2025 Edelman Trust Barometer with CEO Tom Robinson
Where do people place their trust? How is it changing – and what should CMOs be doing with this information?
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer presents a nuanced picture of public sentiment, highlighting key shifts in where Australians place their trust. The CMO Show sat down with Tom Robinson, CEO of Edelman Australia, to find out more about the challenges we’re facing regarding trust, and the potential for organisations to build stronger connections.
This year's Trust Barometer, marking its 25th anniversary, indicates a decline in trust towards traditional sources of information, notably the media. According to Tom, "media is the… black swan, that I think continues to feel a real demise when it comes to the trust that we place in it.”
Simultaneously, the research reveals a significant trend towards increased trust in more proximate sources. "Trust is now local. We no longer trust traditional establishment authorities. It happens in and around my community, and I don't just mean physical community. This could be a kind of online community or those that I interact with, my employer, or my workplace," Tom said.
This evolving trust landscape has significant implications for how businesses are perceived, but it also creates an opening for organisations to demonstrate their value and build stronger connections within their immediate spheres of influence by prioritising impact.
This aligns with the broader point that communities are looking to the corporate world to take a more active role in tackling challenges that directly affect their lives.
The ongoing battle for truth in media and communications
The proliferation of misinformation and disinformation remains a critical challenge for societies globally. "This idea of constantly having to be challenged, and managed disinformation and misinformation, really came to prominence during the 2015-2016 US election - the first term of Trump - and never really went away," said Tom. This "battle for truth" significantly impacts how information is perceived and trusted, posing a constant hurdle for credible communication.
Trust in media and institutions diminishes
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a decline in public trust in the media. According to the report, not only do we not trust journalists, we also think that they're purposely trying to mislead us and lie to us. "We believe that they're prioritising audience numbers over facts. They don't put the facts first, and they're putting ideology before the public interest,” said Tom of the survey data. If audiences are losing faith in media, marketers may become more cautious about associating their brands with platforms that might no longer carry the same level of credibility or positive brand association.
The opportunity for impact-driven brands to grow trust
Despite the overall decline in trust across many institutions, business holds a unique position. There is an expectation for business to continue to lean in on social challenges, particularly around issues like affordability, job skills, and sustainability. "What we find is a firm belief across communities that business is still not being seen to do enough to tackle some of today's most pressing issues," Tom said. Trust is increasingly placed in individuals like scientists, teachers, and community members, rather than solely CEOs. Proximity-based trust is an opportunity for organisations to grow their network of trusted and diverse voices. "We need to find spokespeople for our businesses and for our brands. It's no longer enough to have the CEO alone stand up and be the voice of an organisation," Tom said. Taking advantage of these opportunities means organisations can move beyond simply observing the trust deficit, and actively contribute to building a more trusting and optimistic future. The key lies in intentionality and a willingness to invest the time and resources to unlock opportunities for building trust.
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This episode of The CMO Show was brought to you by host Mark Jones, producers Kate Zadel and Kirsten Bables and audio engineers Ed Cheng and Daniel Marr. This is an edited excerpt of the podcast transcript.
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Mark Jones:
One of the things I've noticed in marketing over the years is that we are really good at the big picture and we're good at thinking about our customers and if you like, the country or countries that you serve. So that macro perspective. Today, I want you to think about something closer to home. What would it look like if part of your focus shifted to the teams that you influence and the local community where you can make the biggest impact. Research shows you might be missing a trick.
Hello, Mark Jones here and welcome back to the CMO Show Podcast, brought to you by ImpactInstitute in partnership with our friends at Adobe. Now, I reckon most of you know about the Edelman Trust Barometer.This has been going for 25 years now and we had the opportunity to get our hands on the most recent research and it is not great to be honest. but on the upside, there are some interesting things to think about what we can do as business leaders to make things better. In fact, that's our responsibility. And my guest today is Tom Robinson. He is the CEO at Edelman Australia. Came into the studio to talk about the latest research. Let's hear from Tom. Tom, thanks for joining me.
Tom Robinson:
Thank you.
Mark Jones:
We're here to talk about this year's Edelman Trust Barometer, which of course is globally famous. Everybody wants to know about it, let's get stuck into it. This has been a thing that we watched to get a sense of what's the mood of society and what's the mood of our customers. I think that's the, at its core, something that really CMOs and marketers care about the most. How are people doing? And this seems to very much tap into that.
