Nigerian PR boosted
Edelman, the world’s largest global communications marketing firm with presence in 65 countries across the globe in partnership with its Nigeria affiliate, Chain Reactions Nigeria, has buoyed the public relations landscape in the country with the launch of the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer Survey Report.
The public presentation of the survey report, which was the 17th edition of the annual global trust and credibility survey by Edelman, was launched for the first time in Nigeria at an event held at the prestigious Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The global survey carried out by Edelman Intelligence consisted of online interviews conducted between October 13 and November 16, 2016, in which more than 33,000 respondents across 28 countries were sampled on how much they trust four institutions, namely government, business, media and non-governmental organisations, to do what is right.
Organisational reputation
Managing director/chief strategist, Chain Reactions Nigeria, Israel Jaiye Opayemi, revealed that one of the key insights in the survey was the widening trust gap in the four key institutions. He said this should challenge practitioners in proffering innovative solutions for managing the reputation assets of their clients.
“The survey report is significant because it documents insights and knowledge to help governments, businesses, media and non-governmental organisations to proactively build and raise their trust equity as a major factor that impacts organisational reputation.”
Opayemi further stated that the launch of the report was a significant milestone for Nigeria because it underscored the strategic importance of the Nigerian market to Edelman.
“Chain Reactions and Edelman will be helping interested Nigerian businesses to build their asset of trust and reputation around this. It is our hope that those of you here today saddled with the responsibility of managing the reputation of different corporate brands will do the same for your respective brands. We intend to use this as a foundational step to help Nigeria establish the Nigerian Trust Index which is the average of a country’s trust in the institutions of government, business, media and non-governmental organizations,” he stated.
In his presentation of the annual report, managing director of Edelman South Africa, Jordan Rittenberry, said: “The growth of populism has seen the mass population reject established authorities. The informed public consists of people who are educated and economically better, while the mass population is made up of people who are illiterate or semi-literate and fall under the low-income earners strata. Currently greater influence lies with the growing mass population.”
Fake news
“In the case of Brexit and the last American election, we saw the media combating fake news and this was witnessed all over the world with businesses being rocked by scandal after scandal. All these factors combine to show that trust is in crisis in 2017.
“What we used to see as the pyramid of influence is gone; no longer are the days when the better source of information is presumed to be held by the elite as there is a democratisation of information and communication. What we are seeing is an emerging new model that is populist. Edelman is working with Chain Reactions to ensure Nigeria is covered in the next Edelman Trust Barometer statistics,” added Rittenberry.
Even though the survey has not been done in Nigeria and some other countries yet, the results are instructive for a country like Nigeria as the world becomes a global village with trends travelling across borders and time zones.
