Tag Archive for: executive pr

What a Real Thought Leadership Strategy Looks Like

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(And Why Most Companies Don’t Have One)

There’s a distinction worth making before any conversation about thought leadership content, channels, or cadence. A thought leadership strategy and a thought leadership content plan are not the same thing. Companies conflate them constantly, and it costs them.

A content plan answers: what do we publish, when, and where? A strategy answers something harder: what position do we need to own, who needs to believe it, and what will make that position credible before we need it to do real work?

Most companies are running a content plan and calling it a strategy. The output looks like thought leadership. The business impact doesn’t.

What a Thought Leadership Strategy Actually Is

Strategy is a positioning decision. It’s the answer to a specific question: in the mind of the audience that matters most to your business outcomes, what do you want to be the undisputed authority on?

That’s not a content brief. It’s a business decision. And like most real business decisions, it requires making tradeoffs. You can’t own five positions simultaneously. You can’t speak credibly to investors, regulators, customers, and potential acquirers with a single undifferentiated voice. A real strategy names the primary audience, identifies the position, and makes explicit choices about what the program will and won’t do.

What thought leadership means in 2026 has evolved considerably. The standard of credibility is higher. The competition for attention is fiercer. And AI search has added a new dimension: your thought leadership now needs to be consistent enough and well-distributed enough to be accurately cited by AI models, not just read by humans. That’s a different bar than it was three years ago.

The Three Decisions That Define Your Strategy

Before any content gets created, three decisions have to be made. Skip them and you’re executing without a foundation.

Decision 1: Which Position to Own

A position is specific. “AI leadership” is not a position. “The executive voice on responsible AI implementation in regulated financial services” is a position. The difference is specificity and defensibility. Can your executive or company credibly hold this position? Is it genuinely yours, or are you trying to claim ground that someone else already owns convincingly?

The right position sits at the intersection of your genuine expertise, a real gap in the existing conversation, and a claim that matters to the audience you need to move. If it’s too broad, it blurs. If it’s too narrow, it doesn’t reach enough of the right people. Finding that intersection is strategic work, not editorial work.

Decision 2: Whose Perception Matters Most

This is the question most programs never ask directly. Thought leadership programs serve different audiences depending on where the company is in its growth stage, and those audiences want different things.

Investors and acquirers want proof that leadership understands the market, the risk landscape, and the competitive dynamics well enough to build durably. Regulators want evidence of responsibility and domain fluency. Customers and buyers want expertise that connects to their own problems. Journalists and analysts want access to a credible, opinionated source.

You may need to reach more than one of these audiences. But the primary audience shapes everything: which channels you prioritize, what topics you emphasize, what tone you use, and how you measure success. A program that tries to speak to all audiences equally ends up resonating with none of them.

Decision 3: What Proof Makes the Position Credible

Authority is proved, then claimed. The claim is your position. The proof is the body of work, coverage, and consistent voice that makes it stick.

Proof looks different depending on the position and the audience. For an investor-facing executive credibility program, proof is bylined content in credible publications, consistent narrative across earned media, and AI search visibility on category-defining queries. For a regulatory-facing program in a restricted industry, proof is association with legitimate industry advocacy, responsible public commentary, and a documented track record of accurate and accountable public statements.

Naming the proof upfront determines what the execution plan actually has to produce. Without this decision, you end up with a content calendar full of activity and no clear accumulation of authority.

Why Most Thought Leadership Programs Fail

The failure mode is consistent. Companies skip the three decisions and go straight to execution. They assign content topics, set a publishing cadence, and measure output: posts per month, articles published, impressions generated. None of those metrics tell you whether authority is building.

The deeper problem is narrative leakage. When an executive’s LinkedIn posts, the company blog, earned media quotes, and speaking appearances all pull in slightly different directions, the audience, and AI models, receive a fragmented picture. No single piece of content is wrong. But the sum of them doesn’t add up to a coherent position. Narrative leakage is one of the most expensive and least diagnosed problems in thought leadership programs. It’s what happens when you’re executing well but strategizing poorly.

Activity-based measurement makes it worse. If you’re rewarding the team for volume, you’ll get volume. If you’re measuring authority, you’ll get authority. The metrics that actually matter are share of voice, AI visibility, journalist citation rates, and narrative consistency, not post counts and impressions.

What a Thought Leadership Strategy Looks Like in Practice

A real strategy has four components.

First, a narrative position statement. This is a single, defensible claim about what your executive or company stands for in a specific domain. It’s not a tagline. It’s the strategic anchor every piece of content and every media decision checks against.

Second, an audience hierarchy. Who is the primary audience? What do they need to believe, and what will change their behavior if they believe it? Secondary audiences are defined by their relationship to the primary outcome, not treated as equally important.

Third, a proof roadmap. What body of work, over what timeframe, would make a skeptical primary audience member accept the position as credible? This maps to channel mix, content format, and earned media targets, and it has a timeline built in. The best time to build executive authority is before you need it, not when a high-stakes moment has already arrived.

Fourth, a measurement framework tied to business outcomes. This is where the Fingerprint PR Strategy comes in. Every program we build at Avaans starts with a strategic diagnostic that identifies where narrative leverage exists, what the competitive coverage landscape looks like, and what KPIs connect to the company’s actual business objectives, whether that’s a funding round, an exit, a regulatory approval, or category leadership. The output isn’t a content calendar. It’s clarity.

How to Know if Your Strategy Is Working

Authority metrics, not activity metrics. Three signals matter most.

AI visibility is now a primary indicator. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews a question in your category, are you cited? Are you cited accurately? Is the positioning consistent with what you’ve built? This is measurable, and it’s a direct reflection of how well your narrative has distributed across credible sources. See thought leadership best practices for a full breakdown of what to track.

