THIS IDEA

Thought Leadership is dead.

It was a victim of its own success.

The term became such an everyday phrase in business and in marketing that it quickly evolved into just another task to pass down the line to the social media manager, the junior account manager, and then the intern.

What was seen as a quality solution that met the need for founders, C-suite and CEOs to express their views and the publishers’ need for valuable content at no cost is rapidly becoming yet another lowest common denominator. I have seen pieces of thought leadership that are obviously the result of a comms manager’s bold AI experiments with Chat GPT or another Large Language Model.

If only a machine has done the ‘thought’ in your marketing content, then no one is leading anyone or anything.

I read a laughably poor op-ed the other day, voiced by a CEO and ghost-written by someone who appeared to have come across grammar just the once, perhaps in passing. It was in a minor general business publication, which had little chance of enhancing the voice and reputation of the said C-suite orator.

There was little thought involved and the CEO would have had more chance of establishing leadership by purchasing cider for teens outside the local off-licence. It was a waste of money for all concerned. If anything, the copy would have decreased any reputation the CEO had established to that point.

I have been working in thought leadership for many years, beginning before it had a name and it’s own bullet point in every weekly meeting agenda. The idea was to sit experienced journalists down with leaders and have them engage in the kind of dialogue that only quality features writers and interviewers can initiate.

The wordsmith could take the CEO or founder’s ideas and translate them for whichever audience they wished to speak with. The writer could draw out opinion, push boundaries, be okay with some pushback and create an engaging narrative that would be read in full, writing in the thought leader’s name to establish them as an important voice.

As the relationship between writer and leader grew, so the ideas and copy flowed, creating more opportunities and growing the reputation of leader and brand across newspapers, online publications, keynote speeches, awards and broadcast media appearances. The subject became more confident, more outspoken (in just the right way) and their reputation increases by a far greater value than their investment would suggest.

It is easy enough to persuade a client that they need to ‘do thought leadership’, as they are aware of the term (as is their marketing or media department), but PRs are often weighing the coverage thought leadership offers, rather than considering the quality of the publication it goes in, the heft of the writing or the readability of the text produced. It has become just more content. Just more KPIs delivered, badly.

The idea of thought leadership was that it could walk a thin line of op-ed and marketing material without ever looking out of place. But poor quality writing, poor quality publications and a ‘wave it through’ approach to editing is killing the usefulness and, importantly, prestige of the form. Initially, it was a great home for good journalists to show off their skills in collaboration with visionaries, C-suite and founders. It was a skill of translation, storytelling and, importantly, imagination. It was never supposed to be a press release in the first person.

There is some hope for the format and the term if we can wrest back control of the quality. But without quality control, actual thought and actual leadership we may be kissing goodbye to an effective and cost-effective form of business communication.

If you would like to explore genuine thought leadership that enhances the value of leaders, thinkers and founders then please do get in touch with me on iain@thisidea.co.uk.

When it comes to thought leadership, there is a simple explanation that I give to all my clients as to what it is. Despite being a buzz phrase that they have all heard of, not all of them come to me knowing what it is.

But my explanation of how to best do it is even more simple. It is this: You need some original thoughts and you need to be a leader, or at least want to be one pretty soon. If you have neither of those things, then it is my job to show you how you can get them and how you can use them to great advantage.

My role as a thought leadership consultant is two-fold. Primarily, it is to use my client’s thoughts and the platforms afforded to them in their leadership role (be that in thought, the C-Suite hierarchy or their industry) to increase their profile, mostly using the media. But the other main part of the role is to make sure that the conditions exist for those media pitches to land. It is pointless to just punt out a CEO for profile pieces, talks or news media slots if they have nothing to say, nothing to promote and nothing on which to hang an op-ed in the national or international press.

In many cases, my approach is to push senior leaders and founders, honing their talents and surfacing new ones. In an increasingly crowded market for opinions it is essential that you have someone on your side that knows that market, how it works and where you place is in it. My clients are usually experts in their field, but the media market rarely wants just expertise, it wants news hooks, quotable thought, viral clips and inspiring pull quotes.

This is where the part of my work that others find somewhere between difficult and impossible comes in. I converse with these big characters, expert thinkers, founders and leaders on their level. I explore their strengths and weaknesses with them, as well as how they can improve. This is not a normal turn of events for leaders used to driving the conversation. We talk about their background, beliefs, their business, their ideas and their comfort levels. Thought leadership, at its best, involves a level of risk. You are putting yourself out there in new ways, and our oppositional social media world means that someone may shoot you down. But my expert counsel means that the risks are far outweighed by the rewards.

