Trust in leadership was the over-arching topic for this year’s annual LEAD conference, put together by the trade bodies the Advertising Association, the IPA and ISBA.
The advertising industry faces several challenges but in many ways they all ladder back up to trust. Trust is the essential ingredient in the brand-customer relationship; it gives credibility to a brand’s advertising and trusted brands enjoy a commercial advantage.
LEAD’s packed morning programme looked at a few marketing-related topics through the lens of trust, including AI, ad fraud, media choices and the creator economy. And there was plenty of useful supporting data supplied by Credos and the IPA, all underpinning the business case for trust.
Five key takeaways:
- The top ranked factor for making viewers trust an ad is enjoyment. Conversely, ad bombardment is the number one driver of distrust. But nuance and complexity exist at both ends of this trust spectrum.
- Trust in all the media channels has gone up – but the demographics are polarising with 18-34-year-olds trusting ads on social media far more than 55+.
- An IPA study comparing 100 for profit Effectiveness Award winners with high trust outcomes against 800 winners who didn’t experience such trust outcomes showed the ‘Trust 100’ were 65% more likely to report noticeably big business effects.
- As AI interfaces move towards becoming both “the front door to the internet” and “bona fide marketing platforms,” the industry collectively must try to better understand how the technology works and how consumers are using them.
- Look beyond the top line reach metrics when choosing creators to partner with – the current buzz word is “access key” – the descriptor for a creator or influencer who talks to and is trusted by the community a brand particularly wants to reach.
Finally, the industry received morale-boosting encouragement from the Rt Hon Iain Murray MP, Minister for the Creative Industries and the former Culture Secretary Lord Ed Vaizey for its huge role in the success of the UK’s creative industries.
Photo credit: Bronac McNeill