---
title: "Who Owns the Audience? Rebuilding Trust in a Platform-Controlled World"
description: "In the digital world, platforms own the pipes, but trust owns the relationship. The question of who really owns the audience has become urgent as brands work inside ecosystems where algorithms decide who sees what and audiences gather inside walled gardens."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Sponsored Content"
author: "Ornico"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/ornico/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-10-27-who-owns-the-audience-rebuilding-trust-in-a-platform-controlled-world/"
published: "2025-10-27T08:59:54"
updated: "2025-10-27T08:59:55"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 302
---

# Who Owns the Audience? Rebuilding Trust in a Platform-Controlled World

> In the digital world, platforms own the pipes, but trust owns the relationship. The question of who really owns the audience has become urgent as brands work inside ecosystems where algorithms decide who sees what and audiences gather inside walled gardens.

By Ornico · Published 27 October 2025, 10:59 SAST · Updated 27 October 2025, 10:59 SAST

## Key points
- In a world where brands are increasingly shackled to the whims of social media algorithms, it's high time they ditch the rented reach and start building authentic connections that actually pay off—because visibility may be fleeting, but trust is forever.
- Brands are increasingly reliant on platform-controlled spaces, with 47% of brand strategies now focused on TikTok.
- A significant shift from community building to "rented attention" risks eroding trust among audiences.
- While 79% of PR teams measure outputs, only 47% focus on outcomes, highlighting a need for better metrics beyond visibility.
- To reclaim audience ownership, brands must prioritize trust and engagement over visibility, using platforms to drive traffic to their own spaces.

## Content

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*