How brands can stand out from AI slop content
“People have always bought from trustworthy people, and that will continue to remain a fact into the AI future.”
— Tim Marsh, Managing Director | Lamplight Media
Marketers, we know AI advertising is cheap, fast, and (mostly) technically competent. But with increased noise, how can brands actually stand out? By building advertising campaigns around trust. But what does that mean in practice?
Matt Bourn, Director of Comms at The Advertising Association in the UK, believes trust in society has moved from top-down to horizontal. “The institutions that previous generations relied on: the government, the church, the police, and the press, are no longer the automatic anchors they once were. In their place, consumers are turning to peer recommendation, to creators they have chosen to follow, to brands that have earned their confidence.”
We both recently participated in the Trust Is the New ROI Report by Clearcast, which brought together 16 senior leaders across the advertising ecosystem to discuss this very topic. Here are 3 takeaways:
Trust is a Commercial Metric
Trust is the commercial metric you build your advertising campaign around. Campaigns built around trust outperform on market share, growth, and profit margin; consistently, and by a margin that should make every finance director pay attention. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising stats back this up: “If the average effectiveness campaign runs the 100 metres in 10 seconds, the ones that have earned trust run it in 7.4 seconds. It is cheaper to acquire a customer, cheaper to retain them, and you can charge more: because they trust the promise. In a world of confusion, there is a premium in being trusted." Matt Bourn
Does It Matter Where You Show Up?
Yes, don’t ignore where your audience lives. The most trusted environments: broadcast television, regulated print, and established digital publishers, are not always where the audience is. And the environments where they can be found are not always the ones a brand would choose to be seen in. Advertising in LLM’s is increasingly more important as search habits evolve. Trust signals are the key metric used to synthesise results. Surface first by producing trust-building content: organic is once again as important as paid social.
How Do You Actually Build Trust Through Your Advertising?
Focus on customer and founder-led communications. Genuine, authentic, honest experiences and points of view. Earned media doesn’t have to be out of your control! Produce case studies, thought leadership, & success stories. Collaborate with your suppliers and customers in content. Remember authenticity is not a style choice, it’s a trust signal. The relationship between production quality and audience trust is not linear. Sometimes a polished film builds confidence. Sometimes it creates distance. The right question is not ‘how good does this look?’ but ‘how true does this feel?’
So how do you stand out from AI slop? Put humans in your advertising. People have always bought from trustworthy people, and that will continue to remain a fact into the AI future.
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