Posts Tagged ‘PR and thought leadership’

Dove’s thought leadership platform changes face of advertising

Dove's FB campaign shows how thought leadership can drive innovation across a variety of platforms

Despite the obvious benefits, the beauty of a great thought leadership campaign is the spin off it can create for that person or the brand.

Take Dove for example.  Their Campaign for Real Beauty is one of the best examples of a consumer thought leadership campaign I
have seen (see the case study I wrote up about it here).  It has spawned a content-rich environment for them around this topic to such a degree that they pretty much ‘own’ the discussions around real beauty.

Dove displays innovation driven by their thought leadership position

Their next move announced this week is brilliant – a ‘Dove ad makeover’ Facebook app, which allows Facebook users to displace existing advertising messages on their pages with positive ads from Dove.

This is great innovation driven by a thought leadership position on real beauty.

Check this brief You Tube clip out to get the idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhI3Wzs2gJA&feature=player_embedded

I’d be interested in your thoughts.

 I’m a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  Please check out my book: Brand Stand: seven steps
to thought leadership,  follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy or join me on LinkedIn.

12 experts on the key thought leadership trends for 2012 – content curation

The overwhelming sense from these experts is that content curation alone does not lead to thought leadership

I asked 12 people who I consider to be leading global commentators on thought leadership as well as a couple who have produced some amazing thought leadership programs in-house over the years to comment on four critical thought leadership questions for 2012.

Inspired by their answers I couldn’t help chipping in with my own thoughts.

As a result of the overwhelmingly positive response, I have split the interviews into four different posts – one post per question.

In the New Year I will make available an e book containing all the answers.

Interviewees include: Bob Buday, Erica Klein, David Meerman Scott, Jeff Ernst, Rob Leavitt, Britton Manasco, Dana van den Heuvel, Matt Church, Fiona Czerniawska, Dale Bryce, Elizabeth Sosnow, Marte Semb Aaasmundsen and me.

This is the last post in the series and it covers their answers to question four:

Question four: Can content curation alone turn an individual or company
into a thought leader?

Bob Buday, president of Bloom Group LLC, a firm that helps professional services and other B2B companies gain market leadership through thought leadership (http://www.bloomgroup.com)

“No – especially if all you do is collect articles. There are tons of automated ways to do it without a human intermediary – Twitter feeds, Google alerts, etc.

“At the very least, content curators need to provide more value to readers than simply identifying and collecting content on a topic. They need to explain why some piece of content is worth someone’s time – what new light it sheds.

“Yet still, even if you add that kind of value – providing commentary on interesting content – playing the role of content curator doesn’t go far enough to demonstrate that you are a leading expert on a topic.

“All to say there are no short cuts in becoming a thought leader.”

Erica Klein, Thought Leadership Writer and Strategist Specializing in Financial and Technology Companies(http://www.ThoughtLeadershipWriter.com)

“This may be totally self-serving on my part, but I think aggregating content marks a company as a “me too” provider and not a distinctive brand able to offer prospects and customers real, quantifiable value.

“True thought leadership can do so much more for a company than round up content at the OK Corral!”

Matt Church, founder of the Global Thought Leaders Movement and creator of the Million Dollar Expert Program. He is the author of 5 books including Thought Leaders and his latest Sell Your Thoughts (http://www.mattchurch.com)

“In the next 36 months maybe.  But after that those who synthesise, aggregate and curate Thought Leadership will lose position. It’s about extending the conversations or contradicting them. This means you have to go beyond ‘here is a good idea’ and start to say ‘here is what I think about X idea’.

“It’s about contribution and contradiction as ways of extending an idea.  A reader reads a book and goes ‘cool’, a curator reads an idea and goes ‘how can I share that?’ a Thought Leader reads an idea and goes ‘What do I think about that?’

Elizabeth Sosnow, managing director of Bliss PR a business-to-business strategic public relations and marketing communications firm based in New York City (http://www.blisspr.com)

“I love this question – it’s one I’ve debated myself.  I think the short answer is “yes,” but the long answer is “no.”

“In the short term, curation is a way to signal to your audience that you understand industry trends and “what’s ahead.”  However, longer term, curation signals a “me, too” marketing posture.

“True thought leadership requires differentiation to succeed, so curation just isn’t enough.”