Tom Robinson:
Exactly that. Yeah. We're very fortunate to have this as a piece of research that we've now produced for 25 years and we turn to the trust Barometer each year as many of our clients do and many in the industry do, to give us a sense of what business leaders, not just CMOs and the marketing teams, but business leaders should also be considering and prioritising in the year ahead. And each year, we see significant trends and shifts that yes, I think broadly would echo and represent probably what we see in the daily news cycle, but I think it certainly gives us kind of greater meaning and context for why we would make certain decisions when it relates to our future growth opportunities and potential within the market.
Mark Jones:
So let's get stuck into some stats, right? So there's a global survey that is available on the website and then, we're now going to talk about some Australian examples. But maybe before we do, I think what's interesting to me in the last five years or so has been this sort of long tail impact of COVID and that was, if you like, the last turning point in my reading and certainly looking back through the reports that you've done, there was increased scepticism about what we were hearing from government at the time and there's been a steady increase in I guess, the public mood to say we actually prefer to trust business more than we would the government and certainly other institutions like the media. So what's going on now?
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, I think it's certainly a fair observation. If you can have a look at the positives of COVID and the pandemic for business, I think it would be one that we look back on particularly around trust and see it as almost a moment of national unity, in many ways.
Society, communities came together. Government and business came together in ways that had probably not previously been experienced or seen in that way. (1) And so what we saw during COVID particularly was a huge uptick in levels of trust towards at our institutions and our institutional leaders. But unfortunately, what's happened since then is a slight unravelling of that trust and it's continued to accelerate.
Now, much of this can be linked to economic prosperity or perceived economic prosperity, and if you think back to the four or five years that have followed, the immediate start of the pandemic, we had supply chain issues with natural disasters. We had things that have severely disrupted the operational rhythm of the country.And all those things, not just have an impact on daily life, but confidence in our future. And when those two things ... when they get disrupted, that's really when we start to see some of the tensions around who, what and why we trust.
Mark Jones:
One of the stats that jumps out for me is this global figure. 36% of respondents believe in a better future for the next generation. It should just be just 36. The damning aspect of that from a global level is really I think this human truth that we expect the next generation and certainly our children should live a better life than we did, right? Would you say that's a core human truth?
Tom Robinson:
It's certainly one that resonates with me as a father of two young boys. It's why I wake up and go to work every day and I hope that I can give them a better platform or opportunity, a greater opportunity than I might otherwise have had myself at that age.
Now, unfortunately, there is just over a third globally who don't carry that same level of optimism that we probably should. In Australia, the stat is far more damning and yeah, it sits at 17%, so that's less than one in five of us in Australia that at this point in time, sense that a better opportunity exists. And that really comes down to a big fundamental issue around trust, because if you don't see opportunity, what you then don't see are institutions and structures in society that inherently are designed or supposed to be designed to support you. You don't see them performing that job and it opens up a whole host of other contention points in and around community that I think business leaders, and if we bring the topic back to them, the CMO are really kind of wrestling with right now.
Mark Jones:
Are there any other external data points that you've come across in your reading that either supports or contradicts that because it's remarkable statistic?
Tom Robinson:
I think it's a remarkable statistic, but unfortunately, it's one that as I open the daily papers, as I'm sure many of your listeners do as well, I think it's one that echoes. Yeah, you see what's happening in Sydney at the moment and on a personal level that gives me great course for concern around affordability and cost of living, and the house prices that we're experiencing, wages not increasing at the same rates they probably should be. We've had obviously huge inflationary pressure as well. They can kind of feel quite insurmountable at times. And I think that's reflected in this year's findings.
Mark Jones:
Another one is the surge in the fear of discrimination. Tell me about that.
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, so I think what we start to see within this year's report, I think there are a few things at play, and I'm hesitant to draw on too many personal conclusions around this idea of ... Well, the finding that discrimination is on the rise here in Australia. (3) It's on the rise to such an extent now that we see nearly half of Australians worry about being discriminated against. And whether that's due to ethnicity and race, age or gender, 50% itself is significantly higher than where we would otherwise think that would be for a nation like Australia, a progressive nation like Australia.
In addition, we find it particularly acute in increase amongst women and amongst our youngest generation, so 18, kind of 34 age, that's where we've seen these huge spikes in a fear of being discriminated against. Now, when I look at that and when I think about actually our levels of trust in media and what's happening in terms of our day-to-day lives and how we come across and find stories and expose ourselves to different communities and different voices, you can certainly see the rapid advancement of technology and its influence on our society playing more of a role there. But we don't necessarily draw on that directly or able to draw on that directly within this year's findings, unfortunately.
