Ads enjoy better reputation in France

PARIS: Nearly three-quarters of French consumers believe advertising has positive characteristics, and broader perceptions of brand communications have also improved on many metrics in the last year.

TNS Sofres, the research firm, and Australie, the agency, polled 1,006 adults, some 73% of which regarded ads as "useful" or "enjoyable".

Within this, 18% saw ads as meeting both criteria. A further 37% described these messages as helpful but not enjoyable, and 18% adopted the opposite view. The remaining 27% had a purely negative attitude.

The number of contributors perceiving ads as being entertaining stood at 51%, while 48% concurred that they were convincing, two totals which climbed by five percentage points year on year.

Similarly, 76% of the panel stated ads were "invasive", this marked a fall of five points year on year. Another 54% thought advertising was "aggressive" and 50% said it was "dangerous", each down by three points.

In keeping with such a trend, although 85% of consumers agreed the amount of ads they were exposed to had increased in the last year, this figure reached 94% in 2011.

Furthermore, the proportion of the sample asserting that there was "too much" advertising contracted from 84% to 81% during the last 12 months.

For 70% of those surveyed, the most important qualities of ads were that they were enjoyable, but only 36% stated communications currently "respected" the audience.

A 65% majority of interviewees thought that ads should try and encourage responsible behaviour among consumers, but just 17% painted them as doing so at present.

When asked to provide their overall impression of big brands on a ten point-scale, respondents returned a score of 5.8 points, matching the last two years, and remaining below the peak of 6.2 points logged in 2007.

Some 72% of participants regarded these products as innovative, while 71% described them as desirable. An extra 56% enjoyed buying such lines, with the same finding them "reassuring".

Data sourced from Le Figaro; additional content by Warc staff, 10 October 2012

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