Trust In Advertising -- Paid, Owned And Earned

In a recent Nielsen global study, all forms of paid advertising -- TV, print, digital, radio -- showed a gap in the "trust factor," with a majority of respondents reporting that they don’t trust each type much or at all.

Conversely, and not surprisingly, “recommendations from people I know” scored highest on trust, with 92 percent of consumers trusting this source completely or somewhat. Owned media, such as brand websites, scored higher than paid advertising but lower than social recommendations. Yet advertising as a medium continues to thrive, with ad dollars on the rise globally and in many markets around the world.

Since trust in advertising lays along continuum that moves from earned (highest trust), to owned, then paid (lowest trust), it stands to reason that brands should want more earned and owned. But can paid be given up completely? We need to start thinking of how paid, owned and earned can work together to improve trust and deliver better results.

Marketers continue to discuss them as if they are mutually exclusive media. They’re not. And now technology is blurring the lines of paid, owned and earned media more than ever. Paid can now also be social, as social is often about paid. Owned can have paid embedded media in it. And sometimes, all three can exist in one consumer touchpoint.