At Mindshare Huddle, panellists from the advertising and media world discuss Newsworks’ latest study and explore the need for advertisers to invest their adspend ethically.
Journalism matters to more people than ever before.
Shining a light on the nation’s need for trusted news, a new study by Newsworks has uncovered that two thirds of Brits appreciate and value journalism more since the pandemic began and 70% agree that a world without journalism would harm democracy.
But to ensure the sustainable future of news, advertising investment needs to continue flowing into the industry.
At Mindshare Huddle this week a panel explored the need for advertisers to think in a more ethical way about their marketing investments to better support trusted media brands and at the same time, drive business results.
Moderated by Mediatel’s news editor Michaela Jefferson, the panel included Newsworks’ client services & strategy director, GSK’s global media and digital marketing leader and member of the Conscious Advertising Network Jerry Daykin, co-founder of Weiser Works Karen Fraser and inews media editor Ian Burrell.
Touching on the importance of trust, Fraser said: “People put their trust in trusted sources”, applauding the study for taking a deep dive into the impact of trusted sources of information on readers, particularly at a time of crisis.
Applying this to trusted news, inews’ Burrell referred to a recent IAB study ‘The News Trust Halo’, which found that 84% of consumers feel advertising within the news increases or maintains brand trust.
Daykin added that advertisers have a responsibility to fund good content and not actively fund misinformation. Using the example of a company that has CSR initiatives focused around the environment, actively funding content from climate change deniers would undermine that.
He went on to highlight the steps that can be taken to ensure that doesn’t happen by prioritising media spend in quality contextual environments like news brands.
Concluding the panel, West said that marketers need to think about how they are contributing to society in a positive way and that “advertisers have a responsibility to think twice about their media spend and what impact that has.”
For more information about our ‘World Without News’ study, please click here.