Mark Jones:
Yeah, again, it's a stunning sort of thing to ponder. Another one I wanted to touch on There's a high sense of grievance in the respondents, so tell us about that. And effectively is there a lot of finger pointing going on? Who are we blaming?
Tom Robinson:
Yes. So with grievance, how do we define grievance is whether or not we believe that ... Again, coming back to this idea of institutional structures that are supposed to support us, whether we believe they're there to support us, whether this idea of a fair go in Australia is still a reality, respondents who claimed either a moderate or high grievance in the report this year felt overwhelmingly that the system was ... the system favoured the rich. The system ensured that the likes of government and business could further their own aims at the expense of others. And overwhelmingly grievance very much had to do with this zero-sum mentality. My loss is going to be your gain, and that really comes through in our politics and policies or political beliefs as much as it does when it comes to determining which business we're going to part our cash with, as well.
Mark Jones:
Yep. Something I wrote about actually back in 2020 in my book, Beliefonomics, talks about the impact of our values and our belief systems, which then drive our decision making, right? It's not just about how we fill in the moment, but these underlying belief systems. And we often miss that in comms and marketing.
We can very easily get swayed by the current campaign and fail to dig into these psychometric and psychographic issues. And so yes, what you are speaking about there, grievance is connected to belief systems, what do we believe about the inherent good or bad of some of these key institutions. In Australia then, what should we draw from that if we're ... from a societal and a business point of view, if we're lacking that level of trust, I mean obviously, it's not good, but help me understand what are some of the implications of this?
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, so just I guess quickly pause and take a bit of a step back on what we mean by trust and ultimately it's a bet on the unknown. That's how we view it. In the trust barometer, we ask a very simple question to start the research, do you trust this institution? We look at four institutions, so business, government, media and NGOs or nonprofits. Do you trust this institution to do the right thing?
Mark Jones:
So grievance is really what's detracting from that trust in the four. So help me understand then, of the four, can you give me a ranking, where are we sitting at the moment in terms of most trusted through to least trusted?
Tom Robinson:
So NGOs have now regained top spot in our trust index. So just below that then sits business, government and then media. Government and media sit in distrusting territory here in Australia. And we define distrusting territory on an index scale, nought to 100, anything below ... anything between zero and 50, we classify as distrusting. Anything between 50 and 60 and neutral and then anything above that is your entrusting territory. So no one is trusted at the moment. NGOs are the most trusted, but they sit in neutral. But media is the one, let's call it the black swan, that I think continues to feel a real demise when it comes to the trust that we place in it here.
Mark Jones:
Yes, and as a former journo, it hurts. I'm still emotionally connected to that story. Well, actually in all seriousness, because I really do believe in the power of a free press, I believe in holding institutions to account that is the basic value of journalism among many others, but-
Tom Robinson:
I couldn't agree more, and I think that's for me is I think is really ... it's the biggest challenge that we face right now. If we take a macro view of what we've seen, this is our 25th year now, we've been running this report. I think four key themes really present themselves. The first is this idea that now the trust is now local. We no longer trust traditional establishment authorities. It happens in and around my community, and I don't just mean physical community. This could be a kind of online community or those that I interact with, my employer, or my workplace. So that's a big shift. I don't trust these traditional voices for whom I simply don't have proximity. Got it. I now look to the people around me. The second big one is the battle for truth. This idea of constantly having to be challenged and managed disinformation and misinformation really came to prominence during the 2016, 2015-16 US election. The first term of Trump.
Mark Jones:
Never really went away either, just by the way.
Tom Robinson:
Never really went away since then. So that's really being underlying challenge ever since. But that came to the fore, around how do we tackle misinformation. The third big one for us is this issue around media and the media's continued demise and it's now ... business is now the most influential, it might not be the most trusted this year, but it's certainly the most influential if we think about competency and efficacy combined, but it's in media now.
Not only do we not trust journalists, we've been able to identify that. We also think that they're purposely trying to mislead us and lie to us. And that obviously varies depending on your demographic, but by and large, these are universal truths and media's challenge there, I think to be seen as holding people and holding leadership to account is completely undermined by all of this.
