The print campaign draws on an AdTrust study that found six in ten consumers are more like to buy a product or service from ads placed in trusted news environments.
NewsMediaWorks has launched a nationwide advertising campaign to advertisers and media agencies that reinforces the importance of trusted news environments.
The campaign, developed by Thinkerbell, will appear across all metropolitan and national print and digital news media and most regional and community papers across News Corp, Fairfax and Seven West Media mastheads.
It features executions that assert why trusted journalism is important for advertisers.
This includes: “It’s what’s on the other page that makes this space so powerful”, “For why this ad works, see above” and in digital “Surround your brand with articles your customers trust”.
The campaign draws on AdTrust study findings that found only 22% of people trust what they read on social media and newspapers are the most trusted media for both content and ads.
The study found that trust in media channels directly drives purchase intent, with 58% of consumers agreeing that the more they trust an ad, the more likely they are to buy a product or service.
“What sets news media brands apart from other forms of media is their journalism. Branded messages will appear within context that has been fact checked, proofed and considered. We wanted to ensure advertisers understand that it’s being seen within this context that is extremely important for brands,” Thinkerbell founder and consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier said.
News Media Works CEO Peter Miller says that brands which surround themselves with the truth are more likely, in turn, to be trusted.
“Journalism is what draws readers to our trusted news brands,” he said. “More than 16 million every month. It is this environment of trust in the news content that defines our news brands and, in so doing, produces tremendous opportunities for advertisers.”
The campaign will point to a website TheTruthBuildsTrust.com.au which has more details on the AdTrust study and other resources.
The NewsMediaWorks campaign launches at a time when there is substantial uplift in advertising expenditure in print news media. The most recent SMI August figures show double-digit growth in metropolitan newspaper spend and growth for newspapers overall.
Print spend grew 2.7% year-on-year, attributed to the 11.1% increase in agency spend in metro titles. Regional papers also experienced growth, according to the latest figures.
