I guess it depends.
Earlier this week, MarketingVox reported that BrandWeek reported that mobile and banner ads were the least trusted sources of media. Here’s a rundown:
- Newspaper ads: 63% of media consumers surveyed said they trusted newspapers ads.
- TV ads: 56%
- Search ads: 34%
- Banner ads: 26%
- Mobile ads: 18%
- Sites focusing on one brand, built by brand marketers: 60%. (Also called microsites. See my previous post.)
Contrast those trust percentages for ads with blogs:
Consumer-created blogs were trusted by 61 percent of global respondents, a figure that shot up to 66 percent for US-only respondents. That, combined with the 78 percent who trust word-of-mouth recommendations, suggests people put far more stock in the opinions of other “real” people.
So, for advertising, is it a person’s level of comfort and familiarity with the medium that impacts trust? Why are newspaper ads more trusted than banner ads?
And, funny how, even if a person is familiar with a company — say via advertising and other marketing efforts — he/she will trust a stranger — that is, a blogger — more so.
The survey reinforces the notion that bloggers are viewed as everyday people, given the benefit of the doubt, and trusted. Not some cold-hearted, profit-greedy corporation.
And, for ALL bloggers — even marketer types — we must not take that trust for granted and fake blog or fail to ensure transparency in our work.
Otherwise, we’ll get rightfully blasted, and whittle away a huge trust factor — which can be so valuable to our companies and clients when we do develop trusted relationships with bloggers. And, need them.
– Mike