Jeff Ernst, is the Principal Analyst, serving CMO and Marketing Leadership Professionals at Forrester Research and is probably best described as a thought leader in B2B marketing and sales strategy(http://www.forrester.com/rb/analyst/jeff_ernst)

“No, content curation alone is not enough to be a true thought leader.

“For people to trust you to curate or filter content for them, they need to already view you as an authority and trust that you are able to filter through the noise to deliver the content that is most useful to them.

“At minimum, as you curate content, you need to be providing your perspectives on the content you are delivering. But ideally, you need a steady stream of your own fresh ideas and perspectives, while using content curation to supplement that.”

David Meerman Scott is one of the pre-eminent thought leaders on PR and marketing. He is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and author of the #1 bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR (which has been published in 26 languages) and the Wall Street Journal bestseller Real-Time Marketing & PR. He recently launched his new online book: “Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage”. (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/)

“No.  While content that is interesting will be passed on, I am a perfect example as I tweet interesting content, however, some
component of original content is important.

“Content simply created by others is not nearly as valuable.”

Dale Bryce is the group manager marketing for Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), a global strategic consulting, engineering and project delivery firm. He has been instrumental in their successful ‘client first’ thought leadership approach (http://www.skmconsulting.com/Home/)

“Content curation is an essential ingredient in the overall mix that is thought leadership.

“Great content needs to be relevant of course but it should act as a social lubricant for engagement with an audience. Ideally content is just the conversation starter; a catalyst to a real dialogue about how people might react and respond to the idea just placed on the metaphorical table. And from that first conversation, big things can come….!”

Marte Semb Aasmundsen, graduated this month with her MSc Strategic Public Relations and Communications
Management at The University of Stirling in the UK.  Her thesis was on thought leadership.

“No, I don’t think so.

“I think content curation may perhaps be a reason why critics are inveighing against thought leadership in the first place.

“Of course it is a useful way of identifying and re-branding an issue. But I think the trend will be to move towards more sophisticated thought leadership initiatives. For that to happen, a thought leader must be authentic.

“Authenticity, transparency and trust are values that will become even more important in the coming years.”

Britton Manasco is the founder of Manasco Marketing Partners which specializes in creating thought leadership marketing and sales enablement solutions. Britton produces a thought leadership strategy blog Illuminating the Future and the executive journal, Elevation Quarterly. (http://www.brittonmanasco.com/)

“Yes, but only if they are a skilled curator.

“Among other things, I have billed myself as a “connoisseur of contrarians.” I seek out unexpected perspectives and provocative points of view. By tapping into their contrarian insights of others, I’m able to generate content for my clients that truly resonates with their customers.

“I’m thrilled that I can get paid to do it.”

Rob Leavitt is a B2B marketing strategist, specializing in issues-based marketing. He is currently Director of Thought Leadership at PTC, a $1 billion enterprise software firm. (http://www.reputationtorevenue.com/)

“Definitely not.

“Curation is useful both internally (for education and customer/competitive/market perspective) and externally (to build interest, traffic, and credibility) but it is no substitute for your own content and conversation that provide strong and different points of view.

“I’m all for curation initiatives but strictly as a complement to your own more substantial research, publications, and presentations. Done well (which itself requires a great deal of work), curation can help you become a useful and valued resource for information and ideas, but if they are not your own ideas you are still not a thought leader.”

Dana VanDen Heuvel is a marketing consultant, author and speaker. He is a recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices as well as thought leadership (http://www.marketingsavant.com/)

“No, it can’t.

“I’ve seen a lot of back and forth on Twitter this year about this, but at the end of the day, curation is helpful and even essential.

“I often tell my clients that the best leaders don’t always have the answers, but they know where to get them, which is how the thought leader should approach curation.  Know where to get good content, know who to trust and know what your audience values but never think for a second that curation = thought leadership.

“The Bloom Group has articulated, what I believe, to be one of the staples in thought leadership discipline with their “seven fundamentals of a thought leadership point of view”, which every would-be thought leader should use to check their work. Moreover, “novelty”, that is, saying something new about an issue and “validity”, having proof, are two of the most critical points of a thought leadership position.

“Curation satisfies neither of those.”

Craig Badings – author of this blog and the book “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”, and a consultant at Sydney-based Cannings Corporate Communications.

“Find me one recognised thought leader who has attained their position as a result of curating content only.

“If you can I will be convinced that content curation can create thought leaders.

