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Thinking about thought pieces
July 2, 2020
strong>A journalist recently asked me to contribute to an article about thought leadership, exploring whether creative businesses had ‘reached peak thought leadership’.
Now, full transparency here – helping our clients write thought leadership is one of our core offerings, so you may say we’ve got a vested interest in though leadership not having reached its peak.
But like all good questions, it made me stop and think – to probe just what thought leadership is, before assessing the role it plays in marketing communications afresh.
There is a risk that this industry is overwhelmed with thought leadership – or opinion as it is otherwise known. It’s safe to say, people in the creative industries are not short of opinion – but there is a distinct difference between pontificating for the sake of it, garnering a few headlines to enjoy a moment in the spotlight, and writing supported and substantiated articles, sharing information and ideas that raise collective awareness or understanding of a subject.
The role of a good public relations agency is to advise clients on content like this, and to push back against empty rhetoric or salesy copy. These are not always comfortable conversations to have. But never is the ‘quality over quantity’ argument better applied.
Quality thought leadership is unbeatable – expert and insightful – it is pure in its intent, not trying to prove a direct commercial point or sell a product or service. Clients can of course pay for coverage; content marketing, native advertising, advertorials, whatever the guise, these are all stops along the continuum of how ideas are expressed – for a price. But whatever you might hear about the waning influence of the media, editors on magazines, papers and websites of worth, still go to great lengths to curate their content and select or commission only those thought pieces that offer their readers new insight, information or analysis. Therefore, there’s a currency in being published based on merit, rather than money.
We live in a world of fake news, false promises and bravado, where some spout unsubstantiated opinions, shout down others or pedal controversy for the sake of it. But brave opinion is to be cherished – calling things out, telling the truth, offering evidenced arguments. I do not think we have reached a ‘peak’ moment to this sort of honesty.
These articles – at their best – embrace variety of thought; they don’t shy away from mentioning opposing views or counter considerations, and this is to be lauded in a world where people are increasingly sitting within their own echo chambers.
Sarah Owen, CEO & Founder, Pumpkin