Laurence Green, Director of Effectiveness at the IPA, explores how, in an industry obsessed with novelty, marketers often overlook their most valuable asset. But evidence suggests the real gold dust is something far older...
A warning triangle
The 150th anniversary of the world’s first-ever registered trademark passed without fanfare on January 1st this year.
The legal protection granted to Bass Ale’s red triangle – as later depicted in Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergere – must have felt like the future of marketing on that New Year’s Day in 1876. (A company employee queued overnight to be first in line.)
In an era when much marketing effort and reporting has been preoccupied with vanity metrics and dubious proxies, the business case for trust has never been stronger.
A century and a half later – and for all the turmoil of 2026 – it remains a historical marker that might inform the future of marketing today.
The lure of the next big thing
There’s no shortage of new trends, tech, or technique in marketing. Its practitioners are pathologically but sometimes inadvisedly drawn to the Next Big Thing. “Like dogs that bark at every passing car,” in the words of David Wheldon, now President of the World Federation of Advertisers.
Pokemon Go and QR codes once claimed the future. Today, creators and AI wear the crown, and both will likely enjoy longer reigns. But even they will be outlived by – or at least understood in the context of – eternal truths about marketing and, in turn, humans.
A timeless purpose
The future of marketing will still be the successful alignment of an organisation with the needs and wants of its audience. A timeless pursuit, made timely.
Despite all the talk of ‘agentic’, the future of marketing will still – I contend – hinge on brands. Humans use brands to simplify choices and identify their tribe, while organisations build them to win enduring competitive advantage. (The recent advertising arms race among AI brands is the latest example, even if it is a counter-intuitive example.)
The central role of trust
Buried within the unfashionable talk of brand-building as the future of marketing lies an even older notion: that trust may one of the more important things a brand-owner can pursue and earn.
In an era when much marketing effort and reporting has been preoccupied with vanity metrics and dubious proxies, the business case for trust has never been stronger.
What actually works
The IPA has gathered data on what actually works in marketing communications since 1980 through submissions to its biennial Effectiveness Awards. Built to honour advertisers and agencies demonstrating profitable return on investment, the Awards measure outcomes in pounds and pence, not likes or impressions. The Databank these submissions create has become a treasure house of learning.
Our latest analysis compared about 100 advertisers declaring high trust outcomes with roughly 800 successful advertisers that did not. A “Trust 100,” if you like. We wanted to see whether emphasising trust drove different or superior returns.
The Trust 100 were more likely to report very big brand effects than peers across every dimension we track.
Most notably, they were twice as likely to report dramatic improvements in perceptions of product quality and claimed loyalty. Entirely plausible human responses to trust-based communications:
“I trust you, so I believe in your product more than others.”
“I trust you, so I will be more loyal to you than others.”
But here’s the kicker: the Trust 100 also outperformed their successful peers in business effects.
Advertisers posting high trust outcomes were 66% more likely to report very big business results – sales, market share, and profit.
In short: trust drives profit, just as the owners of Bass Ale and its red triangle presumably believed years ago.
New world, same humans
As we steam into the next round of future-gazing at SXSW, Cannes, and beyond, we should temper both enthusiasm and anxiety about what lies ahead. “This changes everything” is rarely true, and the new does not always replace the old. As trends writer David Mattins says: “New World Same Humans.”
The future of marketing will belong to brand-owners who can fold the new playbook into the old, who understand that trust is gold dust in times of change.
Laurence Green is Director of Effectiveness at the IPA. An extract of this piece was first published in The Future of Marketing Supplement by mediaplanet, distributed in The Guardian on 17 March 2026.
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.
Last updated 18 March 2026