Millennials Trust Radio Ads Most

While US adults, in general, have shown trust in traditional forms of advertising such as television and radio, young adults find some digital advertising platforms at least somewhat trustworthy as well, per the most recent The Nielsen Total Audience Report.

Looking at the level of trust consumers have in the advertising platforms they currently use, the youngest group of adults (ages 18-34) exhibit the highest level of trust for traditional media platforms. Some 54% of those who listen to AM/FM radio and 51% of those who watch TV find advertising they encounter on these platforms to be very/somewhat trustworthy.

This same age group also appears to find advertising on some digital media platforms trustworthy. An equal share (50%) of those who listen to streaming music services and/or podcasts find the advertising they hear on these platforms to be trustworthy. What’s more, only a small share of these young adults find the ads they hear on streaming music services (13%) and podcasts (14%) to be very/somewhat untrustworthy. And, young adults that use apps/websites (excluding social) find ads are twice as likely to find ads on them trustworthy (45%) than untrustworthy (21%).

Social media is one platform where trust in advertising is fairly low. About one-third (32%) of 18-34-year-olds who use social media say the ads they see on these platforms are untrustworthy, while only two-fifths (39%) believe the ads to be trustworthy.

Levels of distrust in social media advertising are actually highest among respondents ages 50 and older. Some 44% of adults in this age group who use social media rate advertising on the platforms to be very/somewhat untrustworthy.

As for adults ages 35-49, although their level of trust across platforms is similar to that of their younger cohorts, a larger share rate the trust in ads they encounter on TV (59%), AM/FM radio (60%), streaming music services (55%) and apps/websites (53%) as very/somewhat trustworthy.

Nielsen’s data shows that in Q2 2020 COVID-themed TV ads accounted for 18% of all television advertising. That share decreased over the ensuing quarters, falling to 12% in Q3 and 11% in Q4.

In the first months of the pandemic, Ace Metrix research found that an extraordinary share of COVID-19 related ads scored on their Empowerment metric, which measures the positive impact of purpose-driven advertising, showing that early on COVID-related advertising was seen in a positive manner among consumers.

Similarly, Nielsen’s more recent study found that consumers tend to look favorably upon TV ads that display current COVID behaviors such as mask-wearing and social distancing. Some 6 in 10 found these ads very/somewhat favorable.