Reuters reports that an Ipsos MORI study has found that Europeans trust blogs (24 per cent) more than television ads (17 per cent) or email marketing (14 per cent). Newspapers were still more trusted than blogs (30 per cent). 52 per cent also said they were persuaded to make a purchase after reading a positive blog review (via Bloggers Blog).

Now that says a lot about how effective blogs can be as a marketing tool, though I have a suspicion that a commercial blog still will get much less credibility than a personal one. The findings certainly support that old thesis of The Cluetrain Manifesto that markets are conversations, and that the internet enables global conversations which lead to a more tranparent society. A society where spin will only get you so far as there's too many people out there posting their honest reviews of your product online, and scores more reading those reviews.

However, that blogs are more trusted than TV ads and what I would call spam does not leave blogs a lot of credit as information sources. Nor does the the finding that only 30 per cent of Europeans trust what they read in the newspapers leave the news industry much to cheer for. Mind you, while we ARE on the issue of trust, I must say that personally I don't trust the methodology of polling companies too much, though MORI tend to be one of the more serious players in the field.