Why your thought leadership has lost its spark

Research-driven thought leadership has been a corporate staple for years – so much so that, according to an expert I recently interviewed, the tried-and-true is now trying the patience of your prospective customers.

According to Gareth Lofthouse, CEO of Resonant, the London-based thought leadership consultancy, an over-reliance on formulaic surveys has led to the deadliest of sins: audience boredom. The reason, as he likes to put it, is that today’s leadership content lacks an essential “spark.”

Does your thought leadership make people sit up and pay attention? 

When I last interviewed Lofthouse, in 2017, he was a principal at Longitude (since sold to the Financial Times), promoting a then-new study. It identified three main components for a successful thought leadership campaign: fresh insights, relevance to a business problem, and credible research backing it all up. I asked him how much of that definition still holds, and how his notion of a spark fits in.

‘While those three things stay true,” Lofthouse replied, “we have to recognize that the game has moved on in the way audiences consume content, and we must make adjustments. Let’s take that point about research. I am still a big believer that you must back up your insights or arguments with strong evidence — but I ask the question, does evidence mean that every thought leadership project has to be built around a survey? Because, let’s face it, that has been the traditional approach that you see time and time again. It’s another report based on another survey and the audience has to wade through all these charts. It can feel extremely ‘samey.’

That’s partly because so much effort goes into that traditional recipe. The survey process, the methodologies, the number of different experts that get involved. If you’re not careful, these things can crowd out the essence of the idea that makes your thought leadership different. And that’s what I’m talking about when I say we need the spark back. It’s the distinctive idea that makes people sit up and pay attention. And if you unbundle how you get there, it’s about spending more time understanding what audiences want — in short, resonance.”

I asked him to elaborate. “It requires investment in audience intelligence, researching what audiences are looking for, what the hot issues are that resonate with them. That gives us our key point for story generation. We then ask, is this a hook that would inspire and provoke curiosity within the audience? How do you go from that hook to create a narrative arc that maintains their attention? These are in a way classic editorial skills, but they have to be applied to a broader mix of content assets and a broader campaign.

Optimizing the what and where of thought leadership 

Lofthouse was quick to add that there is, however, no easy answer to what mix of content assets and outlets one should employ in a campaign. “There isn’t a magic bullet on format or media,” he noted. “That’s going to vary even for a single individual, depending on where they are in the day or week. So, you have to create choices for them.

But it must all start with substance, and an anchor piece which might not look like the traditional report. Then you need a conversational layer over the top of that – personality is important. That’s where your interviews come in. Podcasts, moderated, round tables, LinkedIn live experiences, those sorts of things.

You also need super-snackable, super-quick-to-share pieces, those micro moments like shorter LinkedIn posts, charts of the week, or one-minute explainer videos. All of these things have to blend together.

The good news is that this is no longer such a resource-intensive mix to produce. We’re seeing the adoption of things like AI tools which, when used well, can improve quality as well as drive efficiency.

Successful thought leadership involves your top leaders 

Finally, Lofthouse addressed one more critical step to igniting that spark he says is missing in most thought leadership –– involving your leaders. “There’s a corporate point of view and then there’s that more individual perspective, and you need both. They’re not two competing approaches,” he said.

“The best brands know how to orchestrate that corporate point of view while allowing individuals to bring their own personal touch. Everyone should be singing from the same hymn sheet in their thought leadership, but each can have different ways of expressing the song, bringing that to life.

I think the most powerful programs combine these things. The overall program sets the agenda, provides the evidence, and creates a sort of backbone, if you like, for the exploration of the themes or the point of view being expressed.”

Your executives can be your influencers 

Proceeding from his “personality is important” point above, Lofthouse added that “People, now more than ever, are influenced by other individuals. They trust people more than they trust logos. So I think it’s absolutely vital that you don’t rely on the starchy traditional report to be the main communication vehicle for your point of view. That piece backs up and creates the depth and the substance, but it should be your CEO, CIO, CRO, etcetera, out there on video, or on stage, whether it be Davos or a key industry conference. Employ your leadership to add substance to your story, to bring your message to the market. That’s when I think thought leadership really comes to life.”

Bore your buyers at your own risk 

The problems with current thought leadership that Lofthouse is trying to address aren’t so much new as they are, it would seem, persistently ignored. As far back as 2021, the “old recipe,” as he would call it, was failing to meet buyer desires, especially in B2B. One survey reported that 64% of B2B buyers wanted content to be “less formal and more human,” or the opposite of the “starchiness” mentioned above. And 67% were (and likely still are) looking for the POV of an individual – that C-Suite spokesperson – rather than content published under a brand’s name only.

Lofthouse concluded our interview saying, “There is too much content being produced for content’s sake – you see a lot of companies simply producing volume. Unfortunately, little of that is truly interesting, compelling, or delivers what the buyer wants. [Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]So think audience first. As I’ve said, spend more time researching and understanding what your audience is looking for, what their hot issues are – what resonates with them. Then design everything around that. Spend more time getting it right, because a bit more time on that, upfront, saves you time in the development of the actual thought leadership. It’s also guaranteed to deliver much greater impact.”

Written by Chuck Kent.
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