Corporate Reputation: The New Rules of Reputation Strategy

#WPRD26: Corporate reputation is statecraft now 

By Bradly Howland, CEO, Alkemi Collective

 

In April, Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau responded to the threat of a 25% United States tariff on South African auto exports with something notably absent from the modern communications playbook: he asked for a meeting. It was not a statement, campaign or rebuttal thread. Just a request to get South African and American officials into the same room before either side tried to win the argument in public. 

It is a small detail, easy to miss amid louder tariff news. But it is also, in miniature, the whole argument of this piece: that corporate reputation now behaves like statecraft, and that most of the profession is still equipped for something else. 

 

Corporate reputation now behaves like statecraft

The rest of the year has borne this out in real time.  

The US Supreme Court struck down the 30% tariff on South African goods in February 2025. Within a day, a separate authority imposed a 10% baseline tariff. The African Growth and Opportunity Act was renewed for a single year rather than the multi-year term South Africa had wanted. Washington has since imposed a new 12.5% tariff following a forced-labour enforcement finding that Pretoria disputes, and government is now weighing retaliatory duties of its own.  

None of this has been resolved through messaging. It has been resolved, when it has been resolved at all, through negotiation, leverage and the careful management of a difficult relationship that nobody expects to become friendly, only survivable. 

 

Why traditional PR strategy is struggling

Most public relations practice was not built for difficult relationships. It emerged in a media landscape with a stable, largely trusted gatekeeper in the middle and an audience that was broadly willing to listen once reached. Say it well enough, often enough, to enough people, and belief would follow.  

That assumption is the quiet foundation under most of what the profession calls strategy: messaging architecture, share of voice, campaign reach. Public affairs and crisis specialists will rightly object that their corners of the profession have always known this. The objection rather proves the point: they remain corners. 

The assumption no longer holds and there are numbers behind that claim. 

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer found that seven in ten people globally are now unwilling or hesitant to trust someone who holds different values, comes from a different background, or draws on different sources of information. Trade wars rank among the events that have done the most damage to trust over the past five years, behind only inflation, misinformation and the pandemic. 

The institutions people are walking away from are precisely the ones PR has traditionally used to reach them: trust in national government leaders and in foreign business leaders has fallen sharply, while trust in neighbours, colleagues and immediate circles has risen. People are not becoming harder to reach. They are becoming harder to reach at a distance, through institutions, by people who do not already have standing with them. 

Diplomacy never assumed a captive, well-disposed audience. It assumes the opposite… an audience that may be indifferent or actively opposed, and that requires years of relationship-building rather than persuasion in a single cycle. Three of its habits translate directly and are worth stealing outright. 

 

Three lessons PR can take from diplomacy

First comes deterrence over persuasion. Sometimes the goal is not to convince anyone of anything. Instead, the goal is to make an action too costly to take against you. A strong reputation can do more than create goodwill. It can raise the cost for anyone considering action against you. That is close to how AGOA now operates for South Africa. Both sides maintain the relationship because they understand the cost of losing it.  

The corporate version is unglamorous: the company no campaigner or short-seller bothers to target, because its record is documented, dull and already priced in.  

Next comes alliance-building over stakeholder mapping. A stakeholder map is a snapshot, drawn up and activated when a crisis lands. An alliance is mutual and maintained whether or not you currently need it.  

China's response to American tariff pressure is instructive. Rather than relying mainly on retaliatory tariffs, it has deepened trade relationships with emerging markets. It has also used its position in critical minerals as leverage.  

The leverage is structural and no company can replicate it; the behaviour, building reciprocity before it is needed, is available to anyone. That is alliance-building deployed as strategy by an actor with every reason to simply posture in public instead.

Finally, there is calculated ambiguity rather than the pressure to always have a statement ready.

Minister Tau's own language through the AGOA saga has been notably careful: welcoming the renewal while pointedly flagging its short duration, a diplomatic parenthesis rather than a declaration. PR culture treats silence, or qualified language, as a failure of communications. Diplomats know it is sometimes the only accurate way to describe an unresolved position. 

 

Why This Matters for Africa

This matters more in Africa than the trade press coverage suggests, and not only because of goodwill.  

AGOA-linked exports from the continent fell 32% in the year to November 2025, with South African auto exports alone down almost 75%. Local automakers still posted a record overall export year by finding buyers beyond the US. That does not rebut the point. It shows the second habit above, alliance-building, executed under duress.  

That is not an abstract trust deficit. It affects jobs and GDP. Both move with how the diplomatic relationship is managed. The underlying trust environment is not the one most PR training assumes. In last year's barometer, South African trust in business sat at a relatively strong 68%, while trust in media sat far lower, at 46%. PR has traditionally used the intermediary to reach audiences, but that intermediary is not the trusted party here.

 

Reputation strategy belongs at the top table

None of this means communications teams should become junior diplomats. It argues for something more specific: that reputation strategy belongs in the room with legal and government affairs, with the same seniority and the same access, and that the professionals doing it need to be trained to read power and leverage, not only narrative and tone. 

