Online customer opinions ‘are most trusted advertising’

Consumer opinions posted online are the most trusted form of advertising, new research suggests.

Nine in every ten internet users around the world trust recommendations from people they know, according to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey.

The study also finds that seven in every ten web users trust customer opinions they come across online.

However, just as many people - 70 per cent - say they trust brand websites.

The reliance of consumers on word-of-mouth has “increased significantly” in recent times in line with the “explosion” in user-generated content, according to Jonathan Carson of the Nielsen Company.

Mr Carson, the firm’s international president of online, added: “However, we see that all forms of advertiser-led advertising, except ads in newspapers, have also experienced increases in levels of trust.”

A separate study recently indicated that online advertising will grow by just over ten per cent in 2009.

The report from ZenithOptimedia found that online is achieving such levels of growth despite the advertising sector as a whole expected to fall by 8.5 per cent over the course of the year.