From attention to trust - thoughts on Marketing association conference 2026

I had the opportunity to attend the Marketing Association Conference this month and it was an amazing look at the industry at the moment.

Needless to say that things are moving fast, new channels of communicating, trends changing, shifting audience focus, but and it’s a big point.. somethings don’t change. That’s build trust.

From the keynote speakers, from Firdaous El Honsali CMO Noli (Former Dove VP Dove) to Tomas Tappin Co Founder of Two Dudes, the message is clear, audiences (people) are more focused than ever on trust, in a world full of AI generated content.

So here are some take aways I got from the conference broken down to the speakers.

reflections from Brand Summit 2026

One of the ideas that stayed with me from Firdaous El Honsali's presentation at Brand Summit 2026 was the shift from an attention problem to a trust problem.

Brands are competing for attention across an ever-growing number of platforms. The temptation is to produce more content, follow trends and find new ways to get noticed. But when everyone is doing much the same thing, more content doesn't necessarily make a brand more distinctive.

It raises a more important question: why should people trust you, and what gives them a reason to choose you?

As someone working in video production and storytelling, I think there are some useful lessons here for how businesses approach both marketing and sales.

Purpose needs to mean something

El Honsali spoke about the relationship between trust, relevance and growth. A brand needs to understand what it stands for and why that matters to the people it wants to reach.

Dove's Real Beauty campaigns are a good example. Rather than simply advertising beauty products, the brand built a platform around challenging narrow ideas of beauty and the effect they have on people's lives.

The important point isn't that every business needs a big social purpose or a campaign on the scale of Dove. It's that communication becomes more meaningful when there's a genuine belief or insight behind it.

For business: What do you believe about your industry that shapes the way you work? What do you understand about your customers that others might overlook?

Those answers can help a business stand apart from competitors who offer similar services. They can also give potential clients a clearer reason to choose you beyond price.

Stop chasing content.

Start with the story.

Another theme was the danger of brands looking increasingly alike, partly through borrowed trends and increasingly similar creative approaches.

It's easy to see how this happens on social media. A format works, everyone adopts it, and before long the thing that made it distinctive has become commonplace.

It's worth looking at how Dove approached this with its #TurnYourBack campaign, which challenged the Bold Glamour beauty filter and encouraged women to reject digitally altered beauty ideals.

Watch Dove's #TurnYourBack campaign.

The idea was simple, recognisable and connected to an issue the audience could relate to. The creative execution served the message rather than distracting from it.

For business: Before deciding what to post, ask what you want someone to understand, feel or do as a result.

For a business selling expertise, that might mean explaining a common misconception, sharing a lesson from experience or helping a customer understand a problem they haven't yet recognised. Those stories are more likely to be useful than content created simply to fill a publishing schedule.

Your expertise is part of your marketing

The presentation reinforced the importance of genuine human insight, cultural relevance and emotional connection.

That got me thinking about the people behind businesses. Many have years of experience, specialist knowledge and a valuable perspective on their industry. Yet their marketing often focuses on what they sell rather than what they know.

Thought leadership offers another approach: share the knowledge that helps people understand a problem, make a better decision or see an issue differently.

For business: Think about the questions your customers ask before they buy. What do they misunderstand? What makes a good client a good fit? What would you like people to know before they approach you?

Answering those questions can become a useful body of content. From a sales perspective, it can also help prospective clients arrive at a conversation with a better understanding of your approach and the value you offer.

Consistency is valuable,

but it needs substance

El Honsali described strategic clarity, cultural relevance and creative ambition as connected foundations for effective brand work. Consistency acts as the thread running through them.

I think this is an important distinction for businesses investing in regular content. Consistency isn't just about posting every week. It's about building a recognisable point of view over time.

A series of thoughtful videos, interviews or industry observations can help people become familiar with the people behind a business and understand what makes their approach different.

That familiarity takes time. But it can support both marketing and sales by building credibility before a potential client ever makes contact.

The question isn't simply whether you're publishing regularly. It's whether each piece contributes to something you want your business to be known for.

Purpose, creativity and commercial impact

Two other Dove campaigns discussed at the summit illustrate different ways of connecting a brand's purpose with a human story.

Courage Is Beautiful recognised frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than relying on a conventional product message, the campaign connected Dove's brand values with a real human experience.

For me, this is a reminder that creative work can do more than attract attention. It can help people understand what a brand stands for and build an emotional connection that a product-focused message might not achieve on its own.

Dove's more recent The Code campaign, created around 20 years of Real Beauty, examines the relationship between AI and beauty standards.

Both examples demonstrate the value of having a clear position and finding a creative way to communicate it.

El Honsali also connected creative effectiveness with return on investment. Strong creative work requires investment, but it can contribute to brand recognition, customer advocacy and business growth.

For business: Don't measure the value of content only by immediate views or engagement. Consider whether it builds credibility, helps customers understand your value, supports sales conversations or gives existing customers a reason to recommend you.

Those outcomes matter, even when they aren't captured by a single social media metric.

AI makes authenticity more important

The discussion also touched on AI and the potential effect of generated content on credibility.

The European Commission's new transparency rules took effect on 2 August 2026, introducing obligations for certain AI-generated or manipulated content. These include specific labelling requirements for deepfakes and certain AI-generated text concerning matters of public interest. They do not require every piece of AI-assisted content to be labelled.

Read the European Commission's announcement on safer and more transparent AI.

For businesses, the wider question is how to use new tools without losing the trust of their audience.

AI can help with production and efficiency, but it doesn't replace genuine expertise, a clear point of view or an understanding of the people you're communicating with.

As more content becomes easier to generate, there may be even greater value in hearing directly from people who have the knowledge and experience. Their insights, personality and perspective give audiences something more substantial to connect with than content that simply looks convincing.

A final thought

What I took from this presentation was a reminder to go back to the foundations: understand what your business stands for, know who you're trying to reach, and have something meaningful to say.

For me, that's where good storytelling begins.

The opportunity isn't simply to create more content. It's to help people understand what you know, why it matters and how you can help them.

In a crowded market, attention might get someone to stop scrolling.

Trust gives them a reason to take the next step.