“The very nature of the term ’thought leadership’ implies original, creative or innovative thought.  In contrast, curating content implies that you are not the original generator of that content and therefore cannot claim to be a thought leader off the back of it.

“That said, I believe that curated content can play a very important role in supporting and informing a thought leadership content program. Furthermore, if the person curating the content arrives at new ideas or insights as a result of that content then it could be construed as thought leadership.”

Please download my free e book top right of this page. Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy and join me on LinkedIn.

Interview with communications measurement expert Michael Ziviani

Michael Ziviani is the CEO of Precise-Value, a business he started in 1999 after leaving his role as the research manager for Microsoft Australia.  Michael has brought a whole new dynamic and rigour to the art of measuring communications.  He and his team have lifted measurement to a new level by providing remarkably detailed and valuable insights into the worth and return of marketing and communication campaigns.

 The information he provides not only enables practitioners to measure their campaigns but also to recalibrate and focus their efforts to maximise their future returns on these campaigns.

Michael is constantly stretching the boundaries of where and how one can use coverage and campaign analysis to strategically help organisations drive even better value. He has recently been using advanced analysis of communications and CSR to prove the business benefit to organisations.

I interviewed him about his work in this field.  This is what he had to say:

1.       Michael after years analysing data previously with Microsoft and now with your own business Precise Value, you have some interesting observations that measurement alone is limiting, can you expand on that?

Businesses today measures lots of things – almost as if some kind of compulsion for KPI’s makes managers seem more in control. But what do those numbers really mean?

It pays to put measurement aside to seek deeper learning from evaluation and analysis. Real analysis is a quest for creating new business value or at least mapping out how to access that value for marketing and communications professionals. To get there we need a longer-term business growth solution, not tick-a-box measurement. That means providing insights with enough detail and colour to make the journey easy.

For example, I used to get asked by Product Managers ‘What’s our market share in segment X for product Y?’ So I’d say 42% – now what do you do? They’d realise then the need to know much more. So it’s a mix of qualitative (descriptive) and quantitative (KPIs) that’s actually required.

[Like: Tell me more about the audience – what needs do they have, what they think about us, even what words they use around our products. Do our comms messages resonate with that? Do the right messages have enough weight in the right media?]

2.       What business value should organisations look for from, for example, their media coverage?

Well, we know from focus groups the impact of media on consumer choice is significant. Think about your own buying decisions and how likely you are to base a decision on, say, advertising alone. Most communications professionals intuitively know this and have done for years – but they haven’t been able to prove it in concrete terms. They also need to know where to focus for best effect.

This means creating a link between media outputs and business outcomes. The link can be made in four steps:

A systematic approach makes it possible to capture each step in concrete numbers. Most Communications activity, including PR, drives brand health up or down over time. Our experience also suggests PR drives the hardest to shift areas of brand consideration, preference and loyalty. Understanding your brand health position is fundamental to understanding where sales come from. And crucially, knowing where to focus for best results. The business value is in understanding  how to achieve better results and do so more efficiently. Whilst I think most managers get this idea they seldom have the systematic analysis setup to support it in practice.

[For example, if a big communications push did not drive any mid-term sales result could you answer why? The above analysis gives you that answer.]

3.       There is an increasing sense that marketing is content and content is marketing.  How important is it to track the impact of content put out to market by companies?

Everyone wants us to do more with less these days but how do we do that and still have a life? I think we need to work smarter not harder by bringing some science to the art of communications.

By creating structured feedback we can show which content had what impact, where. This is particularly important when the communications objective changes over time – as does the competitive landscape.  The tracking analysis is like a map that shows you the shortest path to meeting those objectives. It makes you more effective at what you do by:

·         Reducing the effort required to achieve the same result

·         Giving you the ammunition to argue for more budget

·         Helping you outperform competitors

·         Complementing your skills & proving your value

·         Identifying who and what had the most (and least) impact

This approach forms the basis of what you could call high performance marketing communications.

4.       In your view do you think business today understands the value they can extract from an in depth analysis of their coverage?

I think business is heavily distracted by change. As human beings we like routine, we like predictability and clarity. The problem is there are many forces now acting to create change and doing so at a faster pace than ever before. Those forces act in ambiguous and often complex ways so running on gut feel is not really feasible anymore.

In some ways communications professionals themselves need to see what is possible using advanced analysis. Most I speak with are amazed at the possibilities and the sources of new value. Much of that value comes from the depth of results which describe in detail how to grasp opportunities and mitigate threats.

