The Return of Earned Media: Why Credibility Is the New Currency in 2026
What if the most powerful asset in your PR strategy isn’t what your brand says, but what others say about you? In 2026, earned media isn’t making a comeback. It’s being re-priced. Across Asia, we’re seeing a shift in how people discover, evaluate and decide on brands. As AI reshapes search and recommendation, audiences are no longer persuaded by polish alone. They’re persuaded by proof; what journalists, analysts, creators, customers and independent voices say about a company, not what the company says about itself. Search is no longer a list of links. Platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity behave more like answer engines. They don’t just rank pages. They synthesise authority. Imperfectly, sometimes unpredictably, but consistently enough to favour brands that appear credible across the web, referenced by others and grounded in real-world validation. That quietly changes the role of PR. For brands across Asia, earned media is no longer just about awareness. It now influe...