Earlier this year, the Advertising Association’s independent think-tank Credos commissioned “Forum: Monitoring Public Opinion of Advertising”, conducted by ComRes, which made for an interesting read*. Aside from flying in the face of what many would have you believe about advertising and advertising ideas, it proves that we are becoming more tolerant of advertising campaigns and clearly understanding that we can’t have things such as free programming without someone else paying for it.  

Contrary to the popular belief that consumers view marketing messages with a healthy dose of scepticism, the research suggests that in fact two-thirds of UK adults trust advertising to some extent. Across most media channels they are becoming more accepting of why advertising campaigns are necessary, which is highlighted by the fact that 88% of the 2,000 consumers interviewed agree that advertising campaigns help to boost retail sales in the UK.

What I find interesting is that while paid-for and traditional media appear to have remained trusted, online fares poorly in this area – despite the fact that websites have overtaken papers in terms of the regularity with which people read them. Online channels are trusted “to some extent” by just over half of the respondents, but 34% do not trust them at all. This stacks up against 69% of people saying they trust ads in newspapers and magazines to some extent and 20% saying they do not trust them at all.

The report also fires a worrying warning shot across the bows of those marketers seeking to focus their efforts extensively on social media. While 36% of people use Facebook daily, 31% never use it and 71% never use Twitter. This means that marketers really need to think carefully about where they are online, why and what they’re doing. It’s not enough to just have the presence on one of these channels you need to think carefully about what you do with them once they are there to make the most of that connection.

The real power of social media is that it gives brands the ability to create a dialogue with their consumers that other media don’t. However, advertising currently is still a one-way thing online, so in many ways it goes against the ethos of the internet. This is not to undermine the internet as a channel for advertising campaigns but simply to say that marketers need to look at how they use advertising online, and for creatives to rise to the challenge of making it more engaging. It still generates the most powerful form of advocacy for brands, though, which is word of mouth. Although people go online for recommendation, you still have to let them know about your brand, and advertising plays a key role in doing this.

From a marketing perspective it’s good to see a growing consumer acceptance of advertising, maybe this is because in a world where people are empowered to fight back they are more tolerant because they know they have the opportunity to voice their opinion the other way. And this is where online really fits in.

*http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/in-advertising-weve-a-broad-level-of-trust/3026810.article