2011 EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER

Australia: Credibility of CEOs and trust in business and

government strengthens despite a year of corporate and

political turmoil.

Australian’s trust in government and

business has reached heights similar to

the days before the Global Financial Crisis.

While government underwent fierce

criticism and reform last year, more than

half (52%) of Australia’s opinion influencers

trust government to do what is right. This

represents an increase of eleven

percentage points, bringing trust in

government back to 2009 benchmark

levels.

The credibility of CEOs jumped

considerably in 2011. CEOs now rank

amongst the most credible spokespeople

in Australia, a striking rise from two years

ago when they were at the bottom of the

rankings. Half (49%) of opinion influencers

now say CEOs are credible spokespeople,

a 30 percentage point increase over 2009.

The return trust in CEOs coincides with the

continuing health of the Australian

economy and general mood of business

confidence.

CEOs are now seen as trustworthy

spokespeople. However, engaging

credible experts from either within the

company, or from third parties such as

academics, analysts, NGOs or government

officials, strengthens trust.

However, despite a steadily growing trust

in business (43% in 2009; 47% in 2010;

54% in 2011), 73 percent of Australian

opinion influencers support government

regulation of corporate activity to ensure

business is behaving ethically and

responsibly.

Figure 14: In a reversal of last year’s sharp declines, Australian’s trust in institutions has stabilised

How much do you trust [Institution] to do what is right?

Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia

Figure 15: In Australia there is a search for authority and expertise

How important are these factors to reputation?

Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia

43

47

5456

41

5255

51

65

35

30

32

20

30

40

50

60

70

2009 2010 2011

Business Government NGOs Media

31%

34%

44%

48%

49%

50%

67%

69%

Person like yourself

Regular employee

NGO representative

Government official

CEO

A financial or industry analyst

Technical expert within the company

An academic or expert

2011 EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER

Ensuring ethical behaviour is a clear

necessity for Australian companies as

transparency and honesty topped the list

of reputation attributes. Price also matters:

Australians are looking for companies to

price brands fairly and competitively, an

important attribute for trust and reputation,

up 17 percentage points since 2010.

Australians are using search engines first

when sourcing information about an

organisation, followed by online news

outlets. Company websites are now also

seen as an important information source,

ranking third. Although Australians are

going online first for information, they view

traditional media sources such as business

magazines (27%), newspapers (23%) and

radio (23%), as the most trusted sources

of information about a company.

Australians say they need to be exposed

to something about a specific company

three to five times in order to believe that

the information is true.

Trust in most industries is up globally,

including in Australia. Technology remains

in top spot for the third straight year.

Australians distrust financial services,

banks and media.

Telecommunications, which ranks as the

third most trusted industry globally (68%),

is not as well regarded in Australia, landing

at number 12 of 16 industries on the

ranking, at 38%.

Figure 16: Transparency and honesty key reputation

attributes

How important are these factors to corporate reputation?

Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia

Figure 17: Online search is the ‘go to’ source, but traditional media most trusted Where do you generally go first for news about a company?

Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia

4%

5%

7%

11%

16%

22%

35%

Social media

Broadcast (radio/TV)

Friends and family

Print (newspapers/magazines)

Company website

Online news sources

Online search engine

30%

31%

33%

46%

51%

55%

57%

60%

63%

64%

Innovator

Financial returns

Widely admired leadership

Good corporate citizen

Communicates frequently

Prices fairly

Treats employees well

Company I can trust

High quality products or services

Transparent and honest business practices