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Data from Ornico’s Social Media Landscape Report and PR Measurement Report paints a clear picture. Brands are optimising for platforms they don’t control. A quarter of marketers say algorithm changes are one of their biggest challenges. Nearly half of audiences spend their time in platform-controlled spaces. The balance of power has shifted. TikTok now plays a role in 47% of brand strategies, while influencer marketing has dropped from 39% to 29%.
It’s a quiet but risky dependency. We’ve gone from building communities around our own channels to renting attention on someone else’s. And rented attention doesn’t build trust.
The PR Measurement Report shows this too. Around 79% of South African PR teams still measure outputs, while only 47% measure outcomes. Visibility keeps winning over impact. Yet there’s progress. The decline of AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalent), now below 50%, opens space for better metrics. Sentiment, message uptake, and behaviour change are becoming more important as signs of real influence.
If brands want to reclaim audience ownership, they need to shift from rented reach to owned trust. Platforms should help you attract people, not hold them hostage. With almost half of audiences already active in online communities, there’s room to build your own spaces and collect first-party data that strengthens the relationship.
A few things help:
- Use platforms to spark interest, then guide people into spaces you own.
- Make trust measurable by tracking sentiment, message recall, and action.
- Replace AVEs with richer, outcome-based reporting, using frameworks like AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework.
Platforms might control the distribution, but they don’t control the promises your brand makes. The more you design for trust and prove results, the more you own the relationship. It’s time to stop chasing visibility and start earning loyalty, one audience at a time. DM
Author: Oresti Patricios, CEO of the Ornico Group