What Can Brands do to Ease the Concerns of Canadians Post-Pandemic?

Canadians have had a lot on their plates these past two years.

They’ve been asked to isolate, work from home, and avoid travel - all while navigating ever-changing and often confusing public health measures. It’s no surprise to find that Canadians are concerned about finances, careers, mental health, the environment, community, parenting and the future.

Leo Burnett Canada conducted a survey of nearly 5,000 Canadians in 2021 to gauge how they felt about a wide range of issues during the pandemic. The results detailed in the first annual The HumanKind™ Study should serve as a wake-up call to brands.

Brands have an important role in addressing human problems, big or small. Government institutions can only do so much and there are big opportunities for companies to step up and take action to alleviate the concerns of their consumers.

As it currently stands, 76 percent of Canadians don’t believe brands understand their problems or address their needs. It’s time to change that perception.

So, where do brands start?

They must first identify the main concerns keeping Canadians up at night, and that’s where The HumanKind™ Study comes in. The research dives into eight main themes related to personal, cultural and environmental areas of concern, or “Human Problems.” With each theme, the survey identified three key opportunities for brands to use as starting points to address the issues.

• The Personal: According to the study, Canadians are experiencing a number of personal anxieties and fears, including financial and career concerns, mental health issues, and parenting stresses. In fact, half of the parents surveyed expressed concern they weren’t involved enough in their children’s lives. Thirty-nine per cent said they are coping with stress in ways that have impacted their overall well-being, which one-third of those respondents agreed had worsened during the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, rising inflation and a difficult housing market have 80 percent of Canadians expressing financial unease.
• The Cultural: As a result of the isolation experienced during the pandemic, nearly half of Canadians (47 percent) said they believe their communities are more divided than ever before. These concerns extend to the future, with nearly 70 per cent of respondents saying they fear we haven’t learned anything from the pandemic.
• The Environmental: From the introduction of paper straws to the removal of plastic bags in major retailers, are these measures enough to address the environmental concerns of Canadians? Perhaps not as more than half (55 percent) of survey respondents expressed fear the Earth is past the point of saving, a grim outlook that Leo Burnett identifies as an opportunity for brands to contribute to a solution.

According to the report, companies have numerous opportunities to play a bigger role in improving society by prioritizing the well-being of marginalized groups, introducing comprehensive environmental measures, adopting equitable pricing models, boosting transparency and advocating for a better relationship with technology. These opportunities represent an inflection point for brands to step up and fill the voids left by the unprecedented cultural shifts related to climate change, changes in government, and the pandemic era at large.

Learn more The HumanKind™ Study

Written by Tahir Ahmad, Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett Canada