Trust in advertising is essential. There can be no two ways about it. If the public that is being marketed to doesn’t inherently trust the content they’re seeing –this can spell disaster for brands.
Unfortunately, only 29% of Britons do, according to the latest figures (2023) provided by thinktank Credos in partnership with the Advertising Association (AA). While this is more than the government and media (both 26%), it lags far behind other industries including the medical sector (73%), banking (48%) and telecoms (43%).
Although 29% may seem low, it is a marked improvement on 2021’s figure of 23%, helped in no small part by the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) major TV ad campaign designed to rebuild public trust in the rigorous checks and balances that govern the sector.
The matter’s importance was underlined in a panel discussion at the AA’s LEAD 2025 event in Westminster this month, which brought together Adam&EveDDB’s Miranda Hipwell, Ogilvy’s James Murphy and Channel 4’s Rak Patel.
A worrying decline
The key question, no doubt is why has the public’s trust in advertising been eroded so dramatically in recent decades? After all, trust stood at 48% as recently as the early 90s, and even higher back in the 80s, IPA director-general Paul Bainsfair points out while moderating.
Naturally, there won’t be one single answer for this. But the advent of social media and the explosion of disinformation entering the mainstream since the mid 2010s will not have helped matters.
The kaleidoscopic fragmentation of media itself will also have had a major role to play in this decline, with traditional broadcast TV advertising no longer the universal staple it once was.
Perfectly encapsulating this almost post-cultural landscape that we seem to have inherited in the 2020s, and that is now seemingly being amplified by a series of disconcerting global events. Murphy calls the current state of affairs a “post-truth world.”
“When you look at what’s happening with digital platforms, and their moving away from fact checking and so on and just the whole political discourse – even though trust may have marginally risen – it’s only relative to the decline elsewhere and so on,” he said.
Citing McCann’s famous “Truth Well Told” motto, Murphy adds: “I think we need to be vigilant with ourselves, that we’re always insightful in our communications and that we’re always dealing in the truth, even if we’re radical.”
An indispensable driver of profit
The reasons why trust is so important, across the board and not just in advertising, are straightforward enough. Trust is a cornerstone on which well-functioning, modern societies are built.
If people have no trust in basic institutions, let alone in advertisers, we begin to see a breakdown in common civilities, something which many will be all too aware of with the rise of populism in the post-Brexit world.
Speaking in purely selfish terms, building strong trust with consumers is evidently vital for brand success. As Hipwell highlights, recent research carried out by Accenture Song indicates that as many as 53% of people would consciously avoid buying from brands they didn’t trust.
Therefore, if nothing else, building and maintaining trust in brands and their advertising is good business practice.
Driving the point home, Patel cites research from Thinkbox that suggests trust is the single biggest factor currently driving concrete profitability for all companies.
Summarising the quintessential value of trust, Hipwell added: “I think the Advertising Association last year talked about the second biggest driver of effectiveness and commercial value for brands is now trust, and it used to be only the seventh driver a decade ago. Trust is even more vital now than ever, I feel.
“We need to make sure that the services that brands and businesses are providing really uphold the promises that we are talking about in our work and in our communications, and then when it comes to these communications, tell the truth, tell it in a way that entertains and makes people feel really engaged in that brand on an emotional level.”
Is regulation the key?
As trust is so crucial for business performance, how can brands and advertisers ensure that they can maintain, if not improve existing relationships with the public?
Maintaining standards is naturally essential for this, and this is why the ASA continues to play such an important role in rebuilding the public’s trust in the advertising sector.
If audiences understand that all advertising content published in the UK is subject to rigorous rules and processes, they are much more likely to trust in the campaigns they see.
With the advent of AI now upon us – the maintenance of those standards, and the clearly defined regulations set out by the ASA will be more important now than ever before as the potential for content manipulation becomes readily available.
“I think we just have to uphold our standards when everyone else is dropping theirs,” Hipwell explains.
“Whether that comes from the messages, whether that comes from how we’re creating the work – even when it comes to commitments around DEI and sustainability – let’s all keep committing to those things that form the foundation of a brilliant industry that is revered by others, even as [other sectors] are moving away from those things.”
Speaking of the pressures placed upon the advertising industry by Covid-19 and the widespread fragmentation of media, Murphy adds: “I think no matter what, we have to challenge ourselves to keep the quality high.
“It isn’t our job to turn up and blow people’s minds, but if we an turn up and be beautiful or even useful on a finite budget, then we’ll probably maintain the levels we’ve rebuilt.”
Trust then, is key for advertising to be successful. It’s a no-brainer for many, but in an increasingly cash-strapped space it can sometimes fall by the wayside.
In any case, the ASA will play a leading role in helping the UK industry maintain its traditional levels of quality and trustworthiness – and it must be hoped that having clearly noted the correlation between trust and financial success, brands and agencies will be all the more inclined to toe the line, for their benefit if no one else’s.
Marketing-Beat
