The RepTrak Company

Let's talk reputation 🎙️ In a year defined by economic pressure, political tension, and nonstop AI disruption, reputation has become one of the most powerful (and vulnerable) business assets leaders have. On a recent episode of The Crux of the Story, our Chief Reputation & Strategy Officer Stephen Hahn-Griffiths digs into what reputation really means right now, and why it goes far beyond communications. The conversation explores how shifting stakeholder expectations are changing the rules, what we’re seeing across industries, and why leaders can’t rely on gut instinct alone anymore. Big thanks to The Crux of the Story team for having us! Take a listen where ever you get your podcasts. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/e2dxy-EX

Stakeholders are forming opinions faster than ever, trust is harder to earn, and inconsistency now carries significantly greater reputational risk.   We’ve identified five reputation shifts that will define how organizations build confidence and credibility in 2026. Read this blog to explore what they are, and what they mean for your reputation strategy this year. ⬇️

This is the board-level intelligence that leaders need to steer reputation today 💯 Compass™ is officially live and it redefines what it means to lead with reputation by: → Unifying global data → Capturing behavioral signals → Leveraging AI-powered diagnostics Ultimately, Compass builds on RepTrak’s 20+ years of experience in the industry to provide a 360-degree view of stakeholder perceptions for the C-Suite. As Mark Sonders says, it gives reputation clarity and structure to help leaders act faster and with greater precision. This is just the beginning.

#Cheers4Peers spotlight: Recognizing Oliver Freedman 💚 Today we’re celebrating Oliver Freedman, our Global Impact Award winner. Oliver’s work with our clients reflects a balance of strategic expertise and quiet confidence. Whether presenting globally or locally, he brings clear insights and cross-market experience that elevates RepTrak worldwide. He’s known for reliability, calm leadership, and a truly global mindset, the kind that strengthens teams as much as client relationships. As Rebecca Reott, SHRM-CP, our SVP, Global HR, says, “Oliver brings a level of consistency, integrity, and global perspective that elevates our entire organization. We’re fortunate to see first-hand his leadership and impact across many markets.”

Senior communicators: If your reputation data isn’t board-ready, it’s not doing its job. Today’s uncertainty is changing what leadership expects from communicators and reputation teams. Reputation must be managed with the same rigor as finance or operations. RepTrak not only makes that possible, we make it easy. As Thierry D'Hers, a member of RepTrak’s Board of Directors and veteran technology executive and advisor, shared in our recent webinar: board readiness starts with data integrity, not dashboards or visuals. At the executive level, reputation intelligence must be: 1️⃣ Reliable: acquired and processed consistently 2️⃣ Repeatable and auditable: defensible under scrutiny 3️⃣ Comparable across regions and stakeholders 4️⃣ Enriched with context: linking perception to events, trends, and outcomes This is exactly what we built with Compass™. It enables senior communicators to connect reputation metrics to KPIs and deliver insights at the speed today’s decisions require. This is the year you’ll be able to explain what happened, why it happened, and what to do next.

This week, RepTrak was proud to celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the 20-year work anniversary of Marcus Dias, our Chief Advisory Officer. 🎉 Marcus has been present for every chapter of the RepTrak journey — through growth, change, challenges, and success. His commitment, leadership, and belief in our mission have shaped who we are today and continue to influence how we show up for our clients and each other. Marcus, thank you for your dedication, your leadership, and for believing so deeply in the power of what we do here. We’re grateful for everything you’ve given to RepTrak, and excited for what’s still ahead. Here’s to 20 incredible years 👏 2️⃣ 0️⃣

Reputation has always been shaped by what stakeholders feel, think, and do. What’s changing in 2026 is how those perceptions are formed.   This blog explores why AI must be incorporated into your 2026 reputation strategy — not as a replacement for human insight, but as a critical new influence to be understood and managed.

Leaders need clarity, speed, and data they can trust 🤝 In 2025, RepTrak redefined how reputation intelligence is accessed, understood, and acted on with the official launch of Compass™. Not to brag, but we released a lot of exciting stuff in 2025. Over the next weeks, we’ll share an overview of all things Compass and how it’s helping organizations like yours lead with confidence. Highlight of the week: a simplified platform experience Nobody wants complex reputation data that takes months to decode. Compass launched with a modern dashboard experience to simplify reputation data and make insight discovery faster and more intuitive. In a fast-paced world (as LLMs would say), speed is important but so is clarity. This is what our navigation is about. We focused on a platform that offers multi-country, benchmark, and stakeholder views in one connected experience. With purpose-built dashboards for key focus areas, you have the flexibility to create custom ones by role, region, or objective. Who else is doing that?

When stakeholders use AI to learn about your company, how do you look in the results? In our AI as a Stakeholder™ webinar, RepTrak’s Chief Client Officer, Bradley Hecht, focused on a shift communications leaders can’t ignore. Stakeholders are already using AI to learn about companies. It’s crucial to know what they find out about your brand. How do you compare to competitors? And how do AI’s perceptions align, or clash, with what real stakeholders think and feel? As Brad shared, if AI platforms describe you more positively than other stakeholders do, the comms team needs to figure out how to maximise access to those platforms to learn about your organisation. If the perception is worse, you need to know how and where you’re being presented so you can resolve it. You can’t fix, and you can’t manage, what you don’t measure. That’s why, at RepTrak, we released AI as a Stakeholder, measuring how AI platforms perceive your company to help you act with clarity, not guesswork.

#Cheers4Peers spotlight: Celebrating Nadine Kleeven 💚 Today’s Cheers 4 Peers spotlight celebrates Nadine Kleeven, whose work earned her the Trusted Partner Award. Nadine exemplifies what strong client relationships look like in practice. She is known for her ability to turn insights into impact through preparation, perspective, and impact. She’s the person clients rely on, and the colleague teams trust to deliver excellence. Rebecca Reott, SHRM-CP couldn’t have said it better: “Nadine is all about clarity and collaboration. She builds trust not just through outcomes, but through the way she shows up, showing in practice what RepTrak is all about.”