The thought leadership memory test
One of the most interesting (and perhaps troubling) things that strikes us when we interview senior executives about thought leadership is how difficult many find it to recall a specific, recent piece from a specific firm.
While most can comfortably talk about the amount of time they allocate to thought leadership on a weekly basis, which channels they tend to access it from, and their preferences in terms of publishing firms, when we ask for the name of a piece that’s made an impact, there’s often a lengthy pause…
There is no doubt that these execs are consuming thought leadership, so our question is: What makes a particular piece memorable in the moment?
We wanted to put some data to this question—and a recent law firm marketing summit gave us cause to ask buyers of consulting and legal services about memorable thought leadership, among other topics. I’d like to share a few of the findings here.
The missing 40%
In September 2023, we asked the following question of 200 senior executives (UK and US) who are buyers of consulting and legal services, and regularly consume thought leadership from professional services firms:
Thinking about the last 12 months, can you recall one specific piece of thought leadership that really stood out to you?
On average, while 60% could, as many as 40% of respondents could not remember a single piece of outstanding content. For US respondents, 57% could, 43% could not. This broadly reflects the pattern we’ve seen in interviews.