This is really about mastering change in a systematic way. That means setting up a structure for analysis that matches your business and communications aims in a customised way.  Repeating that analysis regularly creates a Plan-Do-Refine feedback loop. The feedback helps us master a dynamic media environment and the depth shows how to grasp opportunities and mitigate threats. Such strategic guidance can create massive value for an organisation. And that value can be proven with concrete numbers.

5.       You believe media coverage can impact a company’s share price and you have been doing some work on this – please explain. 

Once we had worked with the activity-outcome model above we knew it could be applied to significant business outcomes like share price. It just made sense that communications activity would affect share price. So we set about R&D to prove that link. After many months of careful statistics we found the proof.

For the R&D case study, results suggested that PR represented one-quarter (¼) of the controllable factors driving share price movement. That almost implies one-quarter of your efforts to boost share price are directed to communications in the media. It’s a fantastic business case. Of course you also need the material to communicate!

6.       After years of analysing media coverage and its impact on numerous spokespeople and brands, how important is building a profile to being seen as a thought leader in the industry?

Thought Leadership creates a point of difference based typically on innovation and interest. It is almost never negative but instead adds a richness to the subtle ‘brand attributes’ within coverage we see. Our assessment tracks a range of attributes in client and competitor coverage so we can quantify that richness. We expect Thought Leadership to be more resilient during crises when attributes like Trustworthy or Quality may suffer erosion.

There are great examples we have seen on couching Thought Leadership and Industry research is case in point. One strategy here is to seek out a slightly offbeat take on the industry by focusing the research on something unusual. That approach can capture interest to get greater cut-through. I like that quirky curiosity the media seem to have.

7.       From your experience and the thousands of media articles you have analysed over the years, what qualities do thought leaders in their respective industries display?

The client or spokesperson is generally providing industry leadership.  Often they are able to explain or predict linkages between various complex concepts or between a particular piece of research and current events.  Overseas trends may also factor in here.  Depending on the medium, a thought leader will be able to explain the more complex concepts or research findings in everyday terms and without jargon. 

The delivery is generally subtle. It would be unusual for us to see a spokesperson spruiking the services of the client overtly. This is generally an outcome of the thought leadership with the client seen as the ‘go to’ firm in that field.

Though leaders and thought leadership operates differently across industries. The Financial industry often provides advice or research with good success. That research sometimes generates significant proportions of the Impact we see.

Other industries might gain respect by showing leadership through products, or product innovation for example. The Electronics industry tends to prize technical innovation – thought leadership to them means a better product.  Service based firms may demonstrate their knowledge and research round clients needs particularly into the future. .

Across various fields, the articles where there is thought leadership are more favourable than those where it is lacking. On our 5-point scale (from -2 to +2) the uplift has ranged from +0.3 to +0.8 – very noticeable shifts.

While thought leadership can appear even without a spokesperson, usually the two work together. We have certainly found that any spokesperson mention is beneficial to articles – the average uplift here is about +0.6, a substantial boost.

The 9 fundamentals of thought leadership

The nine fundamentals to thought leadership

Here are the nine fundamentals to being a thought leader:

1.)    Research your target audience – identify the challenges and issues they face in their daily lives/businesses. This is the most important clue and driver of your thought leadership direction.

2.)    What do you want to be famous for? – Identify what area you want to own in your sector or industry. Focus on where your areas of expertise lie and analyse how you can you build an even deeper understanding backed by empirical data and always remember to focus it on your clients’ needs.

3.)    Scan your competitors – are they doing anything in that space? If they are, don’t bother competing rather find a new space you can own.

4.)    Deep dive – once you’ve identified the space you want to own it is important to go really deep into that area with evidence based research – opinions and using other people’s content certainly won’t cut it if you truly want to position yourself as a thought leader.

5.)    Set objectives and kpis for your campaign – it needs to support and underpin some solid business objectives and it needs to be measured so that improvements can b made and it can be recalibrated along the way.

6.)    Say something new – if you don’t your so-called thought leadership point of view will realistically only amount to another piece of content and there is a lot of content out there. This is about differentiating yourself from your competitors and positioning yourselves as the trusted advisors or ‘go to’ experts in your field.

7.)    Thought leadership champions – Identify and involve your thought leadership champions from the beginning – someone has to own this and act as your spokesperson and preferably someone senior so that you gain the business traction and senior backing you need in order for it to be a success.

