Eight out of 10 people in India trusted advertising messages across media, a recent study has found. The study was commissioned by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), which was conducted by Nielsen.
"TV was the most common medium for consumption of advertising, followed by digital, print and radio. Viewership of TV ads is driven by non-metro markets. Interestingly, viewership of ads on digital is the same in rural as it is in metros," a statement from ASCI said.
Among sectors, audiences displayed a very 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 therefore has a high focus on education sector advertising," the statement said.
According to Prasun Basu, Global Head, Strategic Alliances and New Verticals Nielsen, this demonstrates the growing importance and centrality of this medium in the hinterland.
"ASCI spotted early that the growing consumption of digital content and advertising pointed to a permanent change in consumer behaviour and marketing. Accordingly, it set up robust monitoring mechanisms for digital platforms alongside its monitoring of print and TV advertising. It now scans more than 3,000 digital platforms for misleading messages," the statement said.
Besides, the report disclosed that advertising seen on traditional media continues to enjoy high trust amongst consumers.
"Advertising in newspapers emerged as the most trusted, closely followed by that on TV and Radio. Text/SMS ads were the least trusted at 52 per cent," the statement cited.
In terms of shifts, 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.