This time of the year is research report season in the PR profession and several pieces of IP have been, or are being, released in the buildup to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Edelman will, as usual, debut its latest Trust Barometer report in the snowy slopes of the Swiss Alps, and other entities are getting their thought leadership out there, including the Reputation Risk Advisory Council and Global Situation Room.
One other eye-catching piece of research is Burson’s latest Global Reputation Economy report, in which the agency contends it can measure the precise financial impact of corporate reputation. WPP’s main remaining PR firm extrapolates that supposition to position reputation as a leading indicator of overall business performance, something CEOs, C-suites and the street have been demanding for generations.
Burson worked with its Reputation Capital technology validated by the University of Oxford’s Augmented Intelligence Labs on an analysis of 60 publicly traded companies in the U.S. and abroad between October 2024 and October 2025 to come up with a formula that indicates reputation delivered 4.78% in added annual shareholder returns.
The agency says that, if this value were added to every publicly traded company in the world, the global value of the Reputation Economy would exceed $7 trillion. This is based on a global market cap of the world’s publicly traded companies of $148 trillion as of the end of 2025.
Craig Buchholz, U.S. CEO of Burson, appeared on CNBC Wednesday talking about the study, something I’ve long called for the PR profession to be more active in doing. The story caught the broadcaster’s eye because of the headline $7 trillion figure, and the fact that it was claiming to move what has traditionally been an intangible asset into a quantifiable one
Burson was not forthcoming in identifying the specific publicly traded companies it surveyed, but it was interesting to see that the top performer in the reputation stakes was in the relatively unfashionable world of agriculture. In addition, the data showed the embattled energy sector was also showing signs of a strategic comeback through a smart reputational approach — though the industry is currently being tested by events in Venezuela.
Employee engagement was a reputation factor that particularly stood out, something that wouldn’t have surprised Burson global CEO Corey duBrowa, who spent up to 60% of his time on internal communications when he was head of comms at Google. The report says what it describes as “the ‘quiet’ workplace lever” will likely become “the most explosive driver of reputation value, or destruction, for years to come.”
This is especially the case in terms of AI people strategy, says duBrowa. “How do you bring them along on the journey,” he explains. “Upskilling and AI should be part of the workplace lever.”
He and his agency have also utilized the reputation data in existing and new client meetings and it led to some new-business wins in Q3 and Q4 last year. He notes that the martech sector has always been measured by hard metrics such as sales and growth and that having similar tools to sell the PR proposition gives Burson skin in the game. “Trust gets you in the room, reputation builds conversations and relationships,” he adds.
There are certainly many more questions to be asked about the data, methodology and actions that flow from the report findings. But anything that can help demonstrate the value of the PR and corporate affairs functions — especially in attributing hard financial numbers to the impact — should be encouraged.