And if I then bring it back to, okay, how do we navigate this as business leaders, as CMOs, as communications leaders, it raises some serious questions over its future viability as a means of communication, as a means of partnership. Because if the context and the purpose of your story is inherently in a state of distrust and disbelief through the mediums in which you choose, our media in Australia, you have to look elsewhere. Now, there are huge issues around commercial interest and the balance between commercial interests and public interest. And right now, that balance, as we've seen in this report, another finding is we just believe media have their priorities all wrong. We believe that they're prioritising audience numbers over facts. They don't put the facts first, and they're putting ideology before the public interest.
Mark Jones:
Well, profit before purpose.
Tom Robinson:
Yes.
Mark Jones:
Profit before public good is the shorthand, right?
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, and it does raise the question around where the end game is. We've seen a lot of noise over the last 12 months around the role of big tech, how influential that is on Australia. We have the second most concentrated media market here in the world behind Brazil. We sit 36th on the world Press Freedom Index. I think from memory, we sit just behind Niger and the Dominican Republic.
And a lot of that down to your political interference as well, so a few other things, but all of this combined, again, I come back to my personal note as I'm sure many of us feel with our two young boys, where do they go for trusted, impartial information based on facts in the future? And that itself leads to significant other questions around the role of social media.
Mark Jones:
Well correct, and I would say that I've got four kids, the youngest one is 10, so he's not really into the ... Well, he's not in the social world, but the other three that is the social streams, right? And stuff is shared in a sort of, I hate to say viral way, but it's the way that the algorithms serve up highly filtered forms of local and international media, and that's just normal. And I think personally for me, if you are not ever taught or even the idea of a critical approach to the algorithm that's serving you or even knowing that it's an algorithm serving you this information, you're two or three steps behind.
Tom Robinson:
I think look, they're valuable conversations to have and valuable points to raise. And I think we as a society, as a country should be having these types of conversations. The recent 36 months campaign that was really championed by Nova to raise the age gate of social media, right? I think on a personal note, I think makes complete sense. You come back to the role of the algorithm in all this, and ultimately, when you look at it, you've got a system designed to garner, retain, hold your attention through these echo chambers, which ultimately champion and reinforce your views at the expense of others.
Mark Jones:
Yeah, so for the listener who's head of marketing, CMO in marketing comms teams, maybe we should start swinging around to where do we go from here? So we've established that things aren't going well from a statistical or research basis confirming all of our worst held fears and concerns, right?
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, yeah. And I certainly see opportunity, but opportunity yet to be realised. And we are in a bit of a moment. It does feel like the last ... again, we take the last decade. There are a number of points of letters to this particular moment in time and a lot of the findings from this and the role of business and the opportunity for marketing and CMOs I think is significant and the learnings are there as well.
Ultimately, we're in this position now because communities feel that they're being left behind at the expense of others, that there's preference given to the top end of town over main street type situation. What we find is a firm belief across communities that business is still not being seen to do enough to tackle some of today's most pressing issues.
And if I think what's going on in the US right now, and you see the discourse and the narrative around community-driven initiatives and strategies like DEI, very much purpose-led. What we found in Australia is actually there is an expectation for business to continue to lean in on some of these challenges. It's not an open invite for business and marketers to wade into every societal issue that they personally see fit, but understanding where you have the right to play. Action, we have a phrase at Edelman, we believe action earns trust and trust earns action and it's cyclical and receptive. So you have to be able to do before you say.
Understanding credibly where you stand as a business on some of the key issues for today, which really are around affordability, job skills of the future, the challenges around sustainability and environment which continue to come to the fore as an expectation of business leaders to help manage, these are challenges that are going to impact my prosperity and that of my children and future optimism. There's an expectation that business is in the most advantageous position to influence.
Mark Jones:
Yeah, and to echo that, the research globally talks about business is the only one to be seen as both competent and ethical, and that has jumped up 19% since 2020. That's the global stats. I did my homework. And the thing that stood out to me about that was I wonder how many leaders continue to take that as a serious responsibility and not just through the profit lens. Because certainly the work that we've done shows that when you do that, when you look after your people, it helps your family and your community and society at large. That's the way it works, but there's a real challenge here not to back away from that, which obviously is the big push at the moment.
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, quite. It's a challenge. It's intense pressure, and I certainly don't feel envious of many of our CMOs in positions like this because boards and certainly those that we speak to in our own advisory work, we do get a sense that there's a tightening on governance, there's a lowering of an appetite or less appetite, I probably should say, for risk. And a greater focus on fiduciary responsibility on growth, on earnings, on obviously, giving back to our stakeholders and shareholders. The role of the CMO therefore, I think what we hear from CMOs that we speak to is they don't know where to turn. They're being asked, they have to learn new technology skills. They have to learn new financial skills, they have to understand communities and be the voice of the customer.
