Commentary

Trust Is A Must

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, October 2, 2013

According to Nielsen’s latest Trust In Advertising study, earning consumer trust, whether it’s advertising via TV, newspapers and radio, or mobile and online, is the holy grail of a successful campaign. The study reveals that trust in online advertising is increasing, as is trust in ads on TV, radio and movie screens.

Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family are still the most influential, as 84% of global respondents across 58 countries in the Nielsen online survey said this source was the most trustworthy. Trust in advertising on branded websites increased 9 percentage points to 69% in 2013 as the second most trusted format in 2013, a jump from fourth-place ranking in 2007. 68% of survey respondents indicated that they trust consumer opinions posted online, which ranked third in 2013, up 7 percentage points from 2007.

Trust in Forms of Advertising (% Completely/Somewhat Trust)
*Form of Advertising*	*2013*	*% Points Difference vs. 2007*
Recommendations from people I know	84%	6
Branded websites	69	9
Consumer opinions posted online	68	7
Editorial content (e.g. newspaper)	67	*
Ads on TV	62	6
Brand sponsorship	61	12
Ads in newspapers	61	-2
Ads in magazines	60	4
Billboards and outdoor advertising	57	*
Ads on radio	57	3
Emails authorized	56	7
Ads before movies	56	18
TV product placements	55	*
Ads in search engine results	48	14
Online video ads	58	*
Ads on social networks	48	*
Display ads on mobile device	45	*
Online banner ads	42	16
Text ads on mobile phones	37	19
Source: Nielsen, 2013 ( Not Included in 2007 Survey)*

Randall Beard, global head, Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen, says “… owned advertising (is) among the most trusted marketing formats… by nearly 70% of consumers globally, emphasizing… that marketers… (can) control the messages about their brands… that consumers consider credible… a key component in advertising effectiveness… ”

In addition to an increase in trust in messages on branded websites, 56% of respondents said they trust consumer-consented email messages, an increase of 7% percentage points since 2007.

For other online advertising, almost half said they trust ads in search engine results, online video ads and ads on social networks, while more than four in 10 trust online banner ads, up from 26% in 2007. Advertisers spent 26% more on this form of advertising in the first quarter of this year.

Ads on television, in newspapers and in magazines continue to be among the most trusted forms of paid advertising. Trust in television ads increased to 62% in 2013. Six-in-10 respondents trust ads in magazines, a rise of 4 percentage points from 2007. Newspaper ads were the only format to decline in the six-year period, with 61% of respondents finding newspaper ads credible in 2013, down from 63% in 2007, according to Nielsen’s most recent Global AdView Pulse Report.

Beard concluded that “… while TV remains the front-running format for the delivery of marketing messages based on ad spend, consumers are also looking to online media to get information about brands… and, on the flipside, earned advertising channels have empowered consumers to advocate for their favorite brands… “

For more information, please visit Nielsen here.

research, trust-based marketing, wom

3 comments about "Trust Is A Must".

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Dale Brose from dBroseGroup, October 2, 2013 at 1:15 p.m.
Great research and very valuable. However, when it comes to "trust", I'm really not sure what that really means or the role that trust plays in the mind of the media buyer or marketer.
Here's what I'm thinking. When planning out your media buys or ad planning, the marketing piece and message will fit in some place along a consumers path to purchase, or it should in any case. So the question is, where is your marketing piece going to go and what are you trying to achieve?
Not everything contained in the report list fulfills the same role, so to weigh them equally on the same "trust" scale seems skewed to me.
Do I need trust to create awareness? While ads on a social network or a on a mobile display network my be trusted less than other forms, this report could give brand managers and business owners the idea that investing or using these lesser trusted channels is a bad thing without thinking about the role that the channel plays in their customers path to purchase or process.
While trust is always going to be important, does trust play a more vital role further along in your customers purchase process and does is play a lesser role early on when the conversion may not be the goal.
Of course, the simple response a brand manager or business owner may have is that they want every ad to convert. Well, that makes sense, but that's just not marketing to the reality of the purchase process and ZMOT.
I could go on with this, but I think you get what I'm trying to say. Trust is important to drive the conversion, but consumers today rarely convert on first exposure and they control their ZMOT and purchase path.
Reply

Kern Lewis from GrowthFocus, Inc., October 2, 2013 at 8:17 p.m.

Wow. John Wanamaker is winking in his grave. Messaging you control, but not on your own website, is trusted about 50% of the time on average!
To abuse John W's old quote:
"We know 50% of the viewers of our ads trust our message, we just don't know which 50%."
Plus ca change...

Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, October 5, 2013 at 5:48 a.m.

About 'word of mouth', the people can be easily fooled, even by so called friends...