Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards 2022: Australia’s most trusted brands in five key services and communications industries

Roy Morgan presented the inaugural Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards for 2022 in mid-October and five of the key winners in the services and communications industry are highlighted here.

The Victorian-based Internet Service Provider (ISP) Aussie Broadband has been Australia’s ‘Most Trusted Brand in Telecommunications’ among a field of over 20 rivals since December 2020. The ISP, which is headquartered in regional Victoria, began operations less than 15 years ago, and has taken the inaugural award in the category ahead of two ISPs owned by TPG Telecom – iiNet and TPG.

The Salvation Army has won the inaugural ‘Most Trusted Brand in Charities’ Award after regaining top position in the category in June 2021 and extending their lead over fellow finalists the Red Cross ever since. The charity grew out of the Methodist movement in the mid-nineteenth century in England and first came to Australia almost 150 years ago in the early 1880s.

The ‘Most Trusted Brand in Services’ has been won by Australia Post – one of the few brands that touches nearly all Australians on a frequent basis. Australia Post has had an eventful few years with the pandemic providing a unique challenge as ordering of goods online rocketed to record highs.

The excellent performance of Australia Post in dealing with the challenges of staff shortages caused by the pandemic, and at the same time record high parcel deliveries, has been recognised in the company’s victory in this category ahead of fellow finalists Wesfarmers and Choice.

There was never much doubt which brand would emerge as Australia’s ‘Most Trusted Media Brand’ with the ABC leading this category since the inception of the survey four years ago. The ABC, which is affectionately known as ‘Aunty’, celebrated its 90^th birthday this year and has easily led the media category which includes television, radio, newspapers, websites and newer media since 2018 to clinch the inaugural award.

Australia’s national research organisation the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) is the inaugural winner of the ‘Most Trusted Brand in Government Services’ for 2022. The CSIRO has led the category for over two years and was one of only two finalists in the category to score a positive Net Trust Score – the other being Medicare in second place.

Over 200 brands were in the running for these awards across the five categories of Services, Charities, Government Services, Media and Telecommunications and the full list of contenders in each category for these prestigious awards are listed fully later in this release.

Roy Morgan Trusted Services & Communications Brand winners for 2022:

Most Trusted Brand for Telecommunications: Aussie Broadband

Aussie Broadband overtook fellow finalist iiNet in December 2020 and has retained top position as the most trusted brand in Telecommunications ever since ahead of iiNet and TPG. Customers of the inaugural winner of the telecommunications category appreciated the good customer service and reliability of one of the newest companies to contest the award – Aussie Broadband is less than 15 years old.

There were over 20 brands contesting the inaugural award for ‘Most Trusted Brand in Telecommunications’ including activ8me, Amaysim, Boost Mobile, Dodo, Exetel, HTC, Huawei, Internode, iPrimus, Moose Mobile, NBN Co, Nokia, Oppo, Optus, Southern Phones, Telstra, Vodafone, and Xiaomi.

Some of the positive comments from Australians about why they trust Aussie Broadband were ‘Aussie Broadband provide great service for a fair price. When I need to make contact, they are available and are always very helpful and empathetic/’ and ‘Honest. Reliable. Reasonable prices. Aussie Broadband don’t make promises they can’t keep.’

Most Trusted Brand for Charities: The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army regained top position as Australia’s ‘Most Trusted Brand in Charities’ over a year ago in June 2021 and has held the position ever since to emerge as the inaugural winner of the award. In a category which featured many highly trusted brands the competition was fierce with The Salvation Army finishing just ahead of fellow finalists the Red Cross and the RSPCA.

There were over 30 brands mentioned by Australians that contested the ‘Most Trusted Brand in Charities’ including Amnesty International, Anglicare, Animals Australia, Barrier Reef Foundation, Beyond Blue, Black Dog, Brotherhood of St. Lawrence, Cancer Council, Doctors Without Borders, Fred Hollows Foundation, Greenpeace, Guide Dogs, Headspace, Heart Foundation, Lifeline, Lort Smith, Love Your Sister, McGrath Foundation, Oxfam, OzHarvest, PETA, Planet Ark, Rotary, Scouts Australia, Sea Shepherd, Smith Family, St. Vincent de Paul, Surf Life Saving Australia, UNICEF, Uniting Care, Vision Australia, World Vision, World Wildlife Fund and YMCA.

Some of the positive comments from Australians about why they trust The Salvation Army were ‘They have a great reputation for helping others and the community and they do incredible work for others’ and ‘The Salvation Army help the homeless and you can always count on them being there in any disasters.’

The Salvation Army Australia: “We are honoured to be the first recipients of the Roy Morgan Most Trusted Charity award!

“To know that the community trusts us, means that our work is seen and appreciated and that it makes a difference,” shares Major Brendan Nottle, who received the award on behalf of the organisation at the Trusted Brand Awards last week.

“It is a proud and special moment for all of us at The Salvation Army and we would like to thank everyone who voted for us 🙏”

Most Trusted Brand for Services: Australia Post

The national postal service, Australia Post, has won the inaugural ‘Most Trusted Brand in Services’ Award for 2022. Australia Post emerged victorious ahead of one of Australia’s largest conglomerates, Wesfarmers, and comparison advocacy and comparison site Choice.

Australia Post had to deal with a lot of tough competition in the Services category with over 70 brands competing for the award. The Services category was the highest ranked category that had no brands with Net Distrust and included Health & Fitness brands such as AMA/ Australian Medical Association, AVEO, BreastScreen, Epworth Hospital, Fitness First, GoodLife Fitness, Greencross Vets, Ramsay Health, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Weight Watchers.

