What good is doing good? Leo Burnett's Catherine King on what the public expects from brands

Today’s topic: Do the public expect brands to do good, and what does that actually look like?Truth be told, when I was first offered the opportunity to cover today’s topic, I was hesitant.There’s been a lot of bandwagon jumping around the area of brand purpose and corporate social responsibility, not just in brands trying to boost their credentials in the space, but agencies positioning themselves as the ones to do so.But the subject of today’s podcast - Leo Burnett’s study of public expectations around brands doing good - is more pragmatic.In my conversation with Catherine King, chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett, we cover a lot of ground - including scepticism around brands’ true intent, the reality that companies’ underlying behaviour matters more than actions happening only at a branding level, and the moment when brands can actually start talking about their activities.We also dive into the intriguing statistic that Sky News Australia viewers appear to be the most likely to be selfish, with 27% of them saying they’d be unwilling to pay more for a brand that does the right thing. By contrast, Ten News viewers are the most altruistic, with 84% saying they’d be willing to pay [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unmade.substack.com