Virtual strangers trusted more than ads

by Nathan McDonald in News on 13 July 2009 at 16:20 Google+

Nielsen’s latest Global Online Consumer Survey confirms that people trust other people more than they trust advertising. As Jonathan Carson explains on the Nielsen blog:

The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly.

It’s not surprising that people trust the opinions of people they already know – it’s why word of mouth marketing is so powerful. But as the graph below shows, the trust in online word of mouth is significant. Globally, 70% of people trust consumer opinions posted online, and the same proportion trust a brand’s own website.

Nielsen_trust_in_advertising

Good news for those who are investing in websites? Well, when you consider the ways that sites often try to drive traffic, you’ll notice these types of activity appear very low down the list.

It’s quite striking that online word of mouth acheives much higher trust than all other online-specifc activity. Opt-in emails (also known as ‘bacn’) are only trusted by just over half of us, and only one third of people trusting online banner advertising – though average click-through rates (0.1% in the US according to Doubleclick) indicate how successful they are at delivering people to their intended destination.

We’ve been building websites that allow consumer opinions to be posted (also known as blogs!) for some of our clients, as well as helping to increase online conversations about them, so we’re pleased to see even more evidence from Nielsen that this is a valuable thing to do.

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  • http://twitter.com/alex_butler alex butler

    More evidence to wake up and take notice – huge implications for all of us

  • http://twitter.com/timmchris Timm Christophel

    Nielsen: Fremde Leute sind glaubwürdiger als Werbung. Warum also überhaupt noch klassisch werben?

  • http://www.mulley.net/2009/07/21/fluffy-links-tuesday-july-21st-2009/ Fluffy Links – Tuesday July 21st 2009 « Damien Mulley

    [...] Virtual strangers trusted more than ads. Doesn’t say much about ads… [...]

  • http://www.superiorpromos.com/ Promotional Products

    This is definitely a study to look at and develop marketing strategies by. WOM marketing can be difficult to come by, but the returns can be exponentially great.

  • http://wearesocial.net/fr/blog/2010/01/2010-les-mdias-sociaux/ 2010 et les médias sociaux / we are social

    [...] dans la mesure où les individus font confiance à d’autres individus lorsqu’il s’agit de se faire un…, je pense que la croissance de l’Internet mobile aura comme effet de démultiplier [...]

  • http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/01/social-media-2010/ Social media in 2010 / we are social

    [...] people trust other people online when it comes to forming an opinion about a product or service, the growth of the mobile internet will mean this increasingly occurs at the point of consumption. [...]