In Brief

With the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer revealing its most worrying findings for advertisers for a decade, and more recently the AA report ‘Arresting the decline of public trust in UK advertising’ we look at the trusted status of magazine brands and the extent to which this has a ‘rub effect’ for advertisers. ‘A Matter of Trust’, addresses the question, to what extent do consumers trust the published media brands vs the social media brands they consume? And more importantly, does this trust in the media brand translate into increased levels of trustworthiness for the brands who advertise there?

Key Findings

Magazine brands are more trusted than social media brands (70% of magazine readers trust magazines, only 30% of social media users trust social media). This even holds true amongst under 35 digital natives (62% and 35% for under 35’s)

Magazines are also more trusted than social media when it comes to implicit measurements

‘Relevancy and Meaning’ make the biggest contribution to trust in Media brands. Magazine brands over index 140 against this factor compared to an under index of 71 for social media.

Magazine brands inspire trust across a range of topic areas including beauty, food and motoring (amongst those interested in beauty 79% of fashion magazine readers trust magazines for advice and inspiration on beauty, only 60% of Instagram users trust Instagram for advice and inspiration on beauty and Facebook achieves lowest result at 28%, magazines are still the most trusted for beauty amongst under 35’s.)

There is a brand rub effect: trust in a magazine brand translates into perceptions of trustworthiness for brands who use this environment. Across a basket of campaign effectiveness studies and a range of trust-based metrics, we saw an average % KPI uplift of between 64% and 94% per brand.

Implications for Advertisers

Delivering trust for clients is more important than ever. Across a number of sectors, magazine brands are trusted to provide inspiration and advice to their readers. This trusted status means that, when you advertise in magazine media, your brand benefits from the magazine’s reputation and relationship with the consumer.