Forward thinking

In the age of artificial intelligence, human expertise is more valuable than ever.

Andrew Carrier

Dec 08, 2024

Read on to learn why:

① Artificial intelligence is, by its very nature, a thought follower.

② True thought leadership is an idea and the data to substantiate it.

③ The decline of the UK’s capital markets is a deep-rooted cultural problem.

④ The clash between Silicon Valley and Brussels shows little sign of détente.

⑤ Marketers should focus on shaping the markets they target.

⑥ What you ask your team may be more inspiring than what you tell them.

⑦ You should think big.

What's new

This week I attended a fascinating session about thought leadership in the age of artificial intelligence, hosted by Winmark and delivered by Claire Mason and Alison Sharpe of B2B thought leadership agency Man Bites Dog.

Some takeaways from the session and the agency’s recent research:

Thought leadership remains critical to your marketing effort
- 94% of C-suite leaders consume content created by business brands at least once a week.
- 77% of C-suite leaders expect their strategic suppliers to challenge them on emerging trends and issues.
- 74% of C-suite leaders always consider a strategic supplier’s thought leadership when making a buying decision.
AI is both a compelling topic and a powerful tool - but trust remains pivotal
- 69% of the C-suite think that in an AI world demonstrating a human’s expertise is more important than ever
- Trust is so important: Does the entity have the authority but also is it genuine? Does it come across as salesey? You have to be transparent.
- The white paper is not dead. PDFs still valued by C-suite decision makers.
Measuring ROI is more important than ever
- When talking to CMOs, agencies need to remind themselves that they’re talking to CFOs.
- No one cares about digital engagement metrics anymore; they care about revenue.
- There’s no magic metric for ROI when it comes to content. A huge part of a content role is internal advocacy, showing the direction of travel, it’s a long term game - you have to be transparent about that.

Why it matters

① The session’s key takeaway for me was that AI is, by its very nature, a thought follower. You’ll never be a thought leader by using AI. What it can do is repackage the value. It does that very, very well.

B2B marketing was overrun by mediocre content masquerading as thought leadership even before AI came along and made generating such dross a matter of a few clicks.

Now, more than ever, is the time for forward-thinking brands to double-down on true thought leadership, driven by human expertise. That’s how you’ll get noticed.

What to do about it

Take action

② As far back as February 2021, I advised you that every brand should be thinking like a media outlet. That advice is more pressing than ever. Take a three-stage approach:

Start with human expertise: Identify one core strong, original idea that you can own for the long term. Be as contrarian, thought-provoking, visionary as you can.
Back it up with data: 75% of C-suite leaders state that they are more likely to read or engage with content that is supported by original research. So, remember that true thought leadership is an idea and the data to substantiate it.
Leverage AI to help you to repackage, personalise and amplify your content: Apply AI to help you scale account-based marketing campaigns, diversify the assets you produce from your original piece of content - turn it into videos, animations, podcasts, shorter clips - and amplify it all using multiple channels.

Get help

IMTW is brought to you by InMarketing, a strategic advisory service for senior leadership teams in B2B finance and technology. It can help you with:

🔎 Audit 🧭 Strategy 🖋️ Messaging ✅ Planning 🤷🏻 Problem-solving ☎️ Counsel

Visit InMarketing

Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

Ministers must act to slow London Stock Exchange investor ‘exodus’, says Peel Hunt chief

③ The decline of the UK’s capital markets is a deep-rooted cultural problem.

“Ministers must do more to stop the ‘exodus’ of cash from the London Stock exchange after 41 consecutive months of outflows from UK equity funds, the boss of Peel Hunt has warned. Steven Fine, who heads the AIM-listed broking house, said the speed of money leaving the market was ‘alarming’ but not enough was being done by ministers and regulators to arrest the trend.”
This comes the same week as news broke that:
- Revolut boss says London IPO is ‘not rational’: “Storonsky said the London-based banking company would consider a public debut ‘sooner or later’ to raise cash and return money to shareholders in what could be a blockbuster IPO. However, he argued the UK market ‘can’t compete’ with the liquidity offered by the US, given the stamp duty charged on buying shares.”
- Etoro: ‘We could still float in London but things need to change’: “Daniel Moczulski said: ‘If you go to the US and ask ten US citizens ‘can you make money from capital markets?’ I’m pretty confident that all ten will say yes. ‘Can you make money from capital markets if you go to a UK or European audience? I’m not as convinced you will get such a yes. I’d like to see things like that changing just from a society, perspective”
Why? Because British institutional investors are ultra-conservative and British retail investors are ill-informed and blinkered:
- Nearly one in 10 Brits rely on YouTube for financial advice: “One-third of Brits (30%) say that financial mistakes have caused increased stress, and that 41% of Brits feel negatively about their financial situation.”
- Brits are backing cash and shunning the stock market: “UK cash savings have surged to a record £2.1 trillion this month, up more than £51bn since the start of 2024. […] A majority of Brits still believe cash is the best way to save for the long term and more believe it is a better inflation hedge than stocks and shares.”

