What a corrugated cardboard campaign taught me about the future of communications.
Yesterday, the Recycled for Real campaign we developed together with FEFCO – European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers received an Honourable Mention at the Best in Brussels Awards. Congratulations to everyone involved, and especially to Mark Dober and the team for once again bringing together Brussels’ communications community.
The recognition was rewarding, but what I found even more interesting was what this campaign represents. A few weeks ago, while presenting it at the FEFCO Summit in Madrid, one question kept coming back: Why would a European industry association work with an influencer? It is a fair question, and one that says a lot about how communications is evolving.
The campaign itself was built around a simple fact. Corrugated cardboard achieves a recycling rate of over 90% in Europe, supported by independent, peer-reviewed research. The evidence already existed. Our challenge was not to prove the claim, but to make people care about it. We wanted to move from saying something is true to showing it with transparent, credible evidence.
That challenge reflects a much broader transformation. For years, communications was largely about producing more content. Today, that is no longer enough. AI has made content almost infinite. Every organisation can publish reports, articles, videos and social media posts faster than ever before. In that environment, attention becomes scarce, and trust becomes even scarcer.
That was the thinking behind the strategy we developed with FEFCO. Rather than relying exclusively on corporate channels, we recommended collaborating with Harald Friedl, whose work on the circular economy has earned him the trust of a highly relevant community. Not because creators replace expertise, but because trusted voices can help expertise travel further. The facts were already strong. Harald’s role was not to replace them, but to translate them into stories that could reach audiences who might never attend an industry conference or read a technical report.
This is why I believe the discussion should not really be about influencers. It should be about influence. More specifically, it should be about credibility. People increasingly trust individuals who have spent years building expertise, consistency and communities around a topic. They don’t replace evidence. They amplify it.
Events remain incredibly valuable because they create conversations, relationships and momentum. However, only a fraction of the people an organisation ultimately wants to influence are actually in the room. The conversation should not end when the conference finishes. It should continue through trusted voices that already have the attention of the communities organisations are trying to reach.
At ZN Consulting, this is not a new conversation. Almost ten years ago, when many organisations still viewed social media as something that simply accompanied communications, we launched the #EUinfluencer Ranking. The objective was never to identify who had the biggest audience. It was to understand how influence actually works inside the Brussels bubble, who shapes conversations, why some ideas travel further than others, and why some voices build trust while others simply generate impressions.
Over the last decade we have watched that evolution happen in real time. Today, institutions, associations and companies increasingly recognise that influence is no longer built exclusively through organisational channels. It also flows through trusted individuals who have earned credibility within their communities. Looking back, the FEFCO campaign, Harald’s collaboration and yesterday’s recognition all feel like part of the same story.
In a world where AI can generate almost unlimited content, facts still matter and evidence still matters. But trusted voices are increasingly becoming the bridge between the two and the people organisations want to reach.
This September we will celebrate the 10th edition of the #EUinfluencer Ranking, looking back at a decade of how influence has evolved in Brussels while asking what comes next.
If these questions resonate with you, I’d love for you to join the conversation. Pre-registration for the 2026 edition is already open, and I think this anniversary will be the perfect opportunity to reflect on where influence is heading in an AI-driven world, together with many of the people shaping that future today.
I suspect we are only at the beginning.
How is your organisation adapting to this shift? Are you still relying mainly on your own channels, or are you also thinking about the people your audiences already trust?
This article was originally posted by Jesús Azogue on Linkedin
