The Thoughtful Thud Revisited

A photo can still be the communications opportunity

 

A picture is still worth a 1,000 words.

When you look at this picture you see two things. Two Princes, including the Heir to the British Throne dropped to their knees at the new Bond Premiere talking to veterans injured in action. You also see from the expression on their faces what it means to the soldiers and former soldiers.

When you have stood and watched troops march through their home town in a returning Honour Parade after a tour in Afghanistan, you understand what humility and pride mean. And how important the Princes use of the  Bond film glitter would have been for Help the Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

What you see and what you hear is what you trust

 

If I was an account planner in a PR consultancy or ad agency, I would be adjusting my next pitch document already to include the implications of a new large-scale media trends study.What the study by media analysis and evaluation company Metrica of 13,000 UK consumers shows is that for all the talk about traditional media being dead, eaten alive by new media, it is showing a stubborn unwillingness to lie down!

We’re talking trust here. Which channels people trust the most. The real surprise is how well traditional mainstream media – print and broadcast – perform when people talk about trust. By comparison, only online new sites in the digital space perform strongly. Blogs are….well, not on the trust scale!

Trust in national broadcast media is up 24% to 70% compared to 12 months ago. Trust in radio is also turned up to 61%. What is really interesting and a sign perhaps of the way people are sourcing their content, is that online news sites score higher than national newspapers, with a trust rating of 54%.

Nevertheless, national newspapers have improved their trust level the by 17% to 43% and regional press has maintained kept steady, up 1% a year ago to a trust score of 50%. But some mixed messages for agencies who have invested in dedicated digital capability.

·                     Only 34% of UK adults now say they trust internet content.

·                     Only 29% felt they could trust a customer review site.

·                     Only 5% said they trusted blogs.

·                     And not even 1% of respondents said they trusted online forums.