TECHNOLOGY

Will Europe ease up on big tech?

④ The clash between Silicon Valley and Brussels shows little sign of détente.

Henna Virkkunen. Source: The Economist, 5 December 2024

“Reining in big tech still seems popular with voters. Yet changing circumstances may require a new approach. One difference is that economic growth is back in focus. Last year Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s returning president, asked Mario Draghi, a former head of the European Central Bank, to write a report on the continent’s waning competitiveness. The resulting tome pointed to Europe’s weakness in tech as a cause of its woes. Some recommendations that could also benefit American tech giants, including cutting red tape and boosting access to cloud infrastructure for Europe’s startups, were mentioned in the instructions Mrs von der Leyen issued to the new commissioners.”
“Even more important is the re-election of Donald Trump, which may limit how much the commission can beat up American tech firms. The Biden administration shared Eurocrats’ wariness of Silicon Valley giants. That afforded a ‘wonderful’ level of co-operation, as one eu official puts it, making it easier for the bloc to hit tech firms with fines and probes. Doing that under Mr Trump will be tougher, and may incur retaliation.”
“There is reason, then, for Silicon Valley to hope for a reprieve from Brussels. But plenty of uncertainty remains. Some inside big tech worry that Europe might try to tilt the playing-field in favour of local firms. Others suspect that the EU is only paying lip service to a pro-growth agenda. The new commission may end up being kinder to America’s tech giants. But bosses are not breaking out the champagne just yet—even if it is, for now, still tariff-free.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Gartner to CMOs: Incremental improvement won’t cut it in 2025

⑤ Marketers should focus on shaping the markets they target.

Source: The Financial Brand, 5 December 2024

“Chief Marketing Officers will face unprecedented challenges heading into 2025, with increasing pressure to deliver transformative growth despite ongoing disruption and budget constraints. Gartner’s latest research reveals that while 84% of companies will also need significant identity transformation in the next five years, many CMOs struggle to fulfil their growth potential, with only 14% considered highly effective at what Gartner calls ‘market shaping’.”
“The report outlines three strategic priorities for CMOs:
- bridging the gap between marketing strategy and operations,
- leading marketing to deliver differentiation, and
- prioritising customer journey investments.
“Gartner argues that success will require dedicated resources for strategy management, enhanced market orientation, and data-driven customer experience optimisation.”

WILDCARD

How to inspire people

⑥ What you ask your team may be more inspiring than what you tell them.

“Instead of bosses motivating people from above, individuals can do it for themselves. One example is a piece of research [Adam Galinsky, an academic at Columbia Business School] conducted: In this study some Swiss citizens who had newly registered with a government employment agency were asked to undertake a 10- to 15-minute exercise in which they reflected on values that mattered to them. They were three times more likely to find a job than those who did not do the exercise.”
“A forthcoming paper finds that this kind of intervention can have dramatic effects in a business setting. A subset of almost 3,000 employees at a consumer-goods firm were randomly assigned to take part in a workshop that helped participants to reflect on pivotal moments in their lives, to articulate what mattered to them and to think about how their current jobs matched their own sense of purpose. The academics found that taking part in this exercise substantially increased the probability of exits from the firm, particularly among lower performers; increased internal job transfers; and improved the performance of those who stayed in their jobs.
“A heightened sense of what is meaningful to individuals provides the best explanation for these outcomes. Those whose jobs do not inspire them decide to leave or move; those who find that their purpose and their job are in sync put in more effort. Once they accounted for the productivity of employees who replaced the leavers, the overall impact of this experiment on the firm’s performance was positive.”

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ Jeff Bezos on taking a leap of faith as an entrepreneur:

Jeff Bezos. Source: The New York Times, 7 December 2024

“I think it’s generally human nature to overestimate risk and underestimate opportunity. And so I think entrepreneurs in general, you know, would be well advised to try and bias against that piece of human nature: The risks are probably not as big as you perceive, and the opportunities may be bigger than you perceive.
Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Don’t settle for marketing.

Strive for InMarketing.

Wishing you a productive week,

P.S. Does the task ahead look daunting? I promise you, anything’s possible.