8.)    Leverage and packaging – cleverly package your content across every touch point of your target audience and prospects.   There is a lot written about content management, content marketing, content curation.  Call it what you will, the point is read the material it will give you some good ideas on how to leverage your content and take it to market.

9.)    Make it part of your culture – there are many well known brands out there such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Booz & Company who have thought leadership ingrained in their culture.  They manage it as an important part of their business and the ROI on their thought leadership campaigns have been fantastic as a result.

Let me know if you have any other fundamental steps you think I should add.

Content = thought leadership. Wrong…

Content alone is not thought leadership

There is an interesting article which appeared on the MarketingProfs site yesterday titled: “Brands using content curation to build thought leadership”

The great news is that of the 150 marketing executives surveyed by HiveFire, 78.9% said their main objective for content curation was to establish thought leadership.

But let’s hope these 150 marketing executives are very clear in distinguishing what thought leadership is and what it’s not.  Because there’s content curation and then there’s thought leadership – the two are very different.

Content can include:

·        Opinions and views

·        Marketing collateral

·        Product information

·        White papers

·        Press releases

·        Company announcements

·        Reports

·        Presentations

·        Talks

·        Assimilating other people’s content on a particular topic

·        Etc, etc

  Thought leadership content on the other hand:

·        Is new

·        Typically reflects/provides new insights into the challenge/issues faced by a particular target audience

·        Can frame new debates/discussions around an issue whether that be social, environmental, economic, political, business, etc

·        Is evidence based

·        Does not overtly sell your product or service

Content alone is not thought leadership

Content that doesn’t do this cannot and should not be called thought leadership.  It is merely information.

This is not to say that it’s not useful but it doesn’t make you a thought leader.

In the thread of conversation that this article prompted, one reader, Jeff Molander, had this to say and I think he sums it up beautifully:

“Here’s my point: Different ways of effectively “showing off” what you know is different than showcasing something USEFUL for end users.

“Showing end users something you’re seeing, that they are not, and that reveals risk or opportunity — now that’s how I measure “thought leader.” Giving people a reason to think about something in a new light — and then take action on it. That’s valuable.”

You can read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/4730/brands-using-content-curation-to-build-thought-leadership#ixzz1IDxKIW7U

Three key challenges facing thought leadership

After working in thought leadership for many years across multiple sectors, writing about it, researching it and speaking to a wide variety of people across a spectrum of industries, I believe the key challenges facing thought leaders or a thought leadership campaign boils down to three things:

1.       1. Thought leadership Engagement – are your senior leaders/executives engaged in your thought leadership position?

If not you will have a problem as the campaign is bound to be short-lived, it will miss the gravitas of senior commitment internally and externally, you will struggle to excite the target audiences for whom the thought leadership is intended, you will make limited inroads into making thought leadership part of the culture of your organisation and you will battle to convince your executives about the efficacy of thought leadership as a client and new business engagement strategy.

2.       Thought leadership Connectivity – is your thought leadership campaign enabling your key client-facing people to connect with their clients and prospects?  Did you include them in the journey?   Do they feel part of this campaign or is it content that is thrust upon them at the last minute and they have to make use of it? 

The risk to all of these questions that you can run the risk of your thought leadership material being perceived by your own people as ineffectual in helping them connect with your client or prospects resulting in them merely paying lip service to it at best and at worst not using it at all or dismissing it.

3.       Thought leadership Packaging – are you maximising the opportunity to leverage your content as much as possible across every possible client or new business touch point?  Have you researched your target audiences in terms of where they source their information, how they like to receive it, what they read, where they go online, whether they like face-to-face, etc?

These are critical questions that will guide you in deciding how you cut and dice your content for maximum effect.  Furthermore, and only if relevant, are you packaging your content online for maximum search engine optimisation so that a) people can find you, and b) you feature on page one of Google for those specific search terms?  

If you have any more to add to these I’d be delighted to hear from you.

BMW sets great example for thought leadership

BMW fast tracks its thought leadership

If you’re interested about how we will all get around in the future put these dates in your diaries – February 1^st, 8^th , 15^th, and the 22^nd.  On each of these days BMW will release one part of its four part documentary series on future technology, culture, cities, etc and how it relates to the future of mobility.

This is a great example of thought leadership from one of the world’s leading car brands.  Fellow PR practitioner, Trevor Young alerted me to it in his blog and it was too good an opportunity not to follow up and analyse in more detail.  

