When Trust Falls Down

Ipsos was commissioned by Trinity Mirror to produce a white paper, looking at how the attitudes that led to Brexit and the General Election result have impacted society more widely. The misjudgement of the public by politicians and commentators has caused the world of marketing and advertising to ask itself some searching questions. If the current political landscape points towards a rejection of the ‘Establishment’ by those who feel left behind by the London metropolitan elite, then what does this mean for trust in brands and advertising?

The study focused on identifying:

1. The severity of the issue facing brands and advertising,
2. What’s driving this growing feeling of distrust,
3. How brands and advertising can regain it,

The key findings from the study were as follows:

1. Brands and advertising face challenging times ahead as 42% of people claim to distrust brands and 69% distrust advertising.
2. Brands are seen to be part of the establishment, with 38% of people give brands a score of 7+ on a scale of 0-10 where 10 is ‘completely establishment’.
3. Brands are out of touch as people don’t perceive their own lives to be represented in advertising, particularly life outside of London.
4. Brands are undermining their own credibility - 58% of adults don’t trust a brand until they have seen ‘real world proof’ that they have kept their promises. 40% associate brands with being ‘pushy’ and 57% agree that brands should be more careful where they place their advertising.
5. Advertising is not as connected to popular culture as it was with 48% of adults agreeing that they don’t talk about adverts as much as they used to.

Technical Details: Three Stage Methodology:

• Firstly, Ipsos Connect undertook a week long in depth online community with 25 people around the country, exploring broad attitudes to trust and then more specifically attitudes to trust in advertising.
• This was followed by four three-hour workshops in Coventry, London, Liverpool and Newport (n=60) with the further aim of examining some of the themes that emerged from the online communities.
• Finally, the main findings were then tested quantitatively with a face to face nationally representative sample of 1000 people aged 16+ from around Great Britain.

Qualitative and quantitative field dates, 12th - 22nd May 2017.

Trinity Mirror - When Trust Falls Down Video