The organisations that adapt fastest to this will not be the ones still perfecting their messaging. They will be the ones that learned, the way government has been forced to learn this year, that some relationships are never won. They are only managed, continuously, for as long as they matter. 

 

Howland is the CEO of Alkemi Collective, and is the immediate past President of PRISA. 

G20 Lessons for Marketing, Media and Reputation Leadership

By Bradly Howland 

CEO: Alkemi Collective 

 

South Africa’s hosting of the G20 Summit in 2025 wasn’t just a diplomatic milestone. It was a live, high-stakes demonstration of what strategic communication looks like when the stakes are global, the audience is fragmented, and the entire world is refreshing their news feeds for the next headline. 

 

For those of us working in marketing, media, and professional communications, the summit delivered a masterclass. These G20 marketing lessons are surprisingly transferable to the boardroom, the campaign war room, and the brands we build daily.

 

Below are the five non-negotiable insights that stood out most, not from a political lens, but from a communications leadership perspective. 

 

 

  1. Africa took control of its own narrative: The power of pre-framing.

 

One of the biggest strategic wins of G20 Johannesburg was how intentionally South Africa, as the first African host, shaped the narrative before anyone else could. Analysts and global media often arrive with "pre-loaded assumptions" about Africa, assumptions that, if left unchallenged, become the default story. 

 

South Africa didn’t wait for external validation. It proactively framed the summit around a powerful, values-driven theme: Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability. This was more than a slogan; it was a narrative filter. It ensured every discussion, from debt relief to climate finance and global wealth inequality, was interpreted through the lens of the Global South’s priorities and a distinctly African voice.  

 

Furthermore, the early adoption of the Leaders’ Declaration, a move celebrated by many nations but reportedly opposed by the US, sent an immediate, decisive message about the host's agenda-setting power and multilateral consensus. 

 

Marketing Takeaway: 

 

  1. Integrated communication works: internal & external must align

 

A standout element was how seamlessly domestic communication and global communication were integrated.  

 

The government didn't just speak to foreign media; they spoke to South Africans in communities, on social platforms, and through outreach programmes like the establishment of the Township20 (TS20) engagement group.  

 

The goal was clearly: “Let South Africans understand the G20’s relevance and let the world hear the voices and priorities of all South Africans.” 

 

This deep, concerted effort secured an essential social licence for the event. By the time the summit kicked off, citizens were talking about it with a sense of ownership, not distance or apathy. This internal buy-in became a protective shield, allowing the hosts to focus on the external narrative while maintaining national cohesion. 

 

Marketing Takeaway:

 

  1. The M20 Media Summit elevated information integrity to a global strategic imperative

 

The M20 Media Summit, convened by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), was not a side-show, but a powerful, proactive call to action. African media leaders successfully tabled the Johannesburg Declaration, and its formal handover to President Ramaphosa ahead of the main summit cemented its standing as a major agenda point. 

 

The M20 Declaration fundamentally framed Information Integrity as essential to democracy, development, and the achievement of the G20’s goals. 

 

Key planks of this declaration were: 

 

Marketing & Media Takeaway: 

 

  1. Complex crises can be turned into reputation wins

 

The summit wasn’t without dramatic tensions: the glaring absence of a major G20 leader (the US), geopolitical conflicts dominating headlines, and relentless online noise were real threats to the host's success. Yet, South Africa's communication response was a study in narrative discipline. 

 

Instead of reacting defensively to the US boycott or allowing the absence to derail the talks, the hosts calmly reframed the story. The narrative became: "Multilateralism still works, with or without certain powers." The early adoption of the Declaration in the face of opposition reinforced a confident stance, allowing objective progress, the focus on the Global South agenda, climate finance, and debt relief, to replace political theatre as the main story. This pivot turned a potential crisis into a proof point for the strength of the collective and the host's strategic resolve. 

 

Marketing Takeaway: 

 

  1. The world responds to consistency and professional rigour

 

Perhaps the most important lesson for our industry is that the success was not accidental. South Africa didn’t improvise its way to a strong outcome. Every element, from the core messaging, the high standard of the media centre experience, the social sentiment tracking, the community dialogue, and the aligned leadership narratives, was part of a coordinated, professional effort. 

 

That consistency is why the payoff was so big: renewed international respect, stronger national pride, better-informed global audiences, and global recognition for Africa’s communication maturity. The seamlessness of the operation, widely lauded by the media, reinforced the credibility of the entire agenda. 

 

Marketing Takeaway: 

 

The formula for building value remains the same, whether you're running a global summit or launching a new consumer brand: 

 

The bottom line? 

 

The G20 was a potent reminder that communication is not window dressing; it is a strategic asset and a source of competitive advantage. It also confirmed that Africa is not a passive participant in global storytelling; we are increasingly a co-author of the global narrative. This requires communicators who can work with cultural intelligence, data, creativity, and professional discipline. 

 

As we continue our work of raising professional standards, strengthening narrative leadership, and championing ethical communication, the G20 stands as proof that South Africa can communicate at a world-class level, with world-shaping impact. Our industry should take that momentum seriously and build on it loudly, proudly, and intentionally. The world is clearly still listening, and we have the capacity to lead the narrative.