Trust to dust: Public faith in advertising is declining

Do you actually believe the ads that confront you each day on every possible social and traditional media platform? If you often find them shallow and lacking in meaning, then you're not alone. According to the UK-based Advertising Association, public trust in advertising is on a rapid decline. In fact, it has declined from about 50% favourable in the 1990s to only 25% today. Another statistic from Nielsen states that only 33% of consumers trust the display ads served on their mobile phones.

Constant bombardment and a massive volume of ads, coupled with a string of unhealthy ads are believed to be the key behind this fall in public trust.

“Ad bombardment leads to ad fatigue and therefore disinterest in the content and advertising by the brand. This then leads to wastage of the advertising budget for the brand as consumer disinterest triggers lesser business from ads,” says Ajit Narayan, chief marketing officer at Socxo, a brand advocacy firm.

Brands today want to come across as “authentic”, so they enter a new aesthetic altogether “the art of creating fiction that looks like non-fiction”, says PG Aditiya, executive creative director, Dentsu Webchutney. ''Do users realise what is served is fiction? Yes, they do. And they move on and over a course of time they lose trust in the brand.”

Experts say Twitter has been at the centre of all this with 0% revenues generated by their influencers. “A marketing statement such as 'we are trending at #1' has barely aged well. Nowadays, this is nothing but a euphemism for 'We paid thousands of people lots of money to put us on top',” says Aditiya.

According to Rishabh Kothari, founder and CEO of luxury jewellery brand TALISMAN, social media marketing is today cluttered with much noise and sponsored posts, and paid influencer marketing is leading to a decline in brand credibility as consumers are often left confused when it comes to who or what to believe.

Experts feel the rise in digital and social media has led to a rise in digital ad fraud. According to data by analytical firm TechArc, digital ad fraud in India amounted to $1.63 billion last year, which constituted 8.7% of the total global digital ad fraud. Moreover, ecommerce sites were the biggest platforms that contributed to the digital ad fraud, followed by travel, leisure, entertainment and gaming sites.

According to Narayan, the trust deficit has crept in due to inaccurate and false claims. “And the digital/social media platforms are now facing the reality of news-jacking and propaganda. Certain reports say, bots are responsible for almost 40% of comments on sponsored posts.”

“The rise of service brands on social media and brand complaints is a reality that contributes to the lack of trust. Often in advertising, teams are told to make it ''less like an advertisement'' since users often hate advertising. I think that's led to huge volumes of digital inventory being purchased with close-to-zero clarity on the messaging and the relevance. Users don't hate advertising, they hate bad advertising. And relevance is the key to make any piece of advertising good. The recent blooper with a user reporting irrelevant and obscene advertising on a railway platform is a great example of how audience-based networking has a side-effect on the publisher's perception too,” says Aditiya.

To rise above the distrust, brands should be honest and crystal clear in their communication strategies across platforms, as one small misrepresentation can create havoc. When it comes to rebuilding trust, experts cite the recent Volkswagen print and video ads. VW was earlier accused of using software in its diesel cars to fabricate pollution tests and was slapped with lawsuits. The recent ad has the brand subtly “nodding” to the scandal and then showcasing its new portfolio of electric cars, highlighting the message of how in darkness, it found light.

“It is extremely rare that any brand ever apologies in its ads. But today, brands should be open and honest. To become trustworthy, they need to show that they care,” says Narayan.

Kothari says brands should structure a social media strategy that is consistent and content-focused, as opposed to being product-focused. “Brands that focus on giving customers value are the ones that will ultimately gain value.”

“To reinstate public trust, brands should be customer-oriented and enable customer advocacy. They should also build employee belief in the business by leveraging their voices as well,” adds Narayan.