• by Wayne Friedman , September 18, 2012

Consumers don't generally "trust" advertising -- but in certain advertising platforms combinations those trust numbers get better.

The worst results, Nielsen says, are from "text ads on mobile phones," which have a 71% "Don't Trust Much/At All" score. Online banner ads hit a 64% number, which is also the same untrustworthy number for  "ads on search engine results."

By way of comparison, some traditional media does a bit better: "Ads on TV" score a 53% untrustworthy mark; with product placements on TV at a distrusting 60%. Ads in magazines are at 53%, while ads on radio score 58%.

The best trusting results are drawn from general consumers' opinions and recommendations from "people I know" information -- where they hit a 70% and a 92% score, respectively, when it comes to "trust completely/somewhat."

Nielsen says there is a remedy to some of the negative feelings about advertising when marketers combine social and paid advertising. Looking at ads with and without a social layer, it discovered that purchase intent is much higher when adding a social component.

The report says: "Knowing that the advertised brand is liked by our friends builds trust." One example shows that social ads hit 55% better results in ad recall than non-social advertising results.

Looking at branded company sites -- owned media -- Nielsen says that in one example a brand's Web site, along with paid digital advertising, drove sales lift three times higher then of paid digital ads alone.

Nielsen recommends that marketers look at other combinations for positive results.

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