAffinityPurchase Intent Auto
TrustedTrustedTrusted Mobile
TrustedTrustedTrusted
Consumer electronics
TrustedUserTrusted Home appliances
UserBrandedTrusted Insurance
TrustedTrustedTrusted
Parenting
TrustedTrustedUser Gaming
TrustedUserUser KEY
:Trusted content,
User content,
Branded content
Source: inPowered/Nielsen, March 2014 Peyman Nilforoush,
co-founder and CEO of inPowered, concludes by noting that “… this isn’t about disproving any particular type of content… (but) about identifying… effective blend of
content types to help… educate and inform consumers.” For more information about details of the study formulation and design parameters, as well as a free download of the complete
study,
please visit inPowered here.