What College Students Look For In Advertising: Honesty
- January 28th, 2008
- 1 Comments
Ypulse College Mashup research sponsor SurveyU just completed a batch of research on college students that they will be presenting this Friday. One of the series of questions they asked students was about what they look for in advertising—they asked them to rank which of the following characteristics were “extremely important” to “not important at all” with a couple of rankings in between. Here’s what they found in the order of what’s most important…
Be truthful
60 percent said extremely important
30 percent said somewhat important
7 percent said important nor unimportant
2 percent said not very important
2 percent said not important at all
Show the functionality
41 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
11 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
2 percent said not important at all
Show me the value
38 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
13 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all
Be current
30 percent said extremely important
49 percent said somewhat important
14 percent said important nor unimportant
4 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all
Be funny
32 percent said extremely important
46 percent said somewhat important
16 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all
Speak to me in my own language
35 percent said extremely important
38 percent said somewhat important
19 percent said important nor unimportant
5 percent said not very important
4 percent said not important at all
Be cutting edge
20 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
26 percent said important nor unimportant
6 percent said not very important
5 percent said not important at all
Be stylish
15 percent said extremely important
42 percent said somewhat important
27 percent said important nor unimportant
10 percent said not very important
6 percent said not important at all
Exude cool
8 percent said extremely important
26 percent said somewhat important
42 percent said important nor unimportant
15 percent said not very important
8 percent said not important at all

This is a really interesting survey. College students seem to really put a high emphasis on honesty. Students do not want to be “pitched” to. They want the truth about the advertisement. The survey also shows that students don’t care if the ad is “cool” but being funny is always a plus. So in other words, if you’re not cool, don’t try to be.