Trust Issues
ISSUE 21 [601g Per Serving]
Guess Who’s Back
Good news, Carb Loaders. Trust is back. At least, trust in advertising is back. Okay, so technically speaking, it’s up from where it was — and it was somewhere close to an all-time low — but still, we’ll take it. God knows we need some good news in this industry right now.
Speaking at this year’s LEAD summit on February 5th, Credos director Dan Wilks revealed that public trust in advertising is rising, with the highest levels recorded in the past five years.
As usual, the really interesting bit is why. And, according to the industry’s think tank, the answer is a simple one: enjoyment. More people are enjoying the ads they watch. The conclusion? Enjoyment equals trust.
Of course, we already know feel-good ads work. We know positive emotions beat negative ones. We know entertainment and enjoyment drive effectiveness. And now, Credos offers a helpful reminder: when people enjoy the ads they see, trust goes up too.
If there was ever a reason to put the final nail in the navel-gazing, purpose-lacquered earnestness of the 2010s — and welcome humour, personality and irreverence back — this is it.
You Better Believe It
If enjoyment is the great trust builder, what’s the opposite? Well, the answer is just as straightforward: scam ads. Unsurprisingly, people don’t like being lied to. And once they are, they tend to tar the whole industry with the same brush.
As a result, the channels suffering the lowest trust are the ones where scams are most prevalent (hello digital).
Everyone agrees scam ads are a problem. But the scale on some of the platforms that attract the lion’s share of media budgets is staggering. On his excellent Substack, Omar Oakes points out that Meta makes $5 billion from scam ads alone — raising a rather obvious and somewhat uncomfortable question: at that level of revenue, is this an oversight, or simply part of the model?
Round Round
I enjoyed David Wilding’s piece recently. He argues for what he calls circular value: the idea that media investment doesn’t just deliver impressions or outcomes — it shapes the wider environment your business depends on.
When spend supports transport systems, journalism, public media or shared spaces, it helps create the conditions — economic, social and psychological — in which businesses can actually grow.
I’ve long argued that brands would be far better off investing media budgets in journalistic environments rather than mindlessly shovelling money into the coffers of the big digital platforms. The obvious circular benefit is supporting a news ecosystem that’s steadily being hollowed out — but in the context of the above, it also means being less reliant on platforms that struggle to keep scams out.
These are, of course, arguments about placement. But the Credos data points to something else — a silver lining, or another form of circular value. Making ads that people actually enjoy might help rebuild trust. Not just in your brand, but in advertising as a whole.
Trust in the wider world is under pressure. In that context, maintaining it feels bigger than the ROI on your latest product push — important as that is, dear marketer.
Maybe we need our own trust barometer — for the work we make and where it shows up.
Until then, I’m off to enjoy some ads.
Hopefully.