Trust and Advertising

July 10th, 2009

I read a few items this week, with very contrasting viewpoints. This got me thinking a little about the context in which those expressing the opinion arrive at their conclusion.

The first was a review of a Nielsen study, by EConsultancy. titled “Online consumers trust real people, not companies”. This isn’t too surprising, considering the reducing levels of trust people have in businesses, banks and Government, as surveyed annually by Edelman, which I have reviewed. The graph below gives a summary of how people trust different forms of media. Not surprisingly, “people known” is the most trusting source, with print and other traditional media lagging this considerably.

Trust in advertising (Nielsen)

Then I came across a different perspective, quoted by Marcel Fenez, global entertainment and media leader at PWC. The headline of this article is “trusted brands will hold value over user generated content”. This doesn’t quite ring true for me, considering the quantitative numbers produced in the PWC research, which discusses a decline of 12.9pc in global advertising in 2009. Could this be anything to do with the results from the Nielsen survey, which prove that people trust people? In which case, the PWC commentary is completely at odds with their quantitative research findings. This isn’t the first time I have read PWC commentary that isn’t easily reconcilable with the facts. PWC’s research and consultancy services must have been hit to the same extent as many other business sectors over the past 18 months – are these commentaries meant to instill confidence in the traditional advertising sector? I value and respect the opinion of people like Marcel Fenez, but I must question some of his commentary. “We need to stop talking about the demise of newspapers and start talking about the rise of news brands” (Marcel Fenez). Why? The facts point to a severe decline in newspaper revenues and indeed several US newspapers have already made the decision to stop the printing presses and go online. Why do we have to stop talking about the facts?

One other person whose oipinion I respect is Nic Brisbourne of DFJ Esprit, who also has a perspective on the outcome of this shift in trust.

Time will tell how important referrals from your friends are, compared to the traditional advertising messages of old – but there is undeniably a change occurring.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Media, advertising, socialmedia, trust | 1 Comment »

Is social media for everyone?

July 2nd, 2009

Matt Hamm

Matt Hamm

cc. Matt Hamm

There have been lots of events, seminars and conferences over the past few months and I have attended or participated in a few of them. There is huge interest from businesses and marketeers, to explore if they can get an edge by using some of these new tools.

At one of these, Futureproof, we had Loren Feldman (1938media) taking the keynote slot to rant about social media, challenging many of the speakers from earlier in the day that the tools and technology of social media are bullshit. As to be expected, a few other profanities were thrown in to make his take interesting and entertaining, if not informing. But it is good to hear the challenge that it’s all bullshit – but what he was really saying was that connecting with your customers is an attitude and the tools are irrelevant. I agree with that, and he used an nice analogy of his grandfather who built up his “gas” station business by looking after his customers.

This got me thinking a little, as so often the questions being asked are about technologies – should I use twitter, facebook etc? Having now delivered lots of presentations and overviews about social media, I agree with much of the sentiment of Feldman’s talk – with the exception that Internet monitoring tools are for absolutely every business. Using twitter, blogs, facebook (and IGOpeople) etc. will definitely be suited to some types of business and marketeer more than others. Some will never need to create a twitter account or a blog. But all businesses should be listening to what is being said – about their brand, products and services and competitors. Why would you not want to know what people are saying? What are their needs, what is their attitude towards your product, your customer service, your pricing, your competitors. And the good news is it’s all so easy, to set up some keyword monitoring and notification.

So I think social media is for everyone – if only to listen.

I’ll blog a little more about which businesses can benefit from social media. There is research which shows the degree to which users engage in the Internet (Forrester, sociotechnographics) and I think the same model applies to businesses – some will be publishers and get involved in conversations – others will just listen.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet, Media, social media | 1 Comment »

The Buzz from Bizcamp Belfast

May 17th, 2009

Here’s my presentation (or rambling thoughts) from Bizcamp Belfast. Just some thoughts but it got a nice discussion going.

Bizcamp Belfast – Campbell Scott (IGOpeople)
View more presentations from soupireland.

The day was great, with some excellent, honest talks by Keith Bohanna (dbTwang), Calean King (Revahealth), Barry Lynch (NiftyNosh) and Kev Traynor (Sonic Academy). Starting a business is no walk in the park, so it’s great to see all the different approaches and share some of the challenges we all face. I hope this was as much use to all those attending as it was for me.

Well done to Andy McMillan for organising yet another great event – he has a bit of recipe going.

I’ll put some links up to the other presentations when I find them.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Newspapers – down and out

May 3rd, 2009

I’ve talked about the decline of newspapers a few times before, however a couple of articles, including to one in today’s Sunday Times, that show that for some, the time has come to stop printing. A very significant number of US papers have stopped the presses and are now completely online. The rate of decline has been very significant for some, with the Sunday Time’s piece recording a 10% drop in readership in nine years, with online readership growing at 10% per annum.

Gordon Crovitz gives his opinion that one opportunity for newspapers is to charge for viewing on mobile devices, such as the iphone or Kindle ebook reader. I’m not convinced – content has become available for free on the web, and can be accessed by many mobile devices today, through browsers or RSS readers. I can’t see people pay a premium, and certainly no where near the price of a daily newspaper, to get a packaged version of the paper on their mobile device. So what is the answer for newspapers? In my opinion, cut costs and if necessary, move to an online only version – just like some of those in the US are doing.

Tags: ,
Posted in Media, advertising | No Comments »

Boxer walk away from DTT

April 20th, 2009

The announcement came today that Boxer (and Communicorp) have decided not to progress with their DTT license, awarded by the BCI last summer. Reports today claim that “economic circumstances and challanges in hammering out a contract with RTÉ Networks” where the reasons for not progressing. Oh!

So with a false start to DTT in 2002, and now Boxer deciding to walk away from the opportunity, what are the chances of DTT happening anytime soon? The BCI seem to be taking the best option of engaging with OneVision (disclosure – I helped with the OneVision bid). That’s fine, but what if the same economic conditions have impacted OneVision’s appetite to invest in DTT? The worst outcome must surely be that another competition is needed, which would delay any service, potentially by years.

So in the meantime, Ireland’s high adoption of satellitte and cable services will continue to grow, squeezing the opportunity to support a viable DTT service. This would also limit the options for free to air services across the country in the longer term. Analogue TV has to be switched-off, or our UK neighbours won’t be too happy. This could leave many households with no free to air option for television.

The economic circumstances that Boxer talk about are real, but this must be Ireland’s last real chance of getting a viable digital terrestrial television service to become a reality. Let’s hope the BCI can navigate their way to a good outcome – before satellitte, cable and internet become the only ways to receive our telly.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Media, TV | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries