Media trust rises in 2018
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 29 January 2019

Trust in broadcast and entertainment sources is up, according to the Brand Keys 24th annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI).

“Trust – an engagement factor in every product/service category – has become the indispensable connective tissue between brands and customer loyalty,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys. “Consumer expectations for that single value have increased across every category and brand we track, on average by 250+% since 2018. Consumer expectations increase each year – usually in the 2% to 25% range. This is an unprecedented spike.”

And where trust matters most lies in individual attributes, benefits and brand values. Increases in trust were significant in traditional media: Evening News (Broadcast): 215%; Morning News (Broadcast): 210%; Evening News (Cable): 200%; Morning News (Cable): 195%; but Streaming Video trust was just up 15%.

“When it comes to the media, ‘trust’ is something that viewers seem to know when they feel it, and then act upon it,” said Passikoff. “Pretty much the definition of how consumers react to an emotional value, and more so in these times of political tribalism and social activism.”

This year the Brand Keys CLEI examined 90 categories and 822 individual brands. Virtually all showed significant increases in consumer expectations for the value of “trust,” some brands significantly more than others. Much of it boils down to data privacy.

Growing concerns regarding privacy and data security have reached a tipping point, driven by an astonishing increase in consumers’ expectations for trust and transparency in the brands they purchase.

“It isn’t just Facebook’s, Google’s, Twitter’s and other social networks’ failures to address privacy, security, and transparency that are responsible, although making significant contributions to the paradigm shift. Charges of hacking – foreign and domestic – and misuse of data have raised consumers’ emotional hackles,” concluded Passikoff regarding the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI)..