Trust is becoming a commercial asset, yet many brands remain unprepared

For years, influencer marketing was largely judged by a familiar set of metrics: reach, engagement and visibility. Brands sought creators with the biggest audiences, the highest view counts and the greatest ability to generate attention.

Increasingly, however, marketers are discovering that attention alone is no longer enough.

New research from influencer marketing platform Kolsquare suggests trust is emerging as one of the most valuable assets in modern marketing, particularly among younger consumers. According to the study, 55 per cent of consumers aged between 18 and 34 have stopped buying from a brand because its values conflicted with their own. Yet fewer than 5 per cent of influencer marketers identify brand safety and trust as a major challenge within their campaigns.

The findings point to a growing disconnect between how consumers make purchasing decisions and how many brands continue to approach creator partnerships.

The rise of influencer marketing over the past decade has transformed the relationship between companies and consumers. Traditional advertising relied on institutions, publications and broadcasters to deliver messages to audiences. Influencer marketing shifted that power towards individuals, allowing brands to reach consumers through creators who had already built communities of trust around their personal identities.

That trust, however, is proving increasingly fragile.

Consumers are becoming more selective about the brands they support and more willing to scrutinise the individuals those brands choose to work with. A poorly judged partnership can create reputational damage far beyond the lifespan of a single campaign, particularly when social media platforms amplify criticism at extraordinary speed.

The Kolsquare research suggests many organisations have yet to fully adjust to that reality. While three-quarters of European marketers plan to increase their use of creators in 2026, the study found that many teams spend relatively little time vetting influencer partners before launching campaigns.

For brands operating at scale, that presents obvious risks.

What was once considered a compliance issue is increasingly becoming a commercial one. Consumers are not simply evaluating products and services; they are evaluating the behaviour, values and credibility of the companies behind them. The creators chosen to represent a brand inevitably become part of that assessment.

The implications extend beyond social media.

Across multiple industries, trust has become a defining factor in consumer decision-making. From financial services and technology to retail and hospitality, businesses are competing not only on price and quality but on reputation. The organisations that maintain credibility often enjoy stronger customer loyalty, greater resilience during periods of controversy and more consistent long-term growth.

The influencer economy is now experiencing the same shift.

One of the report's most notable conclusions is that transparent and compliant creator partnerships frequently performed as well as, or better than, campaigns where disclosure and brand alignment were less carefully managed. In other words, trust and performance are not competing priorities. They increasingly appear to be connected.

That may explain why many brands are moving away from one-off promotional partnerships and towards longer-term relationships with creators whose values align more closely with their own. The objective is no longer simply to generate attention but to build credibility over time.

For marketers, the lesson is straightforward. As influencer marketing matures, the most valuable partnerships may not be those that deliver the largest audiences, but those that generate the strongest confidence among consumers.

The era when trust was viewed as an intangible benefit is drawing to a close.

For a generation of consumers willing to walk away from brands that fail to meet their expectations, trust is becoming something far more measurable: a driver of revenue, loyalty and long-term commercial success.