# How to harness the value of trust — with Matt Bourn and James Best Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787/how-to-harness-the-value-of-trust-with-matt-bourn-and-james-best Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787/how-to-harness-the-value-of-trust-with-matt-bourn-and-james-best.md Podcast: [The Media Leader Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787) Published: 2026-02-02T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/ff592efc-bb6c-4b4c-b6a2-8e529e866aa2.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Audio file: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/ff592efc-bb6c-4b4c-b6a2-8e529e866aa2.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787/episodes/how-to-harness-the-value-of-trust-with-matt-bourn-and-james-best Duration seconds: 2894 ## Resource This month, advertising industry trade bodies the IPA, Isba and the Advertising Association are spending a great deal of combined energy highlighting the issue of trust. That includes at the annual LEAD conference, which takes place this Thursday, and in a report released last week by the IPA that found trust-building ad campaigns improve business outcomes. Trust is what drives consumers to purchase goods and services from one brand over another; to give their attention to one media channel over another. And in a world of AI slop, misinformation, and falling trust in traditional institutions — a world in which trust is increasingly at a premium — it’s no surprise that the issue has been a core topic among executives in recent months, particularly those leading media channels like publishing and audio. Matt Bourn is the communications director at the Advertising Association. James Best is chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Credos, the Advertising Association’s think tank. On February 3rd, the duo are releasing a new book, published by Kogan Page, titled Trusted Advertising – How to harness the value of trust in your brand. Bourn and Best joined The Media Leader to discuss takeaways the book, whether advertisers are sufficiently valuing trusted media channels, and what they can do to better build trust in their brands. Highlights: 7:37: How the dynamics of trust have changed in the 21st century 15:27: Understanding the public's trust in the advertising industry and trust in individual ads 22:40: The business case for trust 28:18: The tricky phenomenon of trust in influencers 34:01: The AI issue: More slop, but also more monitoring 36:56: What makes a trusted advertising campaign? Media choice, creative, measuring trust as a KPI Related articles: Tr… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787/episodes/how-to-harness-the-value-of-trust-with-matt-bourn-and-james-best/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-media-leader-podcast-5773787/how-to-harness-the-value-of-trust-with-matt-bourn-and-james-best.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.