Personal recommendations, edit content trusted most in India: Nielsen survey
31 Jul 2009
Recommendations by personal acquaintances is the most trusted form of advertising by Indian respondents garnering 93 per cent votes, according to the latest quarterly Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 internet consumers from 50 countries.
Editorial content such as newspaper articles and brand websites follow at 87 and 78 per cent respectively.
The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, conducted by Nielsen Consumer Research, was conducted from 19 March - 2 April 2009 among 25,420 internet consumers in 50 markets across Europe, Asia Pacific, North and Latin America and the Middle East.
Though consumer opinions posted online is gaining in trust the world over, in India the traditional forms of advertising are still ahead, like ads in newspapers and TV (77 & 76 per cent respectively). 74 per cent Indian respondents trust consumer opinion posted online, making it the sixth most trusted form of advertising in India. 73 per cent Indian respondents said they trust personal ads in magazines.
Recommendation and editorial content is seen as unbiased information about a product or service and plays a major role in consumer decision making process. The fact that brand websites - the most trusted form of advertiser-led advertising - follows on their heels in terms of trust should be quite encouraging for advertisers,'' said Vatsala Pant, associate director, consumer research, The Nielsen Company.
The trust in Advertising element of the survey was first conducted in April 2007 and the two years since then reveals that 'brand sponsorship' and 'ads before movies' have seen the greatest increase in levels of trust, both experiencing a 20 percentage points' increase. Brand sponsorship increased from 52 per cent in April 2007 to 72 per cent in April 2009, whereas ads before movies increased from 41 to 61 per cent.
Text ads on mobile phones, though the least trusted form of advertising by Indian respondents, saw the second highest increase in terms of rising trust, increasing from 24 per cent in April 2007 to 43 per cent in April 2009.
