What is an ad campaign if not a premeditated push meant to woo the public into thinking something good about a particular product or service. Ad campaigns tell you what to think. Truth be told, some of them are impactful or utterly sincere and make perfect sense to exist – such as a nonprofit fighting for equality. But most of them aren’t.

If there’s anything we can learn from the campaigns put forth by NGOs, it’s that advertising – in their case, creating awareness about a cause – is not so much the responsibility of the artists who created the poster or the video, but the responsibility of the follower sharing that content with others in the hope that they will join the crusade. Social networking is what made this possible. Today, a company’s real marketing weapon is word of mouth, not a hot-shot ad agency.

But don’t just take my word for it. Nielsen’s recent Global Trust in Advertising Report backs this with hard data.

Earned media – the most trusted ad format

Advertising works any way you look at it. The numbers don’t lie. According to Nielsen, television still has tremendous reach and continues to convince 63% of people to buy stuff all the time. But there is one format that generates much more buying incentive, and that is “recommendation from people I know.” This form of “earned” media ranks higher than anything else, with 83% of respondents saying they rely on this kind of “advertising” the most.

The chart below shows how successful “earned” and “owned” media formats are today (versus 2013), essentially telling you which “platform” can rake in the most users for your product, or service.

Traditional still works

For those who can’t seem to get people talking, the good news is that old-school formats continue to do well. Ads on TV reach and convince well over half of the population, and even ads in newspapers have a surprising 60% success rate. Magazines, billboards, radio commercials and ads before movies stand tall as well, with more than 50% success rate each. The second chart below tells the story in detail.

It’s important to note that not all forms of digital advertising work well. (Listen up, wireless operators!) The consensus among users everywhere is text ads on mobile phones are the least trusted form of advertising you could possibly create. To which I would like to say, thank you to Nielsen for making this aspect clear. I wouldn’t mind getting fewer of those every week.