The Power of Thought Leadership: Insights from momentum itsma’s 2025 Report
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Thought leadership has become a pivotal element in the B2B landscape, influencing both decision-making processes and fostering trust among senior executives. It’s no longer just a marketing tactic, but a highly strategic way to build brand trust and advocacy.
According to momentum itsma’s Value of Thought Leadership 2025 report, 99% of senior executives surveyed view thought leadership as critical or important when considering potential advisers. This is up from 87% in 2023 and highlights thought leadership’s growing influence in the buying process.
Yet many organisations still struggle to cut through the noise, with 66% unwilling to engage with providers who produce poor-quality content.
The value of thought leadership - The report from momentum itsma finds that 75% of buyers seek content offering actionable solutions to complex challenges, and 44% use thought leadership to understand their clients’ needs and help with making strategic decisions.
Indeed, according to Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2024 B2B Thought Leadership report, 64% of C-suite executives say thought leadership directly influenced their decision to give business to a specific company. This emphasises that thought leadership is not just educational, but an essential tool for attracting clients and achieving business success.
The longevity of thought leadership – despite the increase in the perceived value of thought leadership, momentum itsma’s report found, however, that it has a short view of the future. 63% of executives look to thought leadership for the immediate future (3-12 months), 27% for near-to-medium-term future (1-2 years) and only 10% value it for the medium-to long term future (2-5+ years).
With this in mind, the emphasis needs to be on the immediate actionable insights thought leadership offers, over long-term “blue sky thinking”.
What buyers want vs what they receive – buyers desire innovative and actionable ideas, but many businesses fall short when they publish thought leadership. Executives value originality and innovative content, but 3 in 5 have seen almost identical content from different providers, and 57% were unable to distinguish between the offerings from competitors.
For this, generative AI is being partially blamed. Whilst it is radically transforming thought leadership with conceptual strategies and data analysis, momentum itsma’s 2024 Thought Leadership Benchmark Report found that 72% of senior marketers feared that generative AI will make all thought leadership the same.
On top of this, the report found that 36% felt thought leadership articles were too self-promotional. This suggests that organisations need to move beyond the promotion of their services and products and focus on genuinely educating and inspiring their audiences to achieve success.
In fact, in a recent PR in HR article, we talked about journalist needs. Vanilla, recycled AI content or commentary will not support their needs, and they have learned to spot AI commentary from some miles off. Fresh insights and expertise is essential.
Business growth – businesses that have robust thought leadership strategies in place have found 8.3% faster growth than their peers. It has also been found that the UK’s top performing companies are embedding thought leadership into their entire customer journey strategies. Interestingly, executives aren’t loyal, and 71% will look to competitors with relevant thought leadership aligning more closely to their needs.
David Gentle, Global Head of Corporate Content at Fujitsu recommends “having a clear idea on the purpose of your thought leadership before thinking about how you will stand out” and Karen Quinn at Finastra recommends “creating a strong foundational content that can be built upon, rather than regenerated time after time”.
The power of creativity – 73% of the survey respondents said they’re more likely to pay attention to attractive, well-designed content. Adding to this is interactivity, for example by including comment boxes, polls and animations, increases the likelihood of engagement and the ability to tailor content.
This shift in content interaction is thought to be due to a generational transition. Cindy Anderson, Global Executive for Thought Leadership Engagement & Eminence at IBM notes that “baby boomers are retiring with millennials climbing the ladder and taking their place, and with differing content consumption preferences, they expect to engage in different ways”.
Marketing meets thought leadership – the report from momentum itsma finishes with a recommendation: ‘marketers must encourage creative collaboration’. Teams must work together to foster a collaborative approach to content with an integrated approach between design and editorial to garner enhanced visuals and messaging that gets results.
In conclusion - businesses aiming to establish authority, drive growth and earn trust, must invest in client-centric thought leadership. Prioritising originality, relevance, and client-focused content, organisations can effectively influence buyer decisions and position your organisation for sustainable growth.
Want to discuss how PR in HR can enhance your thought leadership through individual and effective strategies? Our founder and director, Kay Phelps, creates strategies and messaging that gets to the heart of client, media and audience needs. Get in touch with her to find out more.
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