British consumers are more likely to trust word-of-mouth recommendations and opt-in email forms of advertising above anything else, according to a new study from Nielsen.
81% said that they trust recommendations from friends and family, followed by email at 63%, and editorial content at 62% – meaning that three of the four most trusted forms of advertising are endorsements by a third party.
Nielsen’s Global Survey of Trust in Advertising polled 29,000 Internet users in 58 countries to measure sentiment on 19 formats of paid, owned and earned (POE) advertising.
Of the 13 formats covered in both the 2007 and 2013 surveys, consumer opinion online is the only one to have experienced a decrease in trust among Britons – down four percentage points.
James Oates, UK managing director of media at Nielsen said that the findings reinforce how vital it is for companies to focus on the quality of their products and customer service in order to “drive adoption and attract positive proponents willing to market on their behalf.”
Nielsen’s results also show that traditional adverts are still going strong, with ads on TV (60%), radio (57%) and in newspapers (56%) the most trusted forms of paid advertising.
Advertising in cinemas (53%) increased 11 percentage points in the last six years – the joint largest increase of the formats covered in both surveys.
Mobile ads and text ads – 30% and 25%, respectively – were found to be the least credible of the 19 formats covered in the UK this year, while globally, mobile ads are trusted by 45% and text ads by 37%.
“Increases in the trust of paid online and mobile advertising justify the growing importance and confidence marketers have in these formats,” said Oates.
“However, the results show that UK advertisers still have work to do to reach the levels of trust that consumers have in these formats around the world. Here, though, there is still the potential that online and mobile ads are seen as more intrusive – particularly given the increasingly personal relationship consumers have with their tablets and smartphones.”