There were over a dozen Emergency Service brands included in this category such as Ambulance NSW, Ambulance QLD, Ambulance SA, Ambulance VIC, Country Fire Authority, Federal Police, Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), NSW Police, QLD Police, SA Police, VIC Police, WA Police, SES and St. John Ambulance and Legal Service brands including Maurice Blackburn and Slater & Gordon.

There were also Educational Institutions such as Good Start Early Learning, Griffith University, La Trobe University, Melbourne University, Monash University, TAFE, University of Adelaide, University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Queensland, University of Sydney, and University of Tasmania.

Other Services included in this category were Trade Unions such as the CFMEU, Accounting/Consulting Services such as Deloitte, EY/Ernst & Young, Findex, H&R Block, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, PwC, Comparison Services such as Canstar, Choosi, Compare the Market, Finder and iSelect, Postal/Courier Services including DHL, CouriersPlease, Star Track, Ticket Services including Oztix, Ticketek, Ticketmaster and Viagogo and online encyclopedia website Wikipedia.

In addition, there were a number of other brands in this category including Cambridge Analytica, CBH/ CBH Group, Chubb, Clean Energy Council, Cleanaway, Deliveroo, Elders, Jim’s Franchises, Kennards, Landmark, Meals on Wheels, Nutrien, RSL, Seek and Serco.

Some of the positive comments from Australians about why they trust Australia Post were ‘I’m impressed at the speed and level of communication that goes on with Australia Post. Staff are friendly and what needs doing is often quick and hassle free’ and ‘After many years doing business with Australia Post in a large variety of ways, the outcome has always been positive.’

Australia Post: “We’re proud to share the news that Australia Post has been named the Most Trusted Services Brand in the Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards for 2022.

“The inaugural Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards recognise the outstanding levels of trust built up by 20 brands across a range of different industries and services including Supermarkets, Retail, Banks, Services, Charities and more.

“Congratulations to all the winning and nominated brands!”

Most Trusted Brand for Media: ABC

The ABC has clinched top spot as the ‘Most Trusted Brand in Media’ after leading the category since the inception of the survey over four years ago. The ABC has been far and away Australia’s most trusted media company throughout the last few years although the gap over fellow finalists Netflix and SBS has closed in recent years.

There was a large field of well over 60 brands in the media category spanning television, radio, magazines, print newspapers, news websites, cinemas and media owners that sit behind these brands.

Among the brands the ABC defeated to be the ‘Most Trusted Brand’ in Australian media were television stations Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox News, Foxtel, Nine Network, Seven Network, SkyNews, Stan, Ten Network and popular video sharing website YouTube.

Prominent radio stations that contested the award included 2GB, 3AW, Macquarie Media, Radio National, Triple J and streaming service Spotify while the most prominent mentions in the magazine industry were for the Australian Geographic, international counterpart the National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Women’s Weekly and former magazine company Bauer.

Two of Australia’s most well-known cinema chains Hoyts and Village Cinemas were considered as well as print newspapers such as the Adelaide Advertiser, Australian Financial Review, Canberra Times, Herald Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Courier-Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Mercury, The Saturday Paper and The West Australian. There were also many news websites in the category including Bloomberg, Crikey!, Daily Mail, Mama Mia, MSN, News.com.au, nine.com.au, Reuters, The Conversation, The Economist, The Guardian, The New Daily, The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as controversial site Wikileaks.

There were also prominent media owners in this category including Disney, EA Entertainment, Fairfax Media, Google, NewsCorp/ News Ltd., Nine Entertainment Company, Packer/ Packer Media Group/ PBL, Schwartz Media, Seven West Media, Warner/ Warner Bros and Yahoo.

Some of the positive comments from Australians about why they trust ABC were ‘Honest unbiased reporting and analysis. The ABC give equal time for all political persuasions’ and ‘The ABC provide accurate and unbiased news coverage that is sometimes lacking in the Australian media.’

Most Trusted Brand for Government Services: CSIRO

The CSIRO has won the inaugural ‘Most Trusted Government Services Brand’ after finishing ahead of over a dozen brands. The CSIRO has remained the most trusted brand in the industry for over two years and emerged just ahead of closest competitor and fellow finalist Medicare.

The CSIRO was the most highly trusted Government Services brand ahead of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Tax Office (ATO), Centrelink, the Defence Force, Education Department, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Queensland Health, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Federal and State Governments.

Some of the positive comments from people about why they trust the CSIRO were ‘An Australian research company which has developed many products which are beneficial for health and the environment’ and ‘The CSIRO have made many scientific breakthroughs and are well respected worldwide.’

For comments or more information about Roy Morgan’s Annual Trusted Brand Award data please contact:

Roy Morgan Enquiries
Office: +61 (3) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com

Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards

The inaugural Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards bring together outstanding companies and brands across a range of industries to celebrate and recognise the unmatched levels of trust these organisations hold when compared to their competitors in their respective categories.

The Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards have been awarded for the first time this year to 20 leading brands for the 12 months to June 2022 and all 20 winners have displayed market-leading levels of trust, and exceedingly low, or negligible, levels of distrust to outstrip their rivals on the key metric of ‘Net Trust’.

Need to know what is driving your trust and distrust?

The related Roy Morgan Risk Monitor is an ongoing survey based on over 1,800 interviews each month to measure levels of trust and distrust in more than 900 brands across 26 industry sectors.

Respondents are asked which brands and companies they trust, and why, and which brand and companies they distrust, and why. The survey is specially designed to be open-ended and context-free, i.e. unprompted.

Roy Morgan Risk Monitor data is made available in a variety of formats, from snapshot overviews to detailed tracking of individual brands and their competitors. To gain a greater understanding of Roy Morgan’s Risk research, or to explore the results for specific industries and brands, contact Roy Morgan.

For the latest rankings of key brands view the June 2022 edition of the Roy Morgan Risk Report.