TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada ranked first among Canadians’ most trusted brands, says a new study by Proof Inc. (formerly Environics Communications).
The third annual CanTrust Index is an online sample of 1,560 Canadians conducted between January 18 and February 5, 2018, and is nationally representative by region, age and gender. It found continuing strong levels of trust among Canadians in their institutions, leaders, media and information sources.
The study said that the public sector continues to lead the trust race versus the private sector, as Canadians continue to express trust in their government services, led by hospitals and universities/colleges which are tied at 63%.
At 71%, CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s most trusted brand, followed by Google at 67%, Visa at 66%, Amazon at 63%, Netflix at 56%, and Samsung smartphones at 55%. The Globe and Mail (52%) was the only other Canadian media brand that ranked within the list of 17 brands. Trust in Facebook took a 17-point drop from 51% in 2017 to 34% in 2018, the second worst year-over-year decline of any company or category tested.
Other highlights include:
- Traditional sources of information lead trust: word-of-mouth and recommendations from people we know top the list at 76%. Canadians still trust news media – more than half of Canadians trust editorial content found in a newspaper, on TV or on radio;
- Canadians are skeptical of online news (unless they’re young): Editorial content shared through online news sites is not as trusted by Canadians generally speaking (41%), but Canadians aged 18 – 24 trust it more than their parents or grandparents (at 54%); and
- People trust what they can touch: personally sampling a product or service is trusted by more than three quarters of Canadians (76%).
