Trust is the Missing Link

A study released this summer of over 500 consumers in the United States points out a reason why most advertising campaigns under perform.

There are over a million advertising and marketing messages that we are exposed to each year and most of them are missing something.

What is that something that is missing?

Trust is the Missing Link.

According to the ExpertVoice Consumer Trust Panel, only 4% of consumers trust celebrity endorsements, while over 80% trust the recommendations from friends and family. In today’s overcrowded marketplace, consumers are searching for trusted recommendations before making a purchase, says the report.  Those so called social media influencers, they only earn the trust of 6% of consumers.  Yet the influencer marketing industry expected to reach $10 billion by the year 2020.

Those are huge numbers.  I’m going to bring it down to earth and tell you what I discovered a few years ago when I joined the advertising sales team at WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

WOWO is a news talk radio station with live, local newscasts starting at 5 in the morning, all the way up to 6 at night.  Two local newscast every hour, except the first four hours, when the news team does 4 local newscasts in the morning.  As a local news and talk radio station, WOWO also has two local radio personalities, Charly Butcher and Pat Miller who host mornings and afternoons.  They are our version of celebrity, but not really.

Let me explain.

Because of the nature of our talk format at WOWO, Charly and Pat share their personalities with listeners.  People don’t tune in to WOWO in the afternoon to hear the latest news, they tune in to hear what their friend Pat Miller is talking about with regards to what’s going on in the news.  Pat and Charly become friends to their listeners. This is critically important to know, because remember the trust factor of family and friends tops 80% compared to anyone else when you are looking for advice on what to buy or whom to buy it from?  Pat and Charly have credibility with their listeners.

There’s another statistic from this national trust survey I want to address. A significant reason why celebrity endorsements aren’t trusted by us everyday consumers is because we know that those movie, music and TV stars are paid big bucks to slap their name on those celebrity endorsed products. Here’s the quote from the report:

 …the greatest concern for consumers regarding celebrity, athlete and influencer recommendations is the monetary compensation given to the individual from the brands they’re promoting. Additionally…many consumers expressed concern over what knowledge a celebrity possesses regarding the product they’re being paid to endorse.

Here’s how the live endorsements work with Charly and Pat at WOWO.  When they do a full blown, live 60 second endorsement for an advertising partner, Pat or Charly do get paid a fee.  The radio station gets paid for the 60 seconds of advertising time and Pat or Charly are paid an additional endorsement fee.  These are the highest priced ads you will hear on WOWO.  I call them the Platinum Option.

If you and your business wanted this live endorsement 60 second advertisement program from Charly or Pat, you have to qualify.  You must be a person of your word. We understand that mistakes can happen but we want to make sure you are honest.  When Charly Butcher was promoting Collins Flags as an Indiana company selling American Made Flags, you bet he checked them out before he agreed to endorse them.  Same thing with Pat Miller’s endorsement of Doc Dancer heating and cooling.  Pat has gotten to know the owners and has used them for his own home.  Pat and Charly have veto power too.  If they are asked to do live ads for a business that has a questionable reputation, they can and will say no.  They have their trusted reputation to protect.

And speaking of protection, when you hire Pat to be your spokesperson for your business with these live 60 second endorsement ads, you are protected from Pat also endorsing your competition.  Same thing with Charly.  Ask me about this if you want to know more.