Brits 'prefer sites to celeb ads for brand info'

Websites and email marketing are favoured more by consumers when researching brands than celebrity advertising campaigns, a new study has found.

G2 Data Dynamics polled about 30,000 UK consumers and discovered that the internet was preferred to celebrity TV ads when it came to brand promotion, Precision Marketing reports.

Almost four in ten respondents said businesses should spend more on effective channels of marketing rather than invest in celebrity endorsements, while free gifts and discounts were cited as the best method of promoting brand loyalty.

Managing director of G2 Data Dynamics Kevin Slatter also noted that the study showed an increasing preference for new media over more traditional platforms.

"This mimics the shift in advertising revenue from TV to online and will be interesting to see how TV fights back," he added.

Seven in ten of the UK's small companies now have their own websites, according to a recent poll by the Federation of Small Businesses.