What 30 years in PR taught us about trust, nuance and noise

When Forster was founded in 1996, it was with a clear purpose: to use the power of communications to protect and improve lives.

Thirty years on, with more evidence at our disposal, and a vastly different media, social and commercial infrastructure around us, the need for a progressive agency model feels more urgent than ever.

Across ever more complex social and environmental challenges, three questions continue to guide how we work and why it matters.

Encouraging action, not just awareness

In 1996, PR was largely about awareness. Advertising Value Equivalent was king, and the assumption was simple: give people the right information, and good decisions would follow.

We now know that’s not enough. Decades of behavioural science show that decisions are shaped by emotion, context and inequality, not just facts. People operate in crowded, often contradictory environments, and one-size-fits-all messaging rarely drives sustained change.

This shift in thinking began decades ago. In the early 2000s, we moved beyond traditional media relations to promoting flu immunisation through trusted community spaces like bingo halls, and helped integrate a breastfeeding storyline into BBC’s EastEnders to help normalise the behaviour in everyday life.

Our original Think-Act-Change model reflected this evolution, moving communications from being noticed to being useful. Today, that approach has developed into a more sophisticated audience engagement journey, focused on outcomes and impact at individual, organisational and societal levels.

With digital tools now offering far more insight into behaviour, success can no longer be measured by column inches alone. The defining question is: what do we want people to do as a result of receiving this communication?

From broadcast to shared platforms

In the mid-1990s, communications were largely one-way. Authority figures spoke, audiences listened.

Trust no longer comes with a title – it needs to be earned. People expect honesty, transparency and relevance, and they are quick to disengage from communications that feel overly certain, detached or one-sided.

In response, there has been a shift towards combining research-driven expertise with lived experience. Rather than organisations speaking on behalf of individuals, there is growing emphasis on elevating people’s own voices through shared platforms.

This shift is delivering stronger engagement and better outcomes, but it also brings responsibility. As more individuals share their experiences, particularly those who are marginalised or have faced trauma, safeguarding and support must be built in from the outset. The question of who ultimately benefits from storytelling is key to ensuring it is empowering rather than extractive.

Enabling nuance in an always-on world

Perhaps the most visible change between 1996 and 2026 is the transformation of the channels we use.

Where print and broadcast once dominated, we now operate in a continuous, platform-driven ecosystem. Information moves faster, attention is fragmented, and content is shaped by commercial pressures such as clicks, subscriptions and algorithms.

At the same time, influence has become decentralised. Individuals, creators and community leaders can now shape opinion and behaviour at scale, often with greater reach and trust than institutions. This creates huge opportunities for mobilisation and learning, but also accelerates misinformation, polarisation and fatigue.

For organisations working on complex social and environmental issues, this raises a consistent focus on adding light, not heat. It can mean silence rather than amplification and steadiness rather than speed. The question of how we communicate responsibly is needed more than ever in environments that reward immediacy over nuance.

In response, we are seeing renewed value in approaches that create space for deeper engagement: long-form content, face-to-face experiences and curated discussions. After a hiatus, we’ve returned to tactics like immersive site visits and closed forums – formats that allow for dialogue, reflection and understanding.

In this context, how we communicate is just as important as what we say.

The enduring essence

Thirty years on, the tools and channels of communications have changed beyond recognition. Media relations are no longer the centre of gravity; they are one part of a much broader ecosystem.

Yet the core principle remains the same. Effective communications are rooted in understanding people’s realities, respecting their choices and enabling meaningful action. It’s about choosing impact over noise, trust over tactics, and long-term change over short-term attention.

That belief remains at the heart of our work and will continue to guide us for the next 30 years.