Thought leadership disrupted
New rules for the content age
Overwhelmed by the amount of content coming at them, executives say they are more discerning about the sources they choose, and reward brands that are credible thought leaders with sales, loyalty and advocacy.
75% of executives have become more selective
Just over 80% cite volume of content as the reason for being more selective
To explore the role of thought leadership in today's marketing mix we set up an expert Advisory Board and polled more than 1600 marketers and senior executives worldwide.
The results suggest that thought leadership offers big rewards for those who get it right, but faces several challenges including the need to: refocus on producing original and evidence-based content; embed greater management discipline in its development and delivery; while at the same time continuing to push back the frontiers in terms of presentation, targeting and distribution.
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"How many truly thoughtleading pieces are out there?Thought leadership is white space."
John Rudaizky, EY
"Organisations need to be more disciplined.They approach thought leadership as a tick box exercise."
"It's important for all companies to have a clear idea of their brand internally before you go ahead and talk about that externally.To be credible you have to have a clear understanding of what you want to portray."
Hamish Rickman, VP Marketing, Virgin Atlantic
"It's mindshare before market share."
Rebecca Edwards, GE Oil & Gas
Thinking about thought leadership
I was thinking. About thought leadership. Consider the fact that some 20,000 members of LinkedIn are styled Thought Leaders. If you search YouTube you'll find pages of them.
Lessons from journalism for content marketers
A recent study from the Brookings Institution may have implications for the use of thought leadership.
A recent assignment saw me doing some frantic commuting. London to Cairo. Weekly. Out on a Monday and back on a Friday. This continued for four months. It was a hectic time.
Content moves to the middle
Content marketing has clearly taken center stage for brands, for entrepreneurs, and for investors. The industry is on track to generate $313 billion in revenue in 2019, according to PQ Media's "Global Content Marketing Forecast."
The survey was conducted with The Economist Intelligence Unit's Opinion Leaders Panel, made up of more than 100,000 global executives. More than 40% of the business executives surveyed are C-level, representing a wide array of industries, geographies, and company sizes.
Thinking about thought leadership 20th July 2016
Lessons from journalism for content marketers 7th July 2016
Content moves to the middle 7th July 2016
brand content marketing reputation strategy thought leadership
© 2016 The Economist Group and Hill+Knowlton Strategies – All rights reserved