For some time now I’ve been citing Nielsen’s 2009 Global Trust in Advertising survey in presentations, so I’m happy that an updated survey has just been released.
It’s rare to see a survey of this magnitude: over 28,000 internet respondents in 56 countries were asked about sources of advertising they trust. At the top of the list came “Recommendations from people I know”, with 92% indicating they trust them “completely” or “somewhat”.
No big surprise there. What’s interesting is that the second most trusted source is “Consumer opinions posted online”, at 70%. That ranks above even editorial content, at 58%—down from 69% in 2009.
It’s understandable that consumers have a high trust level for other consumers. They’re “people like us”, and they aren’t trying to sell us anything – well, not usually. But why do we trust the opinions of strangers more than professional journalists? It’s quite a statement, especially when it comes to travel.
Meanwhile, trust in traditional advertising has declined. Advertising on TV and in magazines comes in at 47%; newspapers at 46%.
Trust in online and mobile advertising has increased, though it remains comparatively low. Those cleverly crafted email blasts you’re issuing? 50% don’t trust them, even though they opted in. Those tried and true cost-per-click campaigns? 40% trust factor. Ads on social networks? A paltry 36%.
Now who’s to blame for this deplorable lack of trust in advertising? Hmmm …
But this isn’t a blamestorming exercise. The question is, how to adapt? And is advertising a complete waste of time and money?
Not exactly. We still need to cast our net far and wide to get the attention of travelers. And even if they’re a bit wary of the source, they often still book anyway.
As for adapting, what’s clear is we need to do less of the talking ourselves and to channel more resources into getting travelers talking about us. Not only talking, but reviewing, rating, liking, sharing, blogging and posting pictures and videos. And much of that action is taking place in social networks.
This means taking a systemic approach to managing reviews, engaging advocates and resolving issues raised by detractors. And it means setting realistic expectations for travelers by being authentic and transparent in our marketing.
That’s online. On property we need to train and empower staff to meet and exceed those expectations and to use guest feedback to guide improvements.
No sweat. Trust me.
Excellent stats Daniel, thanks for sharing!
I find it very interesting that "Ads on TV" still outperform many other mediums. I believe this is a "cultural change" that is still in progress, and in short time we'll see TV plunge and other digital mediums rise past above it.
I think recommendations from people we know will always have a place at the top no matter how the market/medium changes – we are humans and we will always give more attention to a recommendation coming from someone we trust. As you say, marketers will have to find a way to get people to talk about their product/service without making it look biased.
Best regards from Cancun.
Camilo, I’m not sure how much TV advertising has changed in terms of trust, but it has definitely gone down in terms of reach, with so many channels, the ability to record programs and skip ads, and so many other media competing for our attention. As for personal recommendations, as Are mentions above it depends on who the source is. As we’ve all seen, sometimes the recommendations of “people we know” can be a bit iffy …
Hi Daniel.
Great article and info.
I did see this survey at Nielsen. One of the questions I asked is who is actually the people we know?
I think it is more the people we know, trust and like. Or we are now starting to see the real effect of Relationship Marketing. And as you point out with Consumer Opinions on a rice Reputation Management is not far behind.
Interesting to see that emails still has such a strong position. Email Marketing will most definitive live for a long period. I am not among the nay sayers that believe email marketing is dead.
Was a bit surprised to see TV Ads so high up. And Billboard ads?? Wow. Maybe this survey was done during Super Bowl or something like that.
I think Social Network ads is on the rise also. Think it got hit due to some privacy issues, But Facebook is polishing their policy, and we will see more of this. That Mobile advertisement is in the bottom I am pretty sure also will change.
I don't either think advertisement is a waste of time. I think it is more that we see a shift in the type of advertisement consumers want to be exposed to.
Some of the advertisement I get requests for seems to capture some of these changes. It is more content related marketing.
I think next year we will really see how Social Media has impacted this shift. I am pretty sure you will experience more requests from Hotels that want to learn more about Reputation Management.
Cheers…
Are Morch
Hotel Blogger
Appreciate your input as always, Are. It’s true, the survey results are helpful but also raise more questions than they answer. There’s so much talk about the challenges of measuring social media ROI, but is it any easier to measure ROI on ads on TVs, in newspapers and magazines etc? Measuring social media ROI, while far from an exact science, does give us better insight into the effectiveness of our promotional efforts – while at the same time allowing us to target customers with more precision. As I’ve said before, what’s the ROI on social media? Your reputation.
It's nice to have up-to-date information to back up what we have all, instinctively, always known. If only we could get similar, quantifiable affirmation on other assumptions we hold dear — e.g. that the original Darren on "Bewitched" was the better one, that the Canucks were cursed in this year's playoffs, etc.
One organization that has always leveraged this "travelers trust other travelers" phenomena is the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). When the CTC decided to focus their efforts on Canadian travelers, enticing them to travel within their own country versus abroad, they created the highly successful "Locals Know" campaign. This campaign used traditional mass advertising to, as you say Dan, cast a wide net. But the workhorse of this effort was the social media and online engines that drove it. Through dedicated websites that were constantly updated, Canadians were able to learn from other Canadians about special, out-of-the-way places in this great country of ours. This campaign ran for over two years and has been credited with keeping hundreds of millions of travel dollars in the country during the height of the recession.
In the evolution of this campaign, the CTC still leverages the power of travelers trusting other travelers by now encouraging foreign travelers coming to Canada to "travel like a local." Re-purposing all of the great content it collected during the "Locals Know" campaign, CTC compels foreign travelers to tap into this robust resource and discover lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path places that only locals know about. While this evolution of the campaign is still relatively young, word from CTC is that it is still working incredibly well.
Agreed Bill. I think the CTC’s “Locals Know” campaign was forward-thinking and brilliant. In fact I interviewed the CTC’s Senior VP of Marketing to find out more about their social media and reputation management activities here: http://www.danieledwardcraig.com/2011/10/social-media-and-reputation-management-in-canadas-tourism-strategy.html. Thanks for your comments – always great to hear Storyteller Bill’s perspective!