What The Traitors can teach us about brand trust
As the next season of The Traitors approaches, it’s a perfect moment to reflect on the drama of last season. If you’re late to the party, contestants arrive at a castle and discover whether they’ll be playing as “Faithfuls” or “Traitors”. The role of the Faithfuls is to identify the Traitors among the group and banish them before the end of the game. The Traitors’ aim to stay undetected and avoid banishment. B2B marketing is no party game, but the hit TV show can teach us a thing or two about brand trust, explains Martin Deakin, of technical PR agency Stone Junction.
In The Traitors, zero-sum thinking is forced upon the contestants, where one’s gain is another’s loss. A culture of mistrust sets in throughout the series and more contestants are gradually “murdered” or banished because they are labelled as Traitors. The business world can also be a zero-sum game — but is the answer to go on the offensive like the Traitors?
When facts aren't facts
Throughout the series, the Faithfuls use ‘facts’, observing changes in behaviour and analysing the words people use to build a case that a certain individual is a traitor. In Season 3, one Traitor shaped conversations with small, well-timed comments that sent suspicion in completely the wrong direction. A few players were banished after the group convinced itself that minor details — a quiet moment or a shift in tone — were proof of guilt. The Faithfuls treated those guesses as facts and lost key allies as a result. As The Guardian put it:
The natural impulse to align with kindred spirits risks leading you astray, distorting your perception of other players.
This raises an interesting question about when facts are really facts. For example, many businesses are interweaving corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies into their comms to demonstrate their commitment to ethical and responsible practices, all in the name of brand trust and appeal.
But are these commitments to sustainable, ethical practices genuine? How can we be certain there’s substance behind these initiatives? We’ve all heard the phrase “greenwashing”. Not only is this practice deceptive, but it also diminishes a company’s green brand trust. The Faithfuls got it wrong, and so can big brands.
Remember, you don’t need to claim to be a sustainability leader if you’re not an expert on the matter. Instead, share your journey with customers, the challenges you face and how you’ve progressed. This could be something like fitting solar panels to your roof. This incremental approach is far more genuine, and effective, than launching big company ‘missions’ that include promises you’re unsure you can keep.
Don’t go with the flow
In almost every episode, we saw a roundtable consensus form on who to banish based on sketchy “facts”. Worse, sometimes “facts” were presented that disproved the person the collective was voting for, but once a name was uttered, the group wouldn’t move away from it. In Season 3, this dynamic played out again when a Faithful was pushed out because a single comment snowballed and the room followed the momentum instead of the evidence. Even when doubts surfaced, the group stayed on the same track and banished someone who wasn’t working against them.
There’s an important lesson here. Even if a large brand dominates the conversation, smaller firms shouldn’t be afraid to propose something new — whether it’s a new product, a campaign, or something else. Staying safe and aligning yourself with the status quo won’t necessarily improve brand trust long-term.
Focus on finding your voice. By working with the experts — or technical PR specialists — you can find your company’s tone and start to develop your messaging in a way that brings you closer to your audience. It’s easy to get caught up in the general narrative, but carving out your niche and remaining true to your brand character will take you much further in the game of trust. It can, for instance, feel necessary to take a stance on trending topics like AI, machine learning, and their place in the workplace. But if it doesn’t feel right, don’t jump on the bandwagon because everyone else is talking about it — your audience will know whether or not you’re being authentic.
So, what can brands learn from The Traitors? Quite a lot. It teaches us that not every fact is a fact and that what we see as true can be deceptive. As well as this, it shows the pitfalls of herd mentality, and why it doesn’t always pay to stick with the group. Separate yourself with a killer technical PR campaign and raise your voice at the big wooden table.
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