Changing Attitudes Towards Online Advertising & Why Advertisers Have a Responsibility to Nurture Trust
According to research by Forrester, consumers are becoming more receptive to advertising. But while our natural aversion to ads may be waning, trust remains lows. What’s more, it’s heavily impacted by channel and demographic.
Here, we explore changing attitudes towards online advertising, what’s caused them and why advertisers have both a moral obligation and a compelling commercial reason to nurture trust in current and future generations.
Consumer trust in advertising is rising, but the divide is growing between age groups
The latest data from the Credos Trust Tracker has lifted the lid on consumer trust in advertising. The research found that trust in advertising is growing but younger audiences are more trusting than older audiences. 50% of 18-34s trust advertising, while only 22% of the over 55s audiences do.
It’s a trend that’s older than time (or at least older than the origins of the research itself). Trust has dropped with age since the ASA began their ‘favourability’ studies in 1969 – but the divide between younger and older audiences is becoming bigger with every year that passes.
And here’s the kicker – online channels are fuelling that divide. While trust in online advertising is as high as 44% in 18-34s, it drops to just 12% for over 55s – and a similar trend can be seen in social media and influencer advertising. But what’s causing it and why should advertisers learn from it?
Is it media socialisation or have older age groups been burned before?
One theory for the trust gap between the older and younger audiences is media socialisation. Younger audiences have been brought up in an ever-changing world of online media, while older audiences are more familiar with traditional media – this causes distrust as the line between advertiser and audience is blurred.
But there’s another consideration here. The ASA ensures advertisers follow a code of conduct that keeps them legal, decent, honest and truthful. But while online advertising became part of their remit in 1995, it wasn’t until 2010 that they started presiding over advertising on websites and social media.
In that time, online advertising became the UK’s second most complained about medium, and two thirds of those complaints were about things the ASA had no control over. The lack of oversight left advertisers free to manipulate and mislead consumers – they broke their trust and now we’re paying the price.
Integrity in advertising has never been more important
If we hold to the theory that both media socialisation and learned experience affect trust levels, then it’s fair to assume the trust gap is here to stay – at least in the immediate term. But in the long term, that gap should close as familiarity with digital technologies seeps into older age groups.
And we, as advertisers, can help the process along by being as honest and transparent as possible with audiences. By doing what’s right and building their trust, we can move the digit – not just increasing trust, but also ROI because higher levels of trust also mean higher levels of conversion.
With the ASA residing over online advertising, we’re compelled to do so, but advertisers shouldn’t need a code to do the right thing. So as online advertising becomes traditional and new technologies sweep in to take its place, we have an obligation to self-regulate even before any guidelines are put in place.
