It would be fair to say that the UK media has taken a bit of a bashing of late, with consumer confidence taking a knock with reporting of the Covid-19 pandemic. So where are consumers placing their trust, and how can you ensure you are maximising the most trusted channels to tell your story?
According to the recent KANTAR Dimension study of 8,000 respondents across the world, newspapers ranked the highest in the media category with 37% of respondents stating that they had trust and conviction in print. TV and radio followed with 31% and 32% of respondents respectively saying they had faith in this media to report accurate information.
When it comes to Brits, we’re the most cynical nation in the globe, showing a ‘concerning’ lack of trust in social media – with 70% of respondents saying that they ‘don’t trust’ a lot of content they see on social media, including branded content. With 39% objecting to being targeted with paid for promotional news stories.
When asked which channels they choose as a ‘go to’ and trust… the Kantar findings show that consumers speak to friends and family to source brand news and information, with a trust score of 93. While we might be a truly online nation, spending hours on social platforms, word of mouth should not be forgotten. Consumers trust consumers!
Websites and articles are the most trusted mainstream media channels for brand news and information. While half of consumers claim to use news and information websites to research brands and services, only 38% of the total sample trust the information they find there (a trust score of 76).
And how do consumers really feel about influencers promoting branded products and services?
- 24% of consumers agree and 18% agree strongly that they see too much branded content on social media.
- 25% feel strongly that such posts should be labelled in some way.
- 8% of consumers say they don’t need to be told which posts are branded content.
But as with all things, there’s no one size fits all solution. Finding the right fit for the brand is extremely important. Whether it’s finding the right influencer that matches your brand values, or a piece of research that captures the imagination of media and WOM. It’s true to say that ‘strategic communications plans need the right set of ingredients, not just the largest quantity of one ingredient’ and perhaps now, that’s truer than ever.
Sources: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/05/15/advertising-and-social-media-face-fresh-trust-issues-amid-global-crisis; https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/advertising-media/dimension-2020
Our consumer lifestyle PR team specialises in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food PR, Retail PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.