The BMW microsite dedicated to this thought leadership piece describes the project as follows:

“Wherever You Want To Go” is the first release under BMW Documentaries—a new franchise dedicated to crafting original, thought-provoking and entertaining content. The film aims to take audiences to a place they’ve truly never been: the future. From the minds of some of the most influential scientists, academics, pioneers, and entrepreneurs of our time, this four-part documentary paints a unique picture of technology, culture, cities, our past, present and how it all relates to the future of mobility.

“Wherever You Want To Go” is not meant to provide definitive answers, but rather, to ask the right questions from the right people in an attempt to generate discussion, provoke thought and stir the imagination. As part of the Activate the Future website, viewers are also encouraged to click and comment on various points throughout the documentary.

BMWActivatetheFuture.com was created to get users actively involved in the ever-evolving conversation on the future of mobility. Over the coming months, this site will continue to explore new ways to shape the future of mobility and will encourage users’ opinions and participation along the way.

Hitting the thought leadership button on its head

In every way the intentions of BMWActivatetheFuture.com hits the right thought leadership buttons – time will tell whether this truly is a thought leadership platform or just a great PR gimmick.  My instincts tell me that this campaign goes to the very culture of the organisation and is one that will grow to become a great thought leadership piece.

One only need examine the explanation above to realise in principle, it ticks all the right thought leadership boxes i.e.

·         it is not overtly product focused

·         it aims to generate discussion

·         it maximises the use of third party experts

·         it proactively promotes discussion and interaction with the brand through multiple channels

·         it is a conversation and encourages debate

·         it is clearly of interest to most of us who drive cars

·         it will provide a great platform for BMW experts and leaders to talk about the future of mobility.

But there are some key thought leadership questions that need to be asked

As the campaign progresses, there are some key questions that will need to answered in order to measure its efficacy:

1.       Does it/has it met its objectives and what were these?  Have these been clearly set out?

2.       Are these objectives measurable?  If so what measurement criteria have been put in place?

3.       Will it directly impact sales or brand awareness over time and how is this being measured?

4.       Is it going to become part of the culture of the entire organisation right down to the sales guy on the floor of BMW dealership and how is this being achieved?

5.       How is the content being stretched and leveraged across multiple audiences and channels?

6.       What commitment (time and resources) are the BMW executives giving to this campaign?   

These are for starters, I’m sure you probably have a whole lot more and I would love to hear them if you do.  These six questions will drive rigorous focus and, I believe, greater success for the campaign in the long-term.

Well done BMW, I can’t wait for the first documentary tomorrow.  FYI, it is entitled “The new city” and according to the website, it is about the way we live and how it will impact the way we move.

Thought leadership blueprint and tips for 2011

Don’t you love the start of a new year?  Hopefully you’ve had time to reflect on your personal and business goals.  The question is whether you are doing anything differently for your business?  The way you sell?  The way you market including your advertising, PR, direct, online, etc?

If you are one of those fortunate businesses that has done exceptionally well year on year don’t read any further – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 

However, if you are wondering whether you could be doing things differently, particularly with your customers or potential customers, read on.

The path to thought leadership – questions companies should ask

Companies wanting to market themselves differently or those wanting to make a difference should start by asking the following questions:

1.       Are we happy with the sales and marketing culture of this organisation?

2.       What are the values of our organisation and can these, in any way, guide our marketing philosophy/approach?

3.       What are we good at and for what do we want to be known?

4.       What are the key issues affecting our customer’/consumer’s lives and do any of these align with what we want to be known for?

5.       Can we provide insights or content that helps our consumers/customers with these issues?

6.       What brand perception do we want to leave with our consumers/customers when it comes to these issues?   

Start formulating a thought leadership position

Once you have answered these you can start formulating a thought leadership position.  A good starting point would be to apply the START IP methodology to add some real rigour to your process.  This is covered in more detail in this blog but briefly it includes:

• Scanning the media and social media sites for issues impacting your brand or sector.
• Tracking your competitors’ share of voice to make sure the thought leadership approach you want to take is not already ‘owned’ by a competitor.
• Analysing and understanding the ‘true north’ of your company i.e. its values, in order to define better the thought leadership areas you should enter.
• Reviewing your current intellectual property (IP) – you may very well already have the makings of a thought leadership campaign within your existing IP.
• Trend spotting to identify the forces that could potentially shape your audiences lives now and in the future and aligning your thought leadership with this.
• Identifying a thought leadership champion to lead your campaign.
• Panel.  Consider appointing a panel of outsiders who could bring fresh perspectives and a more robust sounding board to your ideas and your campaign.

