Jacqueline Bosselaar: "Reputation Has Never Been More Valuable, or More Vulnerable"

Jacqueline Bosselaar, founder and CEO of HPB | Het PR Bureau, has been nominated for PR Person of the Year 2026. MarketingReport spoke with her about the evolution of the PR profession, the growing importance of reputation in the age of AI, and the milestones that defined HPB's past year.

Can you introduce HPB | Het PR Bureau?

HPB | Het PR Bureau is an independent PR agency with one clear ambition: to amplify our clients' influence.

We do this by earning attention and building visibility, reputation and influence. Because influence isn't created by shouting the loudest—it is earned when people trust you, listen to you and are willing to act because of you.

For our clients, that ultimately means growth: growth of their brand, organisation and business, but also something more fundamental—the trust, societal legitimacy and public support they need to continue operating. In other words, their licence to operate.

That's why we take an earned-first approach. We believe earned attention is the most powerful form of attention because it is rooted in relevance, credibility and trust. Combining strategic insight, data, creativity and a carefully developed earned media ecosystem, we help organisations build authority, protect reputations, create fans and ambassadors, and successfully launch brands and products.

We've been doing this since 2005 through our proprietary F+A+M+E methodology, a long-term perspective and a team built around responsibility, honesty and kindness. Because exceptional work only happens when people feel trusted, valued and inspired.

What are your responsibilities at HPB?

As founder and CEO, my primary responsibility is to ensure that HPB is not only successful today, but also ready for tomorrow.

Together with my partner and co-CEO Toon van Loock, our leadership team and everyone at HPB, I help define the agency's direction. Where do we want to go? What expertise will our clients need in the years ahead? And how do we continue to improve every single day?

My role combines entrepreneurship, strategy and culture. I want to create an environment where people feel empowered to take ownership and produce outstanding work, while never losing sight of quality and results.

Our core values play an important role in that. Responsibility means we can rely on one another. Honesty means saying what needs to be said, even when it's uncomfortable. And kindness means supporting one another rather than competing internally.

To me, those values aren't the "soft" side of leadership—they're what makes great work possible. I've learned that exceptional work simply doesn't happen without trust, enjoyment and people who genuinely feel good about themselves. That's what we invest in every day.

How do you see the PR profession evolving over the coming years?

I'm incredibly optimistic. I believe we're entering one of the most exciting periods our profession has ever seen. Brands are discovering that visibility alone is no longer enough—what matters is trusted influence. And that's exactly where PR and earned-first thinking create the greatest value.

We're already seeing this shift extend well beyond traditional PR agencies. At this year's Cannes Lions, "Organic" was widely recognised as the next major growth opportunity. Gartner recently predicted that PR budgets could double by 2027, while The Wall Street Journal highlighted the growing strategic influence of Chief Communications Officers in the boardroom.

Reputation has never been more valuable—or more vulnerable.

There are several reasons for that.

First, I believe we're seeing a new media hierarchy emerge, one where earned thinking becomes the starting point. The most successful strategies no longer begin with the question, "What do we want to say?" Instead, they ask, "What would people genuinely find worth talking about?" and "What would we need to do to earn their attention?" That shift creates stronger conversations, deeper trust and ultimately greater business impact.

Second, technology is fundamentally changing how people discover brands. AI is rapidly replacing traditional search, and those AI systems increasingly rely on earned signals such as journalism, expert commentary, reviews and genuine public conversations to generate recommendations. That makes earned media more valuable than ever.

We're also living in what many describe as the Age of Rage, where public criticism emerges quickly and spreads at unprecedented speed. Reputation management can no longer begin when a crisis occurs. Organisations need to identify issues earlier, prepare more effectively and have a much clearer understanding of what they stand for. They also need to know who genuinely supports them and who doesn't. Building meaningful relationships (the "R" in PR) is therefore becoming increasingly important.

At the same time, advertising is becoming less effective. Reaching real people has become more difficult due to fragmented media consumption, the sheer volume of content, the disappearance of third-party cookies and declining trust in advertising.

Finally, in a world increasingly filled with artificial, misleading or inaccurate information, authenticity becomes a genuine competitive advantage. Brands that show the people behind the organisation, acknowledge imperfections, make promises they can keep and actively contribute to society will continue to earn trust. Credibility is becoming one of the most valuable assets a brand can own.

What’s the latest news?

Our latest news is that we recently acquired LDJ Tech PR, which significantly strengthens our profile as a tech specialist—in addition to our existing focus on culture, health, and society. LDJ Tech PR is now known as LDJ, an HPB Company.

While we bring over two decades of B2C and B2B technology experience working for clients such as Snapchat, Huawei, Spotify, Netflix, Xiaomi, KPN, and Amazon, LDJ—Lubbers De Jong is a household name in the PR world—brings nearly four decades of experience in technology, innovation, and complex, specialized B2B communications. In recent years, LDJ has worked for clients including Techleap, the National Growth Fund project NXTGEN Hightech, and venture capitalists in the deep tech sector.

We see that technology companies are fiercely competing for talent, investment, public attention, and trust. That’s why communication is such a strategic growth factor: it helps companies develop markets, build social support, and scale up more quickly. With our proprietary F+A+M+E methodology, we respond to this growing demand from tech companies for greater visibility and relevance, and we aim to position them—and thereby LDJ and ourselves—more strongly in a global market where technology is becoming increasingly decisive and reputation is everything.

This interview was published by Marketing Report in Dutch on Tuesday July 7th, 2026:

https://marketingreport.nl/jacqueline-bosselaar-reputatie-is-belangrijker-kansrijker-en-kwetsbaarder-dan-ooit

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