At our final Oystercatchers Club of the year, we brought together three leaders who operate in environments where trust is not abstract, but essential:
Jane Callingham (BBC), Stuart Maister (Choose Trust), and Avi Wolfson (Cytiva).
Across media, life sciences and strategic communications, the conversation reinforced a truth we see every day as an intermediary: trust has become one of the most powerful drivers of growth, creativity and organisational performance.
Not as a slogan, but as something operational, behavioural and measurable.
Below are five themes that stood out from the discussion.
1. Trust Drives Growth in Multiple Directions
The discussion opened with a reminder that trust is fundamental to how people choose – whether they are customers, partners or audiences. It shapes who brands buy from, who agencies invest in, and which organisations audiences feel loyal to.
While trust clearly influences commercial performance, the panel showed it runs deeper:
• in life sciences, trust in supply chains can affect patient outcomes
• in broadcasting, trust determines whether audiences return
• in agency ecosystems, trust influences the quality of collaboration
Growth today is not just financial – it is cultural, operational and reputational. Trust sits underneath all of it.
2. Trust Has to Be Designed, Not Assumed
A consistent theme across all three speakers was intentionality.
High-performing partnerships and internal teams don’t “naturally” trust each other; they become trusted through clarity of expectations, aligned behaviours and honest communication.
The strongest relationships are built deliberately – not through charisma in a pitch process or warm intentions at the start, but through continuously defined ways of working.
This mirrors what we see across Oystercatchers’ pitch and consultancy work:
when clarity is high, trust accelerates; when clarity is low, trust leaks.
3. Trust Is Reciprocal – Trusted Suppliers Need Trusted Buyers
While the industry often talks about “trusted agencies”, the panel made clear that trust is a two-way exchange.
Brands have as much responsibility to create trust as agencies do.
Consistency, transparency, accountability and behavioural alignment matter on both sides.
We see this pattern constantly in pitches:
When clients behave as trusted buyers – clear briefs, fair processes, transparency on expectations – agencies deliver sharper work and stronger thinking.
When they don’t, trust erodes before the work even begins.
Modern marketing effectiveness relies on mutual trust, not just compliant delivery.
4. Trust Is Behavioural – It’s Built in How Organisations Show Up
Jane brought a grounded perspective on trust during turbulent periods. What stood out was not theory, but behaviour: being visible internally, owning mistakes, managing pace in a crisis, and remembering that trust is rebuilt day-by-day through presence and integrity.Trust rarely collapses from one moment; it usually erodes through patterns of avoidance or inconsistency.
Equally, it grows through small, repeated actions – clarity with teams, honest communication, fairness in decisions and accountability when things are difficult.
This theme resonated strongly with the room: trust is earned through behaviour long before it is recognised in metrics.
5. In an Age of AI, Trust Is What Makes Brands Distinct
While AI came up throughout the conversation, it was framed not as a threat but as a test.
AI brings speed and efficiency – but it also raises the risk of sameness, superficiality and distance.
What emerged was a shared caution:
If organisations chase efficiency without clarity on what makes them unique, they risk automating away the very qualities that create trust – judgement, empathy, representation, human understanding.
From Avi’s world of high-stakes science to Jane’s world of public broadcasting, the message was consistent:
technology can support trust, but it cannot replace the human behaviour that earns it.
Our Perspective
From our position at the centre of client–agency ecosystems, trust is the thread connecting every successful partnership we see.
It speeds up decision-making. It drives better work. It shapes culture. It keeps teams together during uncertainty. And it sets the conditions for creativity, innovation and high performance.
As expectations continue to rise – from consumers, boards, regulators and markets – trust is becoming a strategic advantage for organisations who treat it with intention.
A huge thank you to our speakers and to everyone who joined us.
A brilliant, honest and timely discussion to round off the year.