The trust gap brands are facing
For years, influencer marketing and paid partnerships promised credibility at scale. But audiences have caught up. #AD, sponsored tags, disclaimers, and overly polished endorsements have trained consumers to question what they’re seeing, and why they’re seeing it.
At the same time, regulatory scrutiny and platform transparency have made paid influence more visible than ever. When everything looks like an ad, trust erodes fast.
The result? A widening trust gap. Brands are talking more, spending more, and posting more, yet belief is harder to earn. In this environment, third-party validation isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s the difference between persuasion and scepticism.
Trust isn’t built anymore – it's verified
Modern audiences don’t want promises; they want proof.
This is where earned media fundamentally outperforms paid channels. Editorial coverage, expert commentary, and independent reviews carry weight because they’re filtered through someone else’s credibility — a journalist, publication, or trusted platform with something to lose.
When a brand appears in a respected outlet, it signals that:
- The story has been interrogated
- Claims have been assessed
- The brand is worthy of attention beyond its own channels
That verification process is invisible to the reader, but its impact is powerful. It’s why a single earned feature can do more for trust than a dozen paid posts.
The trust advantage of earned media
The effectiveness of PR lies in its friction. You can’t buy your way into earned media; you have to earn it through relevance, credibility, and substance.
This is exactly why it resonates with today’s audiences. People understand the difference between promotion and endorsement. They trust what feels independent, balanced, and unpolished.
By contrast, influencer marketing — while still valuable in the right context — is increasingly seen as transactional. Even authentic creators are operating within a paid ecosystem, and consumers factor that into how much trust they extend.
Earned PR cuts through because it’s not trying to sell. It’s informing, explaining, and contextualising. And in a market saturated with persuasion, that restraint is what builds belief.
This distinction is especially important in categories where proof matters: sustainability, innovation, social impact, health or complex products. In these spaces, credibility often outweighs creativity.
At Compass Studio, this approach underpins much of our PR work, from helping global brand like Patagonia elevate their climate advocacy through earned storytelling achieving over 14 million reach in the first week of the campaign, to achieving high impact national coverage with 55+ million reach in just 2 months for local EV conversion platform by Jaunt Motors.
In each case, earned media didn’t replace paid activity, it strengthened it by giving audiences something more credible to believe in.
PR as a proof system, not a megaphone
The most effective PR today isn’t about shouting louder. It’s about substantiating what a brand stands for. High-performing brands are using PR to:
- Build reputational equity over time, not just campaign buzz
- Demonstrate product performance and innovation
- Establish authority in a certain industry, including complex or regulated categories
- Validate ESG and sustainability claims
Seen this way, PR becomes a proof system, one that connects brand storytelling with third-party credibility. It feeds not just awareness, but confidence across the entire customer journey, from discovery through to decision-making.
This is why PR works best when it’s strategic, integrated and long-term, not treated as a reactive or tactical channel. Find out more here.
A practical PR checklist
To assess whether your PR is genuinely building trust, ask:
- Would this story still stand without our logo attached? If it only works as brand promotion, it’s unlikely to earn belief.
- Is our coverage consistent, not just campaign-based? Trust is built through repetition, not one-off wins.
- Are our claims supported by third-party voices? Data, experts, and independent commentary matter more than adjectives.
- Are we prioritising credibility over control? The less polished the message, the more powerful it often is.
Why this matters now
As consumers become harder to convince, brands that rely solely on paid credibility will struggle to stand out, or be believed. PR offers something increasingly rare: trust that can’t be bought, only earned.
For brands willing to invest in substance, clarity, and long-term reputation, PR is no longer a supporting act. It’s the proof point that everything else depends on.
Ready to build trust your audience actually believes?
Chat to the Compass Studio’s PR team to explore how we help brands earn credibility where it matters most, through strategy-led storytelling, earned authority, and proof-driven communications. Find out more here.