Making thought leadership a culture

Now for the tough part, we’ve all heard of a sales culture, a culture of innovation, a culture of safety, a client service culture etc.  Companies with strong cultures very often tend to do well.  Thought leadership should be no different.  In order for it to truly succeed and to take seed it should become part of the culture of the organisation.

Take a look at the management consultancies.  For years many of them have had an intense focus on thought leadership.  It is what has driven their client engagement and underpinned their sales process – it became part of the culture of many of what are now highly successful organisations.

Thought leadership is not for the faint hearted.  It needs time, budget, measurement as well as management participation and support. 

Critically too, it should not be the sole domain of the marketing or PR teams otherwise it may very well live and die there.  Instead it needs to become part of the DNA of the organisation and ingrained as part of the culture of the organisation.

You cannot be a thought leader without communication

Finally the big test is getting your thought leadership content to market – I’ve yet to meet a thought leader that doesn’t share their thoughts/ideas/content.

The question is how and which channels to use.  The answer I believe lies in your target audience.  How well do you know them?  Do you know what they read and where they get their information?   Do you need to use channels such as daily print, electronic and social media or is your audience a lot smaller in which case a one-on-one or small group engagement strategy may work better.

Please share your thoughts.  What’s worked for you in the past?  What do you intend doing with your thought leadership this year?

Productivity Indicator is a thought leadership winner

I need to declare up front that the thought leadership case study I am about to share was run by two sister companies in the Ogilvy Public Relations stable in Australia, Howorth and Parker & Partners.  It is a great example of thought leadership in action and it recently won the WPP Communications WPPED Cream award for best PR campaign.

Background

In late 2008, Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, Telstra, approached the team at Ogilvy PR Australia to devise a communication strategy to support its reinvigorated business-to-business offering.

The ensuing ‘Telstra Productivity Indicator’ campaign, not only successfully generated positive coverage in target business news and technology media, but the communication platform laid the foundation for all of Telstra’s marketing collateral: internal communications, website content, existing customer communication, advertising material and sales tools. 

The successful execution of the brief was demonstrated through increased sales figures and improvements in independent brand and media audits. Telstra’s positioning was so relevant to target business and government audiences that the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, quoted key research findings developed for the campaign during a national press conference in April 2009.

The campaign

Telstra’s largest division is Telstra Enterprise & Government (TEG), which provides network based solutions and services to organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

In a crowded marketplace, Telstra was finding it difficult to achieve neutral or positive media coverage, despite its world leading information and communication technology (ICT) offerings.  The Ogilvy team wanted to present TEG as a leader in ICT and an expert in productivity.  It followed research which showed that while Telstra’s competitors and other key stakeholders in the ICT space were all fighting for a share of the ‘innovation’ space, everyone was ignoring the driving force for potential customers – productivity.

There was a distinct lack of conversation around the topic presenting an ideal opportunity for TEG to embrace productivity and use it as the platform for the campaign.

The target publics

In order to communicate with their tier one target audiences: senior decisions makers, key influencers and IT executives within Australian business and government organisations, the campaign first had to reach business and technology media, industry associations, business groups and government stakeholders.

Implementation

1.       Research – Survey Report

An independent research company was commissioned to conduct a survey of senior decision makers at Australian business and government organisations on their approach and treatment of productivity and how it was defined, measured, managed and funded. The findings were compiled in a report titled: ‘The Telstra Productivity Indicator: A Report on business attitudes towards improving productivity in Australia’.

2.      Research – Whitepaper

Supplementing the report was a 36-page white paper, commissioned from a second independent organisation. The paper, ‘ICT as a driver of productivity’, examined in detail the impact of ICT on productivity and economics in Australia and around the world.

3.      Branding the insights – identifying Australia’s ‘productivity gap’

The research not only provided interesting content for media engagement, but uncovered insights to underpin the campaign.  Critically the results showed that while 78 per cent of Australia’s largest organisations said improving productivity was a high priority, only half had any systems to measure improvements or set targets.

