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Consumers 50% More Likely to be Influenced by WOM than Radio/TV ads

According to Intelliseek’s 2005 Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) and Engagement Study (via MediaPost), Consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio or TV ads - a slightly higher level of influence and trust than found in the 2004 study.

But WOM can have a backlash: One-third of respondents said they’d be disappointed if a trusted contact did not carefully disclose a paid or incentive-based relationship, 26 percent said they would never trust the opinion of that friend again, and 30 percent said they would be less likely to buy a product/service.

 

“Active ad skippers,” consumers who regularly skip over or delete television or online ads, are 25 percent more likely to create and respond to CGM on Internet message boards, forums and blogs.

The study also found that nearly 30 percent of teens actively create CGM by sending photos via their cell phones, 45 percent have experimented with or created a blog, and nearly 10 percent subscribe to RSS feeds. Men are more likely to spend time on Internet message boards, forums, and discussions, while women expressed a higher tendency to forward items.

Health/medical, auto, electronics, video games and music categories have the greatest likelihood of being influenced by CGM.