The average person sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads every day. Years ago, most marketers stopped asking about that number because it was getting so crazy. It was just part of doing business in the attention economy. But something changed recently, and brands that are paying attention have noticed it.
People don't pay as much attention to press releases as they used to. Just getting media coverage isn't enough to make a difference anymore. Sending a perfect message through all channels used to work, but now it doesn't work as well. People don't think twice about well-made ads, but they'll stop everything to watch a three-minute video from someone they trust.
Because of this, big businesses all over the world have had to rethink what public relations means in 2026. The change is big. Money that used to only go to traditional media placements is now split between partnerships with creators and earned coverage. As businesses realize that real voices can cut through the noise better than corporate messages, demand for Narrative Group, a global influencer marketing agency that works with international super-brands and companies, has skyrocketed.
The Credibility Problem Nobody Wants to Discuss
This is what CMOs think about at night. People don't trust traditional ads anymore. Most of us already knew this, and studies keep showing it. Many people trust recommendations from people they follow online more than branded content. Sometimes much more.
This is an interesting paradox for businesses that spend a lot of money on advertising. You can be in a lot of places, but that doesn't mean people will pay attention. Being everywhere can even work against you. People have smart filters for ignoring ads, and those filters get stronger every year.
Brands that are doing this right don't use PR to get their message out anymore. Instead, they see it as a way to build relationships at scale. The goal is no longer to reach the most people. It turns out that meaningful reach is a completely different thing.
What Actually Works Now
Look at how well-known global brands introduced new products five years ago and how they do it now. Now, the playbook is very different.
Smart marketers no longer plan one big reveal with coordinated press coverage. Instead, they seed information through trusted voices weeks in advance. They build genuine anticipation by making viewers feel like they are a part of the action instead of being targets. When the official announcement comes out, the conversation already exists organically.
A lot of executives are scared of this approach because it means giving up control. PR used to be based on the idea that brands could control stories through careful message management. That assumption no longer holds. Narratives form whether you participate or not. It's really down to you whether you want to be involved or just sit back and let other people tell your story.
The Measurement Challenge
In the past, PR metrics were mostly about impressions and media coverage. How many people might have seen your message? How many articles talked about your main points? These numbers filled out quarterly reports and made boards happy, but everyone knew they didn't show what really mattered.
Better measurements are needed for modern approaches. Quality of engagement is more important than quantity of engagement. A million passive impressions don't work as well as a thousand real conversations. It is now possible for sentiment analysis to tell the difference between attention and connection.
The brands that have changed the most quickly have completely restructured their analytics. They keep an eye on how messages move around on social networks. To see if coverage changes people's behavior, they keep track of it. They pay attention to why and who shares their content. With this level of detail, you can see patterns that other metrics missed completely.
Why Speed Changed Everything
News cycles used to last days. They last minutes or hours now. There could be a global brand crisis before the communications team finishes their morning coffee. Reactive PR strategies aren't very useful anymore because things are moving so quickly.
Companies that thrive in this environment keep their monitoring and response systems on all the time. They empower frontline teams to act quickly without having to go through long chains of approval for everything. They accept that small mistakes made while moving fast cause less damage than perfect responses that arrive too late.
One of the hardest things for legacy organizations is this change in how things are done. When the conversation is happening in real time, approval processes that were made for weekly newspaper deadlines don't work. There's no way around it.
The Brands That Get It Will Own the Next Decade
The brands that will dominate the next decade understand something fundamental. Public relations has evolved from a broadcasting function into a listening and responding function. The winners won't be those who shout loudest. They'll be those who participate most genuinely in conversations their audiences actually care about.
Marketing budgets will continue flowing toward approaches that build authentic connections rather than interrupt attention. Traditional media coverage is still important, but it tends to confirm conversations that are already happening elsewhere rather than starting new ones.
For marketers watching these trends, the takeaway is clear. Rethink what success looks like. Reconsider how you measure impact. And recognize that the brands capturing attention today do so by earning trust, not demanding it.
The era of media saturation rewards authenticity above all else. Every brand says they know this, but not many of them actually do things that way.