A new report from Nielsen shows that consumers trust advertising more now than they did six years ago.
Word of mouth remains the most trusted form of advertising,with 84% saying they “completely or somewhat trust” it, an increase of 6% from 2007. The other usual suspects ranked high, such as TV ads (up 6% to 62%), magazine ads (up 4% to 60%) and radio ads (up 3% to 57%).
The type of ads that resonate the most with consumers are dark, depressing spots.
Just kidding.
Humor led the way with 47%, followed by “real-life situations” at 46% and “family-oriented” spots at 38%.
How consumers can trust, either completely or even partially, a brand with a humorous spot is debatable. Humor is sometimes used as a distraction but continues to be used so it obviously has some merit.
The really good news from this study are the higher percentages of trust placed in digital marketing, specifically Search Engine ads (48% vs. 34% in 2007), Online Banner Ads (42% vs. 26% in 2007) and text ads on mobile devices (37% vs. 18% in 2007). Ads on social networks had a 48% trust rating in the 2013 report after not being included in the 2007 report.
As more and more people, and brands, have incorporated digital into their every days lives since 2007, it stands to reason advertising would increase accordingly. But the most encouraging sign is some digital advertising has seen the highest percentage increases, higher than many “offline” forms of advertising, in the past six years.
More and more people are trust what they see from online advertisers, and that can only be a good thing for the industry.
