This morning comes a post from TMPDM, citing a Forrester consumer survey about trust and media. In the survey YP comes out on top:
This is Q3 data. It’s tough to see but the order goes:
- YP (assume people interpreted to mean print)
- Newspaper ads
- In store display ads
- Consumer reviews/opinions
- Magazine ads
- TV
- Direct mail
- Radio
- Etc.
Compare the 2008 OPA-Jupiter study (n=2,069):
The above is a little “apples to oranges” because the choices are limited to online media. And now for Nielsen:
This study was global and had more than 25K respondents, whereas the other data is US only.
Clearly there are significant variations in the rankings. How would you account for them beyond the reasons I already provided?
Screenwerk 
November 18, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Many studies are agenda driven similar to political polling. Would you agree?
November 18, 2009 at 7:34 pm
That’s certainly one way to explain it: different questions yield different results
November 18, 2009 at 7:42 pm
“People can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.”
– Homer Simpson
November 18, 2009 at 8:47 pm
“90 percent of putts that are short don’t go in”
– Yogi Berra
November 18, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Nice Ben.
November 19, 2009 at 5:06 am
I agree that the format/tone of the question and the overall intention of the survey are key factors. The dominant factor that local advertising (yellow, np, and reviews) has over national advertising (TV, Mags, Web and banner ads) is very interesting. That certainly illustrates and reiterates the value of local advertising for small businesses and a good indicator for some as to where they should spend they’re money. This will be great to share with them. Thx.
November 20, 2009 at 10:31 am
Interesting read, thanks for getting it out here.