I Think We Got Some Trust Issues, Ad
Similar to a long-term romantic relationship, attitudes toward advertising have changed dramatically over the years
The golden age of advertising is reflected in the first seasons of Mad Men. Don Draper, a gifted creative director delivers creative ideas stemming from a profound consumer insight and consumers react to them by buying the advertised products. Back then, creative was leading the way for advertising and the series implies how surveys and market research were deprioritized in favor of common sense and client persuasion.
As Mad Men progressed, measurement has turned into a key aspect and creative was dethroned by media deployment. The acquisition of Sterling, Cooper & Associates by McCANN demanded Don Draper to compromise his creative integrity. In the end, he lost interest in advertising.
50 years later, the power of media and measurement is still increasing. Marketers terminology has shifted from groundbreaking creative ideas to better targeting and smart media deployment. Nowadays, creative gets praises but is not prioritized.
In parallel, advertising effectiveness has decreased significantly or became intangible. For traditional media, a connection between campaign and sales increase is not straightforward. For digital advertising, most engagement KPIs are still measured with indications to ROI (clicks, lead generation) and not actual increase in market share and sales.
Although one may dispute the reasons, research around attitudes toward advertising over the last decades highlight trust as a key aspect.
The relationship between consumers and advertising has gradually deteriorated up to a point consumers do not believe ads are delivering truth. Over the years they have prepared themselves for a break up from this complicated relationship. This is how they express it.
“It’s not what it used to be” | Loss of attention and apathy toward advertising
A significant disinterest in ads may have started already in the 80’s according to an interesting find from a Harvard Business School working paper.
A dramatic drop in attention to TV ads was spotted between 1988 and 2012, from 95% to only 15% respectively. This drop was pushed by two catalysts that have created an option to avoid ads: the commercialization of TiVo devices in 1999 and the launch of video-on-demand services.
Digital advertising shares similar characteristics. For example, Kantar Trust Index states 76% are either indifferent toward advertising or dislike it generally.
A Reuters Institute research also provides a closer look to the prevalent notion on ads. The research indicates only 5% of people in the UK and 15% in the U.S. believe ads are useful.
Similar to traditional media, the loss of attention is correlated with the adoption of non-advertising tools. Ad-blockers — the TiVo’s of the internet — have received a growing attention from users as they enable users to avoid ads across devices easily.
Although numbers differ from one source to another, 27% to 47% of internet users in the U.S. have installed an ad-blocker on one of their devices.
“I can’t trust you anymore” | Advertising is the least trusted source for brand information
Advertising is considered to be the least trusted source when seeking for brand information. According to Kantar Trust Index, advertising had the lowest percentage of credibility in all tested markets.
Excluding advertising, all other sources did not have a unified rank across markets. This consensus implies a universal truth about advertising and a general distrust in advertising despite market differences.
Interestingly, company websites are considered to be a credible information source despite being shaped by the same entity that generates ads. In other words, consumers tend to trust other brand assets, but refrain from placing their trust in advertising.
“I don’t know who you are anymore” | Media is losing trust, content marketing is a contributing factor
Not only display digital advertising or traditional advertising are taking the hit. Various content marketing formats also raise doubts from users.
Content marketing, branded content or native advertising are assimilated in News publishers as articles with the aim of providing value to the reader while carrying a brand message.
That said, users who come across a sponsored or branded content also share some doubts about its authenticity.
In a Rakuten research from 2017, more than 50% of users across the globe associate ads with fake news. These numbers relate to all forms of advertising and indicate consumers’ predisposition to doubt content coming from the brand outside the limits of its assets.
Focusing on sponsored content, 43% in the U.S. have felt disappointed or deceived when they found out the content was sponsored by a brand or a company. This type of confusion is usually caused when sponsored content is not clearly labelled.
The growing presence of content marketing among News & Magazines publishers also influences how news sources are perceived. In the U.S., 28% have responded content marketing affects negatively on the news organization that carries it.
The connection between sponsored content and news sources seems to contribute to the overall loss of trust in media. According to Gallup, trust in media has decreased gradually from the 70’s and has reached the bottom in 2016 with 32%. Other recent publications state that trust in media is still declining to new lows.
Either way, all sources indicate a similar trendline illuminating decades of growing skepticism toward the media.
“It’s not you, it’s me”
The main change in attitudes toward advertising is rooted in generational changes. Consumers approach brand-related content with increased awareness and are less naive to consume it as is.
When brands use traditional or familiar formats, consumers already have tools to bypass and avoid them. When brands use disruptive formats, consumers quickly learn to consume it with a certain level of skepticism.
The race for more disruptive formats seems to only widen the gap of trust between consumers and brands. As seen in the example of content marketing, knowing in retrospect that content was delivered by a brand has a negative effect on its acceptance by consumers.
However, direct sources that provide a clear connection between brands and consumers can be considered trustworthy for brand information.
Transparency and promotion of content through brand assets may offer a partial solution. A pact based on a clear understanding that the brand is striving to promote its agenda and message.
Even the legendary Don Draper would find this challenge to be much different than the 70’s.
