Summary

This past spring, WAN-IFRA and Syno International, the global data platform and market research specialist, conducted a global survey to gauge consumer trust in advertising across different media.

The results are based on responses from approximately 40,000 respondents from some 40 countries. The respondents were between the ages of either 18 and 65 or 18 and 80 years old, depending on the maturity of the market. Advertising trust was evaluated across a large variety of media, including printed newspapers, online newspapers, printed magazines, commercial TV channels, commercial radio stations, search engine pages, online video, social media and cinema.

Here are some of the findings:

• Some good news for print news publishers: According to this survey, globally, people have a greater level of trust in advertising that appears in printed newspapers than any other form of media (newspaper-based websites also performed well).
• Furthermore, if people have a higher level of trust in an ad, they said they were more likely to buy the product or service that was being advertised.
• While figures vary by continent, these two basic trends were seen worldwide, and are clearly examples that news publishers should incorporate into their sales pitches to potential advertising clients.
• Globally, respondents said they thought the advertising they saw on social media was the least trustworthy among the various types of media.
• Across continents, South Americans (at 38.5), followed by Africans (28.9) and Asians (25.6) were all significantly more likely to trust advertising than North Americans (9.8) or Europeans (-0.8).
• Within regions, there were also major differences. In South America, Brazilans were far more trusting of advertising (46.5) than Argentinians (26.2)
• In Europe, for example, Spaniards (at 21) and Italians (at 15) were far more likely to say they trusted ads than Germans (-4.8), Austrians (-24) and the Northern Europeans (Finns at -12, Swedes -13, Danes -14.7, and at the very least trusting, the Norwegians at -26.1).
• Among Europeans as a whole, advertising in printed and local newspapers also received the highest degrees of trust (at 8.98 percent and 11 percent respectively) while advertising on social media (-22.1) and online video (-15.4) were considered the least trustworthy.

The report offers many more insights like these across regions and continents around the globe.

Regardless of where you are in the world, we hope this information will prove beneficial to you in providing a better understanding of the trust consumers have in the various types of media in your market and enable you and your sales teams to better persuade your advertising clients (and potential ones) of the advantages of advertising with you and your brands.