Cut Through!

Co-creating trust is not about convincing people you are right, but about giving them a seat at the table.
The principle is simple. People are more likely to trust something they have helped to create, and they’re less likely to attack something shaped by their participation.
Done well, it creates not just a more informed audience, but advocates who will defend, promote and trust your organisation.


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The Borrow Trust strategy.
If you want reach and credibility, then work with those who already have it. Build partnerships with credible voices who share your goals and values and command your audience’s attention and trust.
The same media fragmentation that makes it difficult to cut through with traditional channels, has also created an opening: thousands of micro-communities with trusted messengers.
By partnering with those messengers you can create great content for them, relevant messages for their audience, and increased trust, reach and attention for your brand. And that is our second Winning Strategy.


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In this series, I’m looking at five ways organisations are responding to our changed information environment and modernising their communications operations to build trust.
This first episode is the Delivery Playbook.
It is a strategy built on the insight that in a world of abundant content and fragmented attention trust can be built, through local, relevant, and useful experiences.
It is transforming how UK Government is thinking about communicating with a sceptical public.


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When you aren’t trusted, even your best decisions won’t cut through.
This episode looks at why trust matters, why it is eroding across government, business and media, and what the evidence tells us about how trust is built.
It also sets up a harder question: how do you build trust when almost every feature of today’s information environment works against you?



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This episode looks at five practical AI actions communications leaders should focus on this year: How to understand what AI is saying about you, train an AI model, use AI for dialogue not output, scale AI tools successfully, and prepare for an AI deepfake crisis.


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