This was termed the ‘Productivity Gap’ – the gap between the importance placed on productivity improvements and the lack of measurement and management around it. With productivity a large part of the rationale for ICT investment, the findings provided framework for new conversations with Telstra’s target audiences.

4.      Key messages identified, spokespeople briefed

Senior spokespeople were comprehensively briefed on the research with a series of key messages designed to deliver the productivity story.

5.      Direct mail to business and government

A personalised letter from the CEO detailing research findings and implications was sent to government officials and the heads of leading Australian business associations.

6.      Strategic media outreach

An extensive media outreach plan was implemented including:

·         Embargoed media interviews with Telstra’s most senior spokespeople and tier one media

·         An embargoed media release distributed to IT and telecommunications media the day before the launch

·         A general news release distributed on launch day

·         Targeted, long-lead media outreach  with tailored byline articles for vertical press 

7.      Speaking opportunities

Speaking opportunities were set up at corporate events for senior Telstra spokespeople.

8.      Employee Communications

The research was launched internally to employees through Telstra’s intranet.

9.      Sales Tools

The sales teams were armed with new diagnostic tools to present to existing and potential clients to quantify areas for productivity improvement.

10.  Advertising

The insights were supported by an above the line campaign including print, outdoor and online with a budget edition wrap of the Australian Financial Review newspaper.  

Measurement

 An independent media analysis company compared the analysis to Telstra’s competitors across reach, impact and favourability. From January to March 2009, TEG significantly increased its share of voice over competitors, holding 55 per cent of the brand mentions (with 96 per cent favourable). A spike in coverage was traced against the launch of the productivity campaign.

The Telstra Productivity Indicator dominated media discussion, with 29 per cent of coverage directly related to how Telstra could help enterprise and government improve productivity through the innovation and functionality of Telstra services. The analysis tracked an overall increase in the number of key messages appearing within campaign coverage.  More than 60 per cent of TEG coverage featured at least one of the pre-agreed key messages.

Importantly, the PR campaign set the foundation for all of TEG’s marketing and communications collateral and the messaging was adapted seamlessly for internal communications, existing customer communication, website content, an advertising campaign and sales tools.

The campaign drove online traffic to Telstra’s productivity website, becoming the second most visited site after the Telstra homepage.  At the time of the campaign, Google click-through increased by 72.3%.  There were 178 whitepaper registrations and site interactivity (clicks, print-outs and forwarding of content) increased by 200% month on month.

Over the campaign, Telstra sold and activated thosands of new PDAs and smartphones, migrated thousands of 2G devices to the NextG network and sold a number of fleet deals. The campaign elevated the Telstra brand to one synonymous with improved business productivity that in turn has driven demand for its product and services.

The integrated campaign directly affected perceived brand value. Telstra outperformed competitors in the ‘Customer Value Analysis’ brand positioning benchmark study in May 2009 on all performance drivers (service delivery; product; brand; Account Executive performance) showing a significant spike in approval. ‘Brand’ recorded the largest increase (up 11%). Besides improved buyer preference, Telstra was able to focus customer discussions away from price and towards value.

Thought leadership interview on RainToday.com

This appeared on the RainToday.com site and is an interview with me on my favourite topic – thought leadership.  You can click here to listen  and this is what they had to say as an intro:

Effective thought leadership—the kind that attracts prospects that eventually become clients—requires a strong platform that your entire company adopts, not “random acts of content,” says Craig Badings, author of Brand Stand: Seven Steps to Thought Leadership.

It’s about delivering new ideas and content to your target audience based on insight into the issues and challenges they face, he says. It’s also about differentiating you from competitors, establishing you as the go-to expert, and positioning you as a trusted advisor. And to make that happen, firms must have an organized and concerted effort that involves everyone in the organization.

“To truly take hold, [thought leadership] has to become part of the culture of the organization. In fact, I’d be as bold as to say that companies that have a sales culture should really be trying very hard to replace it with a thought leadership culture because in my view the sales pitches we know are really dead. It’s no longer good enough for companies to flog their products or services,” Badings says. “If thought leadership is not a part of corporate culture, then that thought leadership campaign is going to limp along and will never really achieve any great height.”

Listen as Badings, who also blogs at Thought Leadership, discusses:

• The four things that make a successful thought leadership campaign
• Firms that are excelling with their thought leadership campaigns
• How sales teams can incorporate a firm’s thought leadership platform to win more deals
• His methodology—START IP—for developing and implementing a thought leadership platform