Consumers worldwide may be inundated with advertising in a myriad of formats, but more than three quarters of them (78 percent) still put their highest level of trust in what they hear from other consumers, according to a recent global Nielsen Internet survey.

The survey, conducted two times a year among 26,486 Web users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, recently asked consumers about their attitudes toward 13 types of advertising. These included everything from conventional newspaper and television ads to branded Web sites and consumer-generated content.

"Advertisers around the world are able to reach consumers across an increasingly diverse range of media platforms," Nielsen's Customized Research Services Global Managing Director David McCallum said in a statement. "Even so, the recommendation of someone else remains the most trusted source of information when consumers decide which products and services to buy. And even though new media technologies are playing a role in 'globalizing' society, many purchasing decisions are still based on firmly held national and cultural attitudes."

McCallum also noted that nothing travels faster than bad news, with reports of bad experiences outnumbering good ones by an estimated 5 to 1.

"The importance of responsive, high-quality customer service is yet again highlighted," he said.

The Nielsen survey found the most trusting consumers with all forms of advertising are Filipinos and Brazilians at 67 percent. On the opposite end are Germans (35 percent), Lithuanians (34 percent), Italians (32 percent) and Danes (28 percent).

The survey also found that newer advertising channels such the Internet are beginning to catch up with older media in terms of ad revenues, but that traditional advertising channels continue to retain consumers' trust. Newspaper ads ranked second in importance worldwide among media categories at 63 percent, followed by consumer opinions posted online (61 percent), brand Web site ads (60 percent), television ads (56 percent), magazine ads (56 percent) and radio ads (54 percent). Falling below 50 percent are brand sponsorships (49 percent), opted-in e-mail (49 percent), ads before movies (38 percent), search-engine ads (34 percent), online banner ads (26 percent) and text ads on mobile phones (18 percent).

Although most consumers trust word-of-mouth advertising, the survey found regional differences. For instance, word-of-mouth advertising generated significant trust in much of the Asia Pacific markets, with six of the top 10 markets that rely most on recommendations in this region. These include Hong Kong (93 percent), Taiwan (91 percent) and Indonesia (89 percent). Europeans are the least trusting of what they hear from other consumers, particularly in Italy (64 percent) and Denmark (62 percent).

Nielsen is the parent company of National Jeweler.