TheGrill 2015: Consumers Trust Online and Traditional Content Creators Equally, According to New Study (Exclusive Video)

Edelman executive Gail Becker reveals results of its study of consumer branding trends at TheWrap’s sixth annual media leadership conference

Consumers are equally as trusting of traditional content creators as they are of online streaming platforms and brands that they buy from to create entertaining content, a new study by Edelman has found.

“In other words, consumers don’t care where content is coming from as long as it’s entertaining,” Gail Becker, president of strategic partnerships and global integration for Edelman, told TheWrap on Monday. “If you look at the kinds of attributes that people like, what you see are really trust-building attributes. They want it to be authentic, connected, and personal.”

“Not only are they trusting content because they’re getting it how they want when they want… but on top of all that it’s great content too,” she continued.

That trust is essential to driving consumers’ relationships with brands. A total 85 percent of respondents said they would likely view content created by brands that they know, versus only 64 percent who said they would view content created by a news outlet like Buzzfeed.

The study also found that, for the first time, two of the top five entertainment companies that most readily come to people’s minds are online streaming platforms.

“That’s a big shift from even five years ago when all 10 of the top 10 were more traditional networks and studios,” Becker said.

Sixty percent of people surveyed were also willing to provide personal information to secure more tailored entertainment content recommendations.

Only 5 percent of respondents said they were not comfortable at all with the idea of predictive recommendations. “It really speaks to how much consumers need help in navigating this entertainment eco system,” Becker said.

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