In this article published by AdWeek, Mark Dolliver digs into survey data just released by Nielson. It is encouraging to learn that people generally understand that advertising allows for people to enjoy many of the free services available. This brings questions about people's perception in regards to DVR's and other advertising - avoidance systems.  Since people know that these systems subvert the companies paying for free content, will they shy away from using them to help those advertisers?  Probably not.

The article goes on to break down interesting facts about people's trust in advertising's message.  82% Of Latin American respondents trust advertising overall as an information source to 72% for people in North America. Europeans seem far more skeptical ranking in at just 50% agreeing that advertising provides important information. It is my understanding that the Latin American market prefers home-grown localized media, whether it's newspapers or television versus the large scale networks and multimedia conglomerates North Americans are used to.  This might help to explain their inhereant trust in advertising.

The article continues with a look at traditional advertising versus new forms of ad delivery such as the internet and mobile phones. What is interesting here is that 53% of respondents in Latin America trust internet advertising "at least somewhat", 42% in North America feel that way, and Europeans are at 36% for the same measure. As can be expected, people trust brand websites the most, with search engine advertisements ranking lower.  At the end of the spectrum is mobile phone advertisements. People "at least somewhat" trust those ads at at a paltry 24%.  There are definite problems with this group - especially with a lack of quality advertisers and an abundance of fly-by-night mobile providers.

Concluding this article is what we can expect as an overall trend for these emerging advertising mediums. People have increased their overall trust in brand websites from 60% to 70%, and cinema advertising from 38% to 52% from 2007 to today. This is a nod toward these new media outlets and I think it will harbor in more trust in other emerging forms of advertising. Expect mobile advertising and other captive audience networks to gain trust as they prove themselves to be valid outlets for top tier brands.  As long as standards are maintained in these new ventures they will all follow suit and help to compete with the trust that Nielson is reporting in the traditional media sectors.

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