After the Cannes Festival ended a few weeks back, I read an interesting interview with Richard Edelman about trust. Below are just a few questions slightly edited for clarity that I think you’ll find enlightening. The interview was conducted by Jeanine Poggi, AdAge Editor-in-Chief.

Trust is a recurring theme at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year, and Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman, thinks the challenge runs deeper than declining trust in institutions or the rise of AI-generated content.

Consumers are becoming more insular, relying on smaller networks and trusted voices to make sense of the world around them, Edelman argued during a conversation with Ad Age. The impact for marketers, he said, is a shift from “we” to “me”—from broad messages designed to reach everyone to more personal connections that make consumers feel seen, understood and represented. That shift has major implications for how brands communicate, who they partner with and what it takes to break through.

Edelman, who has led the agency since 1996, shared his views on why creators are becoming more influential than celebrities, what marketers are getting wrong about audience connection and why he believes brands need to stop talking at consumers and start meeting them where they are.

Jeanine Poggi: How do you build trust today?

Richard Edelman: The first is, we have to do information from the bottom up. Bottom up means we have to talk to friends and family, we have to talk to people like pastors, pharmacists. It can’t be top down. That’s change No. 1.

Change No. 2 is brands have to do something, they can’t just say something. So if you want to be successful, you need to be in action mode. Some of it can be fun action but you can’t just get attention. You can’t just be living in culture.

Third is, and that’s why I think our research at Cannes is important, we have to recognize that people are in a very insular mindset, that their groups have become very small. And that if you’re insular, if I see you selling to people who are different than me, I’m going to reject your marketing. So I’m gonna say you’re not for me.

Poggi: So then how do brands build broad appeal when consumers are becoming more insular?

Edelman: We have to stop having campaigns that are about we and be about me.

How do I benefit you? I benefit you because I see you, I’m helping you, I’m making you feel better, I’m giving you a chance to talk back to me.

I think, for example, science needs to have a new deal with society. Science was always just accepted—we have a polio vaccine. Now it’s well, were the clinical trials biased? People are asking different questions. And so we have to take information down to a level. It has to be not only in local market, but even the micro market.

Poggi: Are brands putting too much emphasis on celebrity influencers?

Edelman: They should be looking to creators. They should be looking to people who have feet on the street. We want trusted creators. We want people who speak with authority to smaller audiences, because it’s more credible.

I saw this at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas when two-thirds of the people who were at the Samsung launch of the fold phone were creators.

That’s the job for PR, is to find them, speak with them, involve them with the clients and have 50 of them go to Korea and be part of the process of developing a foldable phone. And then they’re on the journey.

Poggi: What’s the biggest shift marketers need to understand right now?

Edelman: I want people on the brand side to understand that the glass mirror is shattered on the ground. And that we’re lots of little shards and we have to talk to the shards and we have to talk to people in the way that they want to speak. And that’s with ordinary folks who have experience with the product and who are therefore believable.

Poggi: What do you think CMOs are getting wrong?

Edelman: I think they have to play offense. I think they can’t play defense. I think they can’t hide. I thought the Super Bowl stuff, a lot of it, was not penetrating to me because it was not memorable.

I think what’s going to stand out is brands that really inform me and value me as a voice, and they do it in part by letting go of their power.

Why are e-commerce brands succeeding? They’re succeeding because it’s a person like me. It may be someone a bit more celebrity, but big brands have to disperse their power and can’t feel big. They have to act small.

And I’m nervous that brands go, “I don’t want to be in politics.” Fair enough. I don’t want you to be in politics either.

But I want you to be relevant, and I want you to listen to people—the fears, inflation.

The second is fear of AI. This is crazy: two-thirds of people think they’re going to be sacked because of AI.

And the last and most problematic is: people have no sense of what the truth is. And so they’re withdrawing.

The brand has to find that withdrawn person and say, “come out, let’s talk about what you care about. And here’s something that’s going to make you feel optimistic.”

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog,Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.