Understand web design, experiences and all these various things, but by and large, I think the ask of the CMO from the board increasingly is focus and intentional strategy. Don't try and be more to more people. Be quite intentional on what you're doing and be really focused and honed in on that. And I think what we find in this year's report is very much a good reason for doing that. It's easy to get distracted by the latest kind of noise in culture and what's happening around us that might influence our business. I think ultimately, we play a significant role in community, in our communities, and there is a need for business to be serving those in a much more proactive manner.
Mark Jones:
I quite like this headline I read in one of the charts on the global report, which says, when trust increases economic optimism overpowers grievance. It's a really good line. So then what are the things we've got to do? What's the steps? I mean, building trust is one thing. There's the idea that we've got to ... As CMOs, as leaders who are steering the ship, we've got a greater sense of responsibility, right? What's the to-do list in reports? There's always a to-do list.
Tom Robinson:
There's always a to-do list. Look, I think going back, there's a couple of things I've probably touched on already, but I think to really summarise, we need to be able to demonstrate empathy and understanding for communities. In this case, I'm going to use the community of Australia. At the moment, people don't feel like they're being heard. They don't feel like their needs are being met or that innovations and change in society is happening with their interests in mind. Business leaders, CMOs, we need to be able to stand up more to really understand, listen to, take note and action on what's happening in Australia right now.
At the local level. I think that's really where it happens and I think it probably leads me onto a next point around what can we do, and I think it's in different voices. We need to find spokespeople for our businesses and for our brands.It's no longer enough to have the CEO alone stand up and be the voice of an organisation. What we find is scientists, teachers, academics now sit very much on a par with local community, in terms of being trusted voices in a way that CEOs and business leaders do not-
Mark Jones:
In Australia?
Tom Robinson:
In Australia.
Mark Jones:
Okay. Because in the US just came to mind with all ... The numbers of them are currently under attack, which is interesting.
Tom Robinson:
Well, I think, a great example of this at the moment ... We will go back to COVID. We had the chief medical officer, and the state premier, daily standing side by side together, and that instilled the trust and the confidence necessary that at a state level, we had things under control. So they're those different voices. I think for me, that's always the best example of where different institutions have been able to come together and place facts at the very heart. And that's what I think we can look at that as businesses, as brands, as CMOs, and really understand how we make sure that we have a variety of voices that can speak to the facts credibly. Now at the forefront of what we're doing in terms of promotion. Got it, and that is critical.
I think understanding communities and putting that community lens as I say, against all that is important and understand your business, get closer to the CFO, the CEO, the board to determine the kind of priorities, but also, shape the discussion around your contribution and again, we as businesses can be doing and what are the proof points on that journey that we could speak to as well. Don't wade into everything that's happening around you. Don't get distracted. It's through those distractions that businesses can easily get called out and risk increases in doing so as well.
Mark Jones:
It's going to be a really interesting thing to watch is to see how many of these leaders step into that opportunity. I wonder, as you reflect on the stats, it seems to me there's an opportunity for more intentionality around these opportunities. They're not going to fall into your lap. You're going to have to make them happen and you're going to have to defend them.
Tom Robinson:
Yes. Yeah, quite, and you have to be ... Again, to come back to it, you have to be intentional with that. You have to be willing to invest the time and the resources effectively to kind of unlock those stories or those moments of opportunity that will allow you to further accelerate your trust or the trust that you hold amongst your stakeholders. The fourth piece I would've talked to as well is the role of businesses and employer and the sheer influence that our employees, particularly at the younger end of their careers have in influencing societal discourse and commentary around your business and brand. We find that employees tend to be a lot more kind of trusting of their organisation, but also of their CEO of the leadership.
And there's often great untapped potential in that significant base, particularly again for those larger organisations where with significant front-line workforces, for example. But I would think of the likes of Woolworths and Coles and some of the challenges that they've been highlighted. They've had highlighted around them last year, but yet have a huge, huge variety array, a number of voices in the round communities that can help engender and foster goodwill.
Mark Jones:
Yeah, I think that's brilliant. Tom, I haven't asked you too many questions about yourself, but maybe as a few points of reflection, you came into Edelman two or three years ago. And you're at MediaCom before that. So you've come from sort of an agency side and content background and all sorts of other places. What's it like being part of this research? You've got a CEO yourself, you're sort of reflecting on these things and thinking, what am I going to do?
