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    Start your journey with Edelman

    Looking for work that matters? Explore careers at Edelman and join a global team committed to shaping conversations, building trust, and driving change.

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    Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World UAE Edition

      DOWNLOAD REPORT

    Trust + Relevance: A New Equation for Brand Growth in the UAE

    The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World finds that UAE consumers stand apart globally for their openness to people with different values, backgrounds and perspectives. Yet openness does not mean brands automatically connect. Consumers increasingly expect brands to understand who they are, fit into their lives and reflect what matters to them.

    In this environment, trust and relevance work together to create the conditions for growth. Relevance creates fit. Trust creates confidence.

    DOWNLOAD REPORT

    Relevance is Multi-Faceted

    In the UAE, relevance is about more than pop culture. Consumers look for brands that are useful, reflect who they are, foster connection and create emotional resonance.

    Earned voices carry weight in building brand trust

    Among UAE consumers with an insular trust mindset, earned voices have a greater impact on willingness to trust a brand than what the brand says about itself.

    Trust and Relevance Create Permission to Grow

    Globally, consumers are almost 2x more willing to support a brand as it expands to serve new and different audiences when that brand has earned both trust and relevance.

    Discover the Trust insights shaping 2026

    A full look at this year’s findings — and what they mean for businesses, leaders, and society.

    EXPLORE THE FINDINGS

    Brand Playbook for Growth

    1. Integrate trust and relevance into a growth strategy

    Relevance creates fit, but being relevant at scale means you inherently risk alienating some. Pair every relevance move with trust proof, so the brand has permission to stretch without losing confidence.

    2. Use trust as a leading growth indicator

    Do not wait for trust to show up as a reputation issue. Track where trust is creating or constraining premium, loyalty, adoption, advocacy, forgiveness, and permission to stretch across audiences.

    3. Choose the right relevance levers

    Relevance isn’t only culture or fame. Diagnose the growth problem, then activate the right dimension of fit: utility, identity,community, emotion, or pop culture fluency.

    4. Lead with earned, scale with paid

    Start with ideas credible enough for others to validate, translate, share, review, and carry forward. Make those proof points discoverable in LLM-driven search. Use owned and paid to substantiate and amplify what earned makes it believable.

    Explore the findings
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    Methodology: The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World is the firm’s 8th annual Trust and Brands survey. The research was produced by the Edelman Trust Institute and consists of 25-minute online interviews conducted between April 23 and May 11, 2026. Learn More >

    17,688
    Respondents
    15
    Countries
    1,200 +/-
    Respondents/Country
     

    What does this mean for your brand?

    Please reach out to learn more about the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World.