10/27/2015
MILLENNIALS TRUST TV ADVERTISING
This may be surprising, but research by Nielsen finds that Millennials have the highest level of trust in advertising across most platforms, including ads on television. For Adults 21-34 surveyed around the world, 67% said they trust ads on TV. That compares to 64% for Adults 35-49 (Gen X), 58% 15-20 (Gen Z), 55% 50-64 (Baby Boomers) and 48% for the oldest demo, 65+.
Millennials place the highest trust in recommendations from people they know (85%), branded websites (75%), consumer opinions posted online (70%) and editorial content, such as newspaper articles (68%). And those four categories score high across all age groups. But they aren’t advertising.
When it comes to paid advertising, TV is the highest ranked across all age groups except for ages 15-20—where TV is second to branded sponsorships—and 65+—where TV is third behind “emails I signed up for” and newspaper ads.
To stick with the highly-desired Millennial age group, the 67% trust in TV ads compares to 66% for branded sponsorships, 62% for both newspaper and magazine ads, 60% ads before movies, 60% billboards, 60% TV product placements, 57% “emails I signed up for” and 55% radio ads. When it comes to digital advertising, Millennials have the most trust in online video ads (53%)—another place where TV programmers are major players—followed by ads served with search engine results (52%), ads on social networks (51%), ads on mobile devices (48%), online banner ads (47%) and text ads on mobile phones (41%).