Indians trust newspaper ads the most: Study

New Delhi: Majority of consumers in India have high level of trust in advertising, with eight out of 10 people admitting that they go by messages by brands across media platforms, said the findings of a study commissioned by ad regulator Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), and conducted by market research firm Nielsen.

Advertising seen on traditional media continues to enjoy high trust amongst consumers with newspapers (86%) emerging as the most trusted media platform, closely followed by TV (83%) and radio (83%).

"Print is an extremely involved medium where readers tend to spend a higher amount of time on ads as compared to television advertising. While advertisers use reach and frequency of television platform to create awareness and consideration, print helps them educate and build credibility of their products/services. It is an absolute essential for new brands," said Sunil Kataria, chairman, ISA and CEO, India and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Limited.

According to data provided by media research firm TAM, print advertising witnessed a strong recovery with average ad volumes/day witnessing a sharp increase of 5.6 times in the month of September over April 2020. Print had the highest number of advertisers between October and November both in 2019 and 2020 compared to other traditional media (television and radio).

While traditional media surged ahead in trust, text/SMS ads were the least trusted at 52% in the survey conducted on 2002 respondents between 18 and 40 years of age belonging to SEC A, B and C across 20 markets including metros and smaller towns.

Consumers put greater trust in advertisements consumed on TV, print, radio, social media, outdoor and search engines as compared to what they did in a similar survey conducted by Nielsen in 2015, but there is a fall in the percentage of consumers trusting text messages over this period (58% vs.52%)

Among sectors, the survey findings highlighted that consumers displayed a high level of trust for advertisements of educational institutions at 82%. This is possibly because culturally, Indians have a strong belief in education as a means to secure their future. Ironically, ASCI finds that a significant portion of misleading ads come from the education sector.

“ASCI’s job of monitoring the education sector is even more crucial, given these findings. In India, the poorest of people prioritize education spends over other necessities. Most educational institutions promise job guarantees or make false claims of being the No 1 or guaranteeing 100% placement without any objective data or evidence. We are doing our best to make sure that such false advertising is removed from the market,” said Manisha Kapoor, secretary general, ASCI.

The second most trusted sector is home care products (80%). Banking and financial services (BFSI) 77% and health products and services trust levels stood at 77% followed by ecommerce (76%). However, real estate advertisements (58%) were amongst the least trusted by consumers.

About 70% of the respondents said they trust advertisements which are endorsed by celebrities. Such high trust levels are largely driven by respondents from South zone.

Television has emerged as the most common medium for consumption of advertising with 94% respondents stating that they see most ads on the platform followed by digital (82%), print (77%) and radio (29%). Viewership of TV ads is driven by non-metro markets. Interestingly, viewership of ads on digital is the same in rural (82%) as it is in metros (83%).

"This demonstrates the growing importance and centrality of this medium in the hinterland," said Prasun Basu, global head, strategic alliances and new verticals at Nielsen.

Along with traditional media platforms, ASCI has recently started monitoring mechanisms for digital platforms scanning more than 3,000 digital platforms for misleading messages.

In terms of taking action when they see a misleading or offensive advertisement, about a third of consumers are likely to discuss this with their family/friends, another third take some action by posting it on social media, or reporting the same. However, almost 30% of consumers do not take any action.