Trust is critical for a brand’s success. It’s the long game, the marathon, not the sprint. And brand trust, at least in the US, is in free fall.

Yesterday, Simon Mainwaring presented a Keynote at WOMMA Summit 2011 that examined how consumer trust has shifted in the US market. Citing Edelman’s 2010 GoodPurpose Study, he showed that 86% of global consumers believe a businesses’ needs should be weighted equal to society’s needs. That may be a hard sell in a board room, but the numbers don’t lie.

Brands can capture consumer trust by joining or forming causes that complement their brand and resonate with consumers. Nike, for example, is a global sports brand. Instead of simply buying a sponsorship for the Tour de France, they partnered with Livestrong and did something truly amazing. They crowdsourced short messages about why people were fighting cancer. These were literally painted onto the course roads and broadcast around the world during the race. Each submission was also created into an individualized graphic for the submitter, enabling a huge amount of sharing.

Nike’s effort was creative, effective, and ultimately inexpensive. Millions of impressions latter, the campaign both promoted cancer research and benefited Nike.

Brands that care can win. Cause marketing isn’t just goodwill. Done correctly, it makes business sense.

Check out the slides from Simon’s presentation on his Slideshare page.