Those were the words of Baroness Deborah Mattinson, president of MRS, former director of strategy to Keir Starmer and co-founder of Opinion Leader Research & BritainThinks, who said that the "breakdown in trust more significant than ever".

“[Any corporate or political] organisation that you might rely on in some way – you used to trust them much more than you do now.

“Technology has turbo-charged, everything. So, people are really very, very fearful of the future.”

Mattinson was speaking in a plenary keynote session that examined how – with society splintering and culture dividing across the globe – brands, agencies and politicians should ideally communicate with consumers.

She was joined on stage by Kelly Beaver, chief executive, Ipsos UK & Ireland; Eliot Higgins, founder of BellingCat; and Elaine Rodrigo, chief insights and analytics officer at Reckitt.

Beaver, who’d delivered the previous keynote, noted that the most “important message for anybody – whether they’re in public policy, etc – is to bring context to the decisions that you're making”.

This, she added, would mean practitioners can “truly understand the population that you're serving, who you're selling to in a more nuanced way than you may have done in the past”.

Mattinson pointed out that for research professionals, it should not be “about seeing the trend, it’s about understanding why the trend is happening”.

Mattinson said: “In summary, we need to have a clear, single-minded focus on the voters, customers, the consumers committed to you. Really figure out who you need to target, show your motivation, make that emotional connection, really build your relationship with them. Find them where they are, now where you hope they are for you.

“Shape your offer around what matters the most to them, and tell them what you won't do as well.”

For Rodrigo, the challenge faced by brands is twofold. “How do we, number one, bring evidence and empathy into the boardroom?" she posed "And, the second thing is how do we use technology and data to enable us to do as well?”

Higgins said BellingCat works with a lot of communities that don’t “trust us”.

“They don't trust institutions, they produce their own evidence, and it’s a pattern we've seen time and time again," he said. “What is that trust actually based on in the first place?"

Higgins boiled it down to three ideas that form the core of a healthy democracy: verification, deliberation and accountability. "How do you know what’s true, how do you debate what’s true, and then how do you take action in terms of accountability?”

‘We can't return to the 20th century system. Turn off social media and everything will go back to being fine. It’s just not realistic. So, what are the options we then have to adapt in this environment?

Higgins warned that what happened in America could happen in the rest of the world without radical solutions about how educated people are.