Jessica Sharp 
Thought leadership is a public relations tactic as old as the industry itself. Positioning a particular person as an “expert” on a specific topic can look like everything from publishing an op-ed to a keynote address to an annual stakeholder letter. For those of us who have been helping clients to successfully do this for years, we know it works because of all the small measurement signals along the way – everything from a boost in LinkedIn connections to additional invitations to speak or write, to an increase in awareness of the person and the brand that they represent. Until recently, those are the measures that we relied on to demonstrate effectiveness. PR measurement can be squishy that way, and thought leadership in particular has always been trickly to quantify. This is why I was thrilled to read the recent Thought Leadership Alpha Report published this spring by Cardinal 40. For the first time, this study puts an actual dollar amount on the value of thought leadership. And it’s a significant one.
According to the findings of the study, thought leadership is worth $367 million.
According to the study, the difference between high-quality and low-quality CEO thought leadership is associated with a 0.9% difference in a company’s stock price over a single week. For the median S&P 500 company, that translates to $367 million in shareholder value. For the average Magnificent Seven company, it’s $25 billion in a single week.
Just a quick note on the findings: the researchers are appropriately measured, noting that this is an associative study. It identifies a relationship between the quality of thought leadership and market returns but does not claim causation. Still, even with those caveats, the findings are pretty remarkable.
Aside from feeling personally validated in my work, it’s a helpful datapoint I can now bring to leaders who may be hesitant to fully embrace high-quality thought leadership. Conversations about the value of PR can be challenging, particularly when someone is looking for a straight line between output and revenue. This study doesn’t completely solve that challenge, but it makes those conversations meaningfully easier.
What Counts as Thought Leadership?
I’d like to take a moment here to define what I mean by quality thought leadership. The study defined thought leadership as “owned content” in which corporate leaders share their perspective on their business, their industry, or the world. This includes bylined op-eds, keynote speeches, public interviews, and annual shareholder letters. Really, any voluntary communications where the CEO is making a deliberate choice to put ideas into the world.
In my work, I’d describe quality thought leadership as well-structured, informative content on a particular topic that gives the reader or listener something genuinely useful. It is not a rehash of what others in the space have already said. It is not a restatement of commonly held knowledge just said in a different way. It is real, thoughtful content that effectively positions the communicator as someone who knows what they’re talking about and is a reliable, trusted voice in their field.
That distinction matters more than ever right now.
The AI Slop Problem and Why Authentic Storytelling is Having a Moment
With the proliferation of AI tools, virtually everyone now has the ability to produce content within seconds. At first glance, whitepapers, op-eds, articles, and speeches generated by your AI tool of choice can look like a viable solution for a time-crunched executive who doesn’t have the bandwidth or resources to develop an in-depth piece on their own. However, upon closer inspection, the content is an amalgamation of actual thought leader content found online. It’s worth remembering that AI is trained to synthesize hundreds of sources instantly and produce whatever the user has requested. It does not think or have an opinion. It cannot draw on lived experiences, expertise from decades doing the work, or genuine perspectives.
With the proliferation of AI slop, brands who are embracing true thought leadership and storytelling as a public relations tactic are finding greater visibility and positive outcomes.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on how companies are increasingly seeking “storytellers.” These are essentially professionals who can produce authentic, human content across a variety of channels. According to the article, brands winning right now are “the ones that are most authentic and human and relatable.” With AI-generated content flooding every channel, the appetite for genuine human perspective is growing.
This is a moment where authentic PR shines.
As someone who has been a professional “storyteller” for my entire career, my job is not simply to produce content. The work is to understand the industry, my client’s particular take on trends shaping the field, and their thought process on approach and execution. It’s a skill set that is developed over time, through experience and trust. I feel very fortunate to have both.
The Words Are the Value
But what is the actual power of thought leadership as opposed to other advertising or marketing? According to the study, when a CEO published a piece of thought leadership, the quality of those thoughts and the way they’re articulated create value independent of any material information. The words are the value.
As a professional communicator, this is not new information. But I also know how hard it can be to convince a budget-focused leader that words have value when you can’t point to a straight line between output and revenue. The report doesn’t completely solve that challenge, but it does provide a helpful data point that may make my conversations with this type of leader a little easier.
What Should You Do with This Information?
If you’re already engaged in strategic thought leadership, great news, keep it up! If not, there’s no better time to start than right now. Here are just a few things to keep in mind as you embark on building out or strengthening a thought leadership strategy:
- Always remember quality over quantity. One well-crafted, genuinely insightful piece will always outperform pages of generic content.
- Content must be authentic and reflect a real person’s actual perspective. It may take time to draw out what your leader believes or what they’re seeing that others are not, but it’s worth the time commitment.
- A thought leadership strategy should be realistic to the leader being positioned as well as the person or group of people who will be responsible for executing it. Thought leadership that is produced consistently, even at a slow pace, is better than a grand plan that never gets off the ground.
I’ve spent my career working with clients to tell their stories in ways that build credibility and brand awareness. This study confirms what all great public relations professionals already know: the right words communicated at the right time on the appropriate channels are worth far more than most leaders realize. There are $367 million reasons that now is the perfect time to embrace thought leadership. If you’re looking for some support, please reach out and I’m happy to talk about it.
Posted In Content Marketing, Thought Leadership