Watch: 5 Ways to Build a Challenger Brand that Consumers Trust

Raise your hand if you've ever stopped buying from a brand because it lost your trust.

When Marketing Architects CEO Angela Voss asked that question at BRANDWEEK, nearly every hand in the room went up. Roughly 40% of Americans will never go back to a brand once it loses their trust. 80% prefer to buy from brands they trust, and 87% will pay more for one.

Trust is a sales driver. It's also hard to earn, especially for a challenger brand asking people to do something they'd rather avoid.

At BRANDWEEK, Angela sat down with Trust & Will CMO Dale Sperling to break down how the digital estate planning brand used TV and consistency to build trust in one of the most personal categories.

 

 

But Dale calls estate planning an "avoidance category." It means thinking about legacy, family, and mortality, which can be uncomfortable. According to Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report, 73% of people say estate planning is important. Only 26% actually have a will.

Trust sits in the heart of that gap. Most people assume the safest path is sitting across a desk from a local attorney. Or working with a legacy finance brand. But those options can also seem intimidating and time-consuming.

Trust & Will launched in 2017 after CEO Cody Barbo went to get a will before his wedding and found the process complicated, expensive, and intimidating. Today, the company offers a more accessible approach to wills, trusts, and attorney-led plans to hundreds of thousands of families.

Trust & Will simplified estate planning. But they also had to make an online option feel credible and safe. They invested in five strategies to do exactly that.

 

1. TV advertising gives brands legitimacy.

Digital advertising helped Trust & Will capture early demand. But for a high-consideration product, the brand needed mental availability, the kind of brand salience that makes someone think of you first when they're finally ready to buy.

3 out of 4 people say they're more likely to trust a brand they know. TV builds that familiarity at scale.

Kantar research points to where that trust gets built most efficiently. Across every major ad channel, TV ranks as the most trusted, followed by newspaper, magazine, radio, and cinema ads. Online display and mobile game ads land at the bottom of the list.

There's also a halo that comes with national TV. Dale pointed to signaling theory, the idea that consumers read a big, visible investment like a TV campaign as proof a brand is legitimate. It puts a category disruptor in the same room as the most established brands.

 

2. Life triggers make hard topics feel human.

Media targets matter. But Dale said reaching the right people comes down to creative, too.

Trust & Will partnered with Marketing Architects to build TV creative around life moments that already get people thinking about the estate planning category. That could mean getting married, buying a home, becoming a parent, or caring for loved ones. Instead of opening with a scary message, the brand decided to show up when life was already asking some big questions.

 

3. Distinctive creative drives memory.

System1 found US brands lose $189 billion a year to boring, ineffective creative. That's a steep price, and in a category as serious as estate planning, it would've been easy to develop solemn ads that blended in. Instead, The "Make It Count" campaign pairs warmth and humor with enough authority to feel credible.

Importantly, every spot also follows the same format. A family shares a meaningful moment, like asking a sibling to be the kids' guardian. Then spokesperson Eddie Blackwell Williams steps in to point out that the promise "doesn't count" until it's official.

Trust & Will has also added sonic branding to every video and audio asset. Angela noted audio is something TV advertisers tend to underuse because the screen gets all the attention. But a repeatable sound builds memory structures fast.

The campaign has already won multiple creative awards.

 

4. Build reach across linear and Connected TV.

Nielsen data shows TV viewing is split evenly across formats, with streaming at 44.8% and linear at 44.2%. But viewers don't see it as two channels. Nobody says "let's go watch CTV tonight." They just watch their favorite show.

Trust & Will plans TV by looking at total reach, incremental reach, frequency, and efficiency across both forms of TV. Linear delivers broad reach. Connected TV complements it by retargeting or engaging cord cutters that linear can't find.

Today, TV is the number one way people first hear about Trust & Will.

 

5. Consistency compounds.

Marketers get tired of their own creative long before consumers do.

Dale's team resists the urge to change their strategy too soon. Early on, they watched short-term signals like response rates and site traffic to confirm the campaign was moving in the right direction, but the bigger payoff came with time. Trust & Will's most recent brand study showed awareness growth that's helping to make the case for even more bold, creative swings.

Dale was also clear that trust is never fully earned. It takes steady commitment, and the brand has to keep finding ways to feel more personal and relevant to the people it's trying to reach. But as Angela pointed out, fame and trust are within reach for any brand willing to stay consistent.

 

Want to hear more stories like Trust & Will's? Check out our case studies to see how TV advertising has grown brands like yours.