Yes, thought leadership is still a buzz term, and yes you can do it by yourself/in-house should you choose. But the chances are you will flounder, stall and fail – sooner rather than later. Thought leadership could and should be part of the marketing toolbox of any business, charity, foundation or non-profit as it always punches above its weight in terms of spend and impact. But it is not something to see as another ‘to do’ that gets passed to the office junior, or even AI.

Contact me if you would like to discuss how I can help you to explore what thought leadership can do for you, your business and your brand.

Gaining new contracts can sometimes be problematic when you can’t speak about who your last client was, or what you did for them. Yet this is a situation I often find myself in. I’m not exactly meeting new clients down dark alleyways, but it can sometimes feel a little like that.

“Come alone, no cops… or other agencies.”

I am talking about the work that I do for (often) agencies who have made a name for themselves doing the kind of work I do for them. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

TL;dr, I do creative work where creative agencies are the client, PR work for PR agencies and re-branding work for branding agencies. It may sound crazy, or even that the agencies in question may be struggling in some way. But it is simply a relationship that makes sense. The client is too close to the work. They can’t see the wood for the trees. They need someone with an outside perspective to come in, take a fresh look and sort it all out. Fast.

This relationship also bypasses office and organisational politics. Yes, someone has to make the decision to hire me (usually the CEO/founder/owner), but I have no interest in the power struggles that can happen when a company needs to change. No dog in the fight, other than what I perceive as the best way to solve a problem or boost performance.

I have helped branding agencies – who are excellent at helping big brands on design, storytelling and marketing – to look at themselves and what their brand is today. I have also re-booted communications agencies who are feeling a little tired or out of touch. I regularly come up with new ideas for creative agencies when they are stuck.

But these names don’t appear on portfolios, CVs or websites, as both they and I know the value of a relationship that works on trust, privacy and value. Yes it can be frustrating, or even look like I could be making half of this up. But the honest application of expertise that comes with working in the dark offers value that few can offer.

When it came to the pandemic lockdowns, there were few better equipped to cope than writers. With the majority of us being work from home natives who are happy in our own company, we took to the new world of work like a duck to water. We had all the hardware and software in place, along with the all important comfortable office chair and desk. We’d already purloined enough pens, pencils and notepads from in-house jobs, awaydays and meetings to keep us going for a decade-long lockdown.

Sure, we had our once-quiet days interrupted by endless Zoom meetings – like the rest of the working world – but we were also far more in demand than ever, as businesses realised the value of a ready-to-go workforce that was used to delivering without someone looking over their shoulder. They also realised that they could get a senior expert copywriter or consultant for two days per week instead of a junior member of staff on a salary. The results could be transformational.

Even Ocado deliveries could not stop us from making deadlines, as others struggled with their home becoming their office and the lure of the garden or park. We got busy. Very busy.

The one thing that I did learn about myself during this period is that face-to-face is best for me when having an initial or introductory meeting. While I can function perfectly well in online meetings, I make a better impression when I am in the room. Yes, I am an introvert who can be a ‘business extrovert’, but I have found that my benefits and knowledge are almost always best delivered as asides. I am a natural storyteller, which is a big part of my job as well as a big part of how I sell my offer. Marginalia is where the interest is.

Did I tell you about that time I sent Nigel Farage into hiding? The ********** ********? What about the time I met the Godfather (of panto)?

My skill set is somewhat unique [insert Liam Neeson gif], as it is (honestly this is not some kind of SEO-booster) storyteller, writer, author, journalist, copywriter, ghost writer, thought leadership writer, report writer and narrative creator, alongside consultant, ideas man, PR consultant, pranks creator, culture history expert, subcultural historian and cultural commentator. And that is before we get into all of my areas of interest. So many of those descriptors are buzzwords that I dislike, but they have become terms that describe what I do, from writing books to impersonating CEOs, or representing founders in meetings or in print.

My most recent virtual business card signs off ‘trouble caused or solved’. The last person I passed it on to got the story of me talking my way out of being arrested in Whitechapel. You’ll have to buy me a coffee to get the end of that one. Maybe I’ll throw in the tale of which keynote speaker’s lanyard I was wearing at BAFTA, and how that led to a working relationship that I still enjoy.

