Two-thirds (69%) of Australians say brands aren’t living up to their promises, according to The Brand Experience Gap study by Accenture Song.
The study, now in its second year, unpacks the disconnect between brand intent and customer reality.
While the experience gap in Australia has improved from 71% in 2023 to 68% in 2025, Accenture Song ANZ lead Bronwyn van der Merwe told AdNews that customers care more about being valued and recognised.
“Last year, the things that organisations weren't doing quite well were some of the basics around being simple and easy to deal with," said van der Merwe.
“What has come through this year is that customers care about feeling valued and recognised.
“What drives an improvement in closing that brand experience gap is being proactive.
“And what we're seeing organisations do much better at is anticipating what customers need.
“Brands can use advanced data and analytics and predict what's going to happen and when to reach out to a customer. That can help drive trust.”
The study spans 80 Australian brands across financial services, insurance, superannuation, utilities and more.
Sixty-two per cent of Australians say their main financial services provider doesn’t deliver on its promises, according to the study.
One third (35%) of customers called out lack of active protection against fraud and security as areas needing urgent improvement.
“Brands are being judged not just on what they say, but how consistently they show up,” said van der Merwe.
“In a world where technology is moving faster than ever, closing the experience gap and delivering on your promise - not just to sell, but to serve - is the new frontier of growth.”
Droga5 CEO Matthew Michael said the industries that are doing well are the ones that are prioritising digital advancement and proactivity.
"Some industries are doing really well, and others are lagging. If you look at the ones that are doing well. they are spending money on that digital advancement,” Michael said.
“It's where you're codifying those brand values and promises so that they flow through the data and the design of the experiences with their customers.
“Brands need leadership that recognises that purpose and technology need to align. They can't be seen as separate."
"When the report says that when you have a one point closure on the gap, it actually results in nearly a two point increase in NPS.
"For a lot of organisations that customer NPS is such a critical part of their business.
“There’s balance between the digital, automated and human experience. Sometimes you need something that's simplified and frictionless. Other times you want a human to give you that friction.”
Sixty-two per cent of general and 72% of private health customers said their insurance provider doesn’t deliver on promises.
Thirty-two per cent of general and 26% of private health are not confident their provider would pay out a claim.
Sixty-nine per cent who interacted with their superannuation in the past year said it didn’t live up to its promise.
Seventy-one per cent said their electricity, gas or water provider isn’t meeting expectations - and a third don’t believe they’re paying the right amount.
Van der Merwe said that as digital enhancements takeover the brand-customer experience, the gap between human emotion and understanding continues to broaden.
“As organisations continue to invest into digital and customer experience, we start to see that simple tasks are getting done,” van der Merwe said.
“They're creating self service opportunities, building digital infrastructure, but at a certain point that becomes table stakes, and we as customers just expect that kind of digital experience to work.
“As you close that digital gap, other gaps actually broaden - a broadening of the human gap.
“So if you think about those moments where you have an issue, like a crisis or hardship, or you're vulnerable. You want to talk to a human.
“The human element becomes really important. How you empower your frontline staff with the right tools so they can focus on the customer in those moments of great need.”
Accenture Song’s call-to-action for CMO’s and C-Suite is to treat purpose as infrastructure, design experiences that deliver consistently and anticipate emotional gaps, not just functional ones.
“It's harder to drive real loyalty through just digital experiences. Humans really matter in a whole brand experience,” van der Merwe said.
“When there’s no points of differentiation, you don't enable that brand to come through. So we need to minimise the mundane and maximise the humane.
"Be clear on what your purpose, values, behaviours and principles are and codify that into your AI systems.
“We’ve got to push down into the system prompting, behavioural logic, AI decision-making and agents that brand purpose and values so that you can put guardrails in place so it represents your brand the right way.
“And understanding those moments where you need to create the handoff between human and machine, or machine and human.”
Michael said that brands need to embrace the purpose of why they exist beyond making money.
“Putting that purpose into the communications and establishing that as your promise to the consumer is the first critical step,” Michael said.
“If they do live that purpose, not just in the communications, but through everything they do, then that gap between understanding what I think I'm going to get and what I actually get starts to close.
“When you do that, you become really authentic to what the brand is about.”
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