Tom Robinson:
I do. I often look at these stats and think, "Oh God, how do my team see me? Is this the lack of trust that I instil in them?" I hope not. No. So I mean my career, I actually started client side at GE money in the UK. I fell ... not fall into marketing, I studied business studies at university purely because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life back then, as I'm sure-
Mark Jones:
Well, it's that or psychology.
Tom Robinson:
Well, it's funny you mentioned that, because I did study psychology as well. I loved ... I mean, psychology was a passion. Academia was a passion. I probably wasted my university years. I look back and think I could have done more there, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time at university. I enjoyed psychology and the science behind why people do what they do. And that really for me was the power of marketing. And what marketing afforded me was to really get into that world and apply that in our day-to-day lives. I loved looking at what influences and drives certain cohorts or segments of people. And anyway, that was all happening then at a time where the internet had taken root, taken ahold and was changing the very almost science of what we do as a craft. And I then moved into the world of digital communications, because I was enthralled by the prospect and the idea of what this kind of new medium mass mode communication could offer.
And taking it up back to my days of psychology and then it's kind of grown from there. And I've been very fortunate throughout my career to have been able to work with a whole array of different brands. I moved over here in 2011, so I've been 14 years now in Australia. I thought I was going to come for one or two, but I'm still here to this day.
Yeah, so I'm sure ... So I think for me, agency and the work that we do, I am not ready or willing to think about going to client's side, because I love that breadth. I love the diversity that it gives us, that kind of cross-sector view, and that all brings us to trust, which is just an incredible piece of IP and research that now 25 years, Edelman has been fortunate to produce, and I've been the spearhead of that here in Australia in terms of its presenting. But I have to say the whole team, they just make me look kind of smart. The team behind me are those that do all the high-
Mark Jones:
It's always the case, successful organisations, it's always a team effort. But I’ve got to say too, we're both in the agency land. It's always good to talk to someone else that appreciates and enjoys what it's like to work in this space, because I know that there's also a narrative that says, well, maybe the grass is greener on the client side or in other disciplines in the marketing world, but there is a unique buzz about working in this space and quite clearly the research that you guys are doing at a global level is testament to that.
Tom Robinson:
Yeah, I couldn't say better. It's the question I probably get asked the most. Tom, when are you going to make the move to client side? When are you going to ... I have absolutely no intention to say anything about that. But other than I love this breadth, I love the pace, I love the diversity. I think what I miss about being on client side is the breadth of influence you have in and around an organisation. And right now, I look at the role of marketing and it's almost kind of painful in some instances to see the lack of influence and sway it holds. Again, bringing this back to the trust barometer.
I think marketing and communications, both of which need to work a lot more closely together than I believe they currently do, in many instances. I think there needs to be a greater alignment between the two, but it’s marketing who understand and have the greatest view on the customer that there is so much untapped potential there, and that would be my message.
Mark Jones:
And then, to draw full circle back to the beginning of our conversation, it's our responsibility in marketing and comms to really understand the customer and the broader social context. And quite clearly, this is a really interesting update on the quarter-century… of these reports.
Tom Robinson:
And hopefully another one to come where we can continue to address, but also find optimism. Address some of these challenges and find greater optimism. And I know that business leaders, marketers, and communicators, I think we're at a tipping point, but one in which we can really champion and drive change.
Mark Jones:
Tom Robinson, thanks for being my guest.
Tom Robinson:
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Mark Jones:
I hope you enjoyed the interview. And one of the things, it was a bit of an aha moment for me was thinking about this idea of local community. And we are seated right here at our studio. We actually have a local community, and I got to say, we don't spend all that much time thinking about what can we do in our local area, and maybe that's our bad. And I think that is actually the case for most organisations. We do think a lot about our customers as the primary focus, as it should, but what this research highlights is the importance of local communities.
If we look at declining trust, if we look at the opportunity for businesses to make a greater impact, yes, there's lots of big macro things that we can do, but I think the generosity begins at home. It begins with your team, it begins with your community, it begins with your partners, the people that are closest to you. A great reminder for marketing and comms leaders to get our story right with ourselves and those immediate contexts, and we can really start to make a difference. And I'm quite inspired by even just thinking and speaking about it.
So of course, taking action is the next best step. You have been my guest, our guest here on the CMO Show, brought to you by ImpactInstitute, in partnership with our friends at Adobe. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.