Yet Another Study Downplays the Value of Paid Media

It doesn’t really speak to me.

Yesterday we posted on a Kentico survey revealing that the public, while skeptical, is willing to place some of its invaluable trust in that magic cure-all we call “content marketing.”

Now who does the public not trust? You guessed it: marketers and advertisers!!

Another study released today by research consultancy Insights in Marketing that surveyed nearly 3,500 consumers actually came to some interesting conclusions.

Stick with us here…

• Only 26% of participants agreed that advertisers/marketers are “trustworthy”
• Only 25% said that “the images portrayed in advertising [reflect] reality”

In other words, a quarter of that audience is what we might call “highly susceptible to manipulation.”

This guy isn’t buying it, though:

Now here’s where it gets interesting: researchers found both gender and generational divides on every question.