THE CHALLENGE

In a complex retail environment marked by evolving consumer expectations and fluctuating market dynamics, a global retailer needed a robust, standardized framework to isolate the incremental impact of communications on two strategic priorities: building trust and driving sales. The team needed to establish a credible, data-backed link to business outcomes, identify which messages most effectively build trust, and move beyond reach and engagement metrics to justify investment and guide strategy.

THE STRATEGY

We built a bespoke measurement framework to quantify how communications influenced trust and how those changes translated into sales.

The approach combined proprietary trust expertise with advanced analytics and behavioral science to measure how media and messaging influenced both perception and revenue.

At its core, a custom econometric model isolated the impact of earned and owned communications on trust, then directly linked shifts in trust to sales performance. This showed exactly how communications activity translated into commercial impact and identified what drove results and why.

Unlike traditional models, the framework was purpose-built to evaluate earned and owned channels, enabling robust measurement of areas typically difficult to quantify. By quantifying how changes in trust drove sales, the model positioned trust as a measurable, accountable KPI tied directly to business performance.

THE OUTCOME

The work established a clear, quantified link between communications, trust, and revenue and proved that trust directly drives sales. Earned media drove €180M in incremental sales impact in FY25, representing a 50% increase year over year. Global trust increased by 0.9 percentage points, with measurable contribution from both earned and owned communications.

The framework enabled more precise investment decisions by identifying which messages, channels, and narratives drive the greatest impact. Predictive signals enabled earlier identification of risk, strengthening decision-making and protecting business performance. By linking trust directly to commercial outcomes, communications was established as a measurable growth driver and a core lever for business performance.