Whether you need me to create a report on your newly-found B Corporation status or simply come up with ideas for a PR campaign, I can sell you all the skills for this over a tea or a beer far better than I can through a screen. That is not because I am a great salesman, but because I think on my feet and adhere to the ‘two of these, one of those’ (ears/mouth) rules of conversation. I am like one of those agencies that promises you a boutique experience, but I do that part in front of your eyes. It’s fluid. It’s different every time.

This on-the-ball method also works spectacularly well in both pitch meetings and talks. I’m the one who gets the client or the audience to laugh in a room where there often isn’t any. And it is not about jokes. It is about reading a room, a mood and an audience. It is about a dialogue, not a monologue. Disarming your audience, whether that is one person or a crowd, means you can earn their trust, their attention and (possibly) their business.

If we do meet, then I am likely to finish my drink before you, because I am sipping, listening and digesting (your words and ideas, as well as that biscuit). Most of my CV and portfolio is in my head. Once I know what you need then I can spin you a good yarn that gets to that point.

So, if you want to chat over a beverage, or a talk over toast then let me know.

In the constant battle between cheap SEO-spoofing articles and quality, original copy, the term thought leadership has made its way to the top of the words-based marketing heap. But what precisely does thought leadership mean, if it is not simply another term for content marketing or search engine fodder?

Thought Leadership, if done properly, is a mix between what the English newspapers call ‘comment’ and their American counterparts call ‘op-ed’, with a spot of clever (and timely) marketing. As the press slashes journalists and budget, so the need for erudite and topical content from those outside of the media increases.

Quality over quantity

The words ‘topical’ and ‘erudite’ are doing some heavy lifting there, and for good reason. I have worked for 25 years as a professional journalist, author and editor. This means that I also receive a good number of emails from inexperienced marketers, offering their client’s opinion on anything from sandwiches to sandpaper.

These missives are often accompanied by the phraseology all journalists and editors dread. “I saw you wrote that thing about X, well here is a thing about Y that I think is relevant”. Believe me when I say that is never relevant. Nor is it very good. Thought leadership is not amateur hour content marketing. It has to provide value and it must draw on existing talent and philosophy within an organisation.

This is where a grasp of your client’s strengths and the news agenda, coupled with a bulging contacts book comes in handy. And this is why journalists and former-journalists are best-placed to deal with thought leadership. They know what a story looks like, how to jump on the news agenda and just where your client’s opinions will gain most traction. They also know when to be realistic and when to say no. After all, your client’s views on guinea pig outfits may be fascinating for Rodent Roundup, but not so good for the Financial Times.

Leading means influencing

The main value that many clients will see in thought leadership are the ‘column inches’, comparing print or online coverage with what they may have paid for an advert of the same size. But this doubly undersells the value of thought leadership. Firstly, an article in an influential title will always have at least four-times the value of even the very best ad of an equivalent scale. Secondly, the piece of thought leadership is not always simply aimed squarely at the readers. This is where the term starts to reveal its true meaning and value.

As someone who has written and ghost-written a good deal of thought leadership for clients, I can tell you that the copy and its sentiments are often aimed at a far smaller group than the readership of a magazine or newspaper. I have, for example, been commissioned to write pieces that are a sign to industry, but also ones that are a flag waved at a government department, or even an individual minister. These can be highly-effective and, when handled correctly, can lead to meetings, policy change or even an injection of funds.

This is where thought leadership really does its job of establishing the client as a voice to listen to and showing what that listening can achieve. It makes others want to come along for the ride as peers. That is far more powerful than advertorial or advertising can ever be for your client.

So, can I do thought leadership?

As always, the question of whether a tool such as thought leadership can work for you and your client depends on your abilities and their willingness. It can be a time-consuming, collaborative process. You need to capture the voice and the expertise that they offer, but you also need the confidence and contacts to place an article or other content in the places it needs to be seen. There is no use your client lending his time and thoughts to a blog or a journal just because you can get it placed there. You need to undertake considered targeting that realistic and rewards the time and money invested.

This brings me back to the earlier point about thought leadership not being a cheap content marketing fix. You can’t be a thought leader with poor spelling, little evidence of an argument and simplistic thinking. This, necessarily, makes it an often relatively costly process in financial terms. Although this cost still pales in comparison to an ad campaign or a marketing spend on a single issue. In short, your clients need to be asking how they can afford not to, rather than wondering if they can invest the money and time.

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