As Lady Gaga once said, “Trust is like a mirror. You can fix it if it's broken, but you can still see the crack in that motherfucker's reflection.” Or in other words, trust is one helluva valuable commodity, and far harder to get back once lost. Especially during a time when it’s in severely short supply. 

Advertising and trust haven’t already made good bedfellows. Over the course of time, misleading campaigns and phoney claims have meant advertisers are starting from a position at least two steps back. The snake oil salesman lies firmly in our vocation.  

No one can forget the Ipsos Mori Veracity Index which in 2018 detailed how a higher percentage of people trusted politicians (19%) than advertising executives (16%). Want to have your world turned upside down? Bankers were at 41%!

If it were possible, during this era, trust is becoming an even more valuable commodity. People have been shaken by coronavirus and the rest of 2020’s quite spectacular dumpster fire, that’s not only left them dizzy on the spot, turning to find a crumb of truth is what they’re being told; but now more determined to place greater faith in truth’s close cousin: genuineness.  

It’s important then that brands who want to ensure they stick around after the current climate has passed, give their consumers a reason to trust them. So how on earth do they go about doing that?

Trust in me

We recently talked about how what’s to come is unwritten. The TL;DR version being: we’re not going back to normal, so better start writing a new future. 

A do-over is good news for an industry sitting at the bottom of that trust index. But don’t forget what the oracle Gaga said - those cracks are still visible. And a more discerning consumer will sniff out the difference between virtue-signalling participation and actually giving a shit.

BITE’s Deputy Editor Izzy Ashton told Drapers back in June: “External messaging cannot conflict with internal behaviour,” she argued. “Brands cannot say one thing and do another and think they won’t be found out. Where brands often go wrong is co-opting a movement into their marketing without engaging the communities at the heart of it and examining their own history – just look at what happened with L’Oréal.”

The situation with L’Oréal probably knocked advertising down a couple more percent, as they outlined their support for Black Lives Matter all over their social media, seeming for a moment to forget their treatment of Munroe Bergdorf.

For some reason, even the most high-profile brands think an increasingly discerning, connected and vocal consumer simply won’t notice. Or at the least, won’t say something.  

Diversify your trust

Black Lives Matter isn’t the first time we’ve been asked to be better. Nor will it, depressingly, be the last. But what makes it so monumental is that, much like the painted street in Downtown Washington D.C., its message doesn’t seem to be fading away. 

People’s opinions can sometimes move on as quickly as their timelines, but we hope that this year would have been a checkpoint for the industry and people in general to ensure their prejudice and passive attitudes towards racism don’t slip backwards.

Brands need to get smarter about how they communicate to an increasingly divided and diverse world. And they need to think smarter than posting a black square on their Instagram. It’s about meaningful connection. Author Ernest Hemingway said, “The way to make people trustworthy is to trust them.” Well, flip that on its head and the easier way to get someone’s trust, is to be trustworthy. To be genuine.

To do this, you need to first have your strategy clear and your intentions genuine. To look outward and see what’s happening in the world around you. But it’s also about looking inward and ensuring your team, extending to the agencies in your roster, are capable of carrying it off. This isn’t just about getting great people and ideas. It’s about making the most of their perspective and diverse thinking. And ensuring this is a part of each and every part of the creative process. Because it’s no longer at a point in time when we can see it as a nice bolt-on to your output. If you want to gain people’s trust, you have to show them you understand them and can communicate with them.

Founder and chief executive of Amsterdam-based agency We Are Pi, Alex Bennett-Grant recently told Campaign that after surveying 500 people from across production companies, brands and agencies: “91% of respondents considered racial profiling to be a problem in the advertising casting process, 70% had witnessed people being excluded from ad casting because they were black, and 52% surveyed said they were shut down or ignored when they tried to take action on what they believed was racist decision-making”

To change this, it starts with you - the client.  

Trust on your own terms

When talking to Oreo and Digitas UK recently, Strategy Partner James Whatley told us how they wanted to enter people's lives in a light, genuine way. As he said, “Nobody sat at home going: 'I wonder what Oreo thinks about the pandemic.'”

If you’re a client for whom brand purpose feels daunting, then don’t instantly go the other way. Don’t feel that you’re unable to say something because your product isn’t a life-changing thing. (Disclaimer: Oreos ARE life-changing). 

It’s simply about finding a way to channel your genuineness and building trust in your own way. Protest is not always needed. But silence is needed even less. Whether it’s the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, lockdown, or whatever 2020 and beyond has in store for us - an alien invasion by the looks of it - you should find a way of ensuring your consumers trust in you because you have a genuine role to play in their future.

We told you how your future is unwritten. Well, yes it is. But maybe the stationery you’re writing it on needs to be made from something genuine; tangible; robust. We doubt anyone is actively implementing distrust as one of their pillars. But 2020 has made an even greater case for action over inaction. Passivity won’t build trust among your consumers, just indifference.

So leave this article, with Lady Gaga’s words ringing in your ears. Keep your mirror intact, build trust, don’t erode it, and it might even be a little easier seeing what’s reflected back at you in it.