Share of voice tells you whether you’re gaining or losing ground in the category conversation relative to competitors. It’s not impressions in isolation. It’s whether you’re in the right conversations, quoted in the right context, and framed as the authority rather than a participant.

Narrative consistency across channels is the integrity check. Run the same query across multiple AI tools. Search your executive’s name. Read the last 10 earned media mentions. Does a coherent position emerge? Or do you get a scattered picture that reflects a content plan rather than a strategy?

When to Build It Yourself Versus When to Hire a Thought Leadership Agency

Early-stage companies can build the foundation internally, especially if there’s a founder with genuine expertise and the discipline to stay consistent. The limiting factors are usually strategic clarity and execution bandwidth, not capability.

Pre-IPO companies, PE-backed businesses, and companies in regulated industries should not attempt this without senior-level strategic support. The stakes are too high and the windows are too specific. A misstep in narrative positioning six months before a funding event or regulatory review doesn’t just cost content budget. It costs credibility at the moment when credibility is the primary asset.

What to look for in a thought leadership PR agency: senior-led execution (no junior teams running high-stakes accounts), a process that starts with strategic positioning before any pitching begins, and a track record working with the specific audiences you need to reach. If the agency leads with media relationships rather than strategy, that’s a signal about how they think about the work.

If you’re building or rebuilding a thought leadership program and want a clear-eyed assessment of where the gaps are, start with an assessment.

 

The Invisible Asset, written by Avaans Media founder Tara Coomans, is the PR ROI framework that builds brand equity, drives valuation, attracts capital, and wins high-stakes moments. It’s built for CMOs defending budgets, CEOs preparing for a capital event, and operators in regulated categories. Get the book →

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5 PR Trends CMOs Need to Watch in 2022

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Key Takeaways

  • Techlash and Consumer Engagement: The ongoing distrust in social media requires brands to rethink their online strategies. Engaging consumers through customer service on social media and focusing on smaller, targeted platforms is crucial for maintaining loyalty and satisfaction.
  • Purpose-Driven Marketing: Brands that align with consumer values and take a stand on social issues are seeing increased loyalty, especially among Millennials and Gen Z. Emphasizing self-care, sustainability, and local support is key for attracting these demographics in the current landscape.
  • Cross-Department Collaboration: Breaking down silos between PR, marketing, and branding is essential for creating cohesive and effective campaigns. A unified approach will enhance brand loyalty and ensure consistent messaging across all platforms and initiatives.

5 PR Trends CMOs Need to Watch for 2022

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There’s no shortage of uncertainty in marketing and PR planning for 2021. But there are some trends happening that are sure to impact PR and Marketing in 2021. At Avaans PR, CMO’s love us because we know consumer trends impact where our target audience will be, the frame of mind they’ll be in and what journalists will write about.  On a tactical level, trends impact our content creation, journalist relationships, and campaign recommendations we’re making now and in the next year. We’re ready for 2021 to require agility, but we’ve found that even agility requires forward-looking and yes, some planning. These are 5 of the marketing and PR trends for 2021 we’re watching on behalf of our consumer-forward brands.

PR Trend #1: Techlash Continues

From a PR trend perspective, this has a tremendous impact. Now is the time to reimagine how you’ll use social and digital media in 2022, from both a marketing and PR perspective.

The sting of social media won’t soon to be forgotten by consumers, regardless of political affiliation. During 2020, in particular, during the pandemic, social media took on outsized importance, but also affected consumers in new ways, and not all of them positive.

Yes, consumers continue to spend time and even buy on social media, but they are spending more and more time in micro-groups of their own on platforms like Slack or Messenger, or in like-minded platforms. This means brands will have to be extremely smart about their placements and presence in 2021. The separation also requires brands to be exceptionally clear about who their customers really are.

Further, the coveted 25-55 college-educated, earning $100,000 or more per year are using social media for customer service. This coveted group will not support companies who don’t support customer care. If 2020 was the year of pandemic-related customer acquisition for your brand, 2021 will most definitely need to be about keeping them happy and engaged. Part of that will most definitely be a branding effort to existing customers, ensuring your values align with theirs (more on purpose-driven initiatives below).

But it’s not just customer service affecting social media in 2021.  e-Marketer reported:

We have increased our forecast on mobile messaging and now believe time spent by US adults will grow by 4 minutes in 2020, to 24 minutes per day, not only due to the pandemic but also data showing strong engagement on messaging services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple iMessage.

 

PR Trend #2: Work With Media in New Ways

Whether it’s TV, programmatic, or print, all media outlets are bracing for reduced advertising revenue in 2021. This will have very real implications for public relations initiatives.

First, according to Edelman, trust in media actually increased in 2020. This means you should absolutely be leveraging the trust of other outlets, particularly in lieu of the distrust around social media. However, you should do so with earned media and branded content.

Expect to see more “branded content,” in 2021. Well done branded content can be very effective in both PR and branding, so consider these options carefully. Branded content is better received than traditional ads, in fact, Second Street Lab reported in June that branded content through premium publishers sees a 50% brand lift.

Further, outlets will need to keep eyeballs on their content, to help drive ad revenue, brands with media relations campaigns should be looking at ways to support outlets who support them. At Avaans PR we are actively doing this for our clients already and seeing great brand lift and also enhanced journalist relations.

 

PR Trend #3: Purpose-Driven Buyers

Trusted brands saw huge increases during the pandemic, up to 50% growth, according to McKinsey. This is due to an unprecedented shift in brand loyalty during the pandemic.

Even pre-pandemic, affinity for brands who take a stand and align with consumer’s values were seeing real ROI on purpose-driven initiatives. As Americans slog through the pandemic, they are consistently re-evaluating priorities, this is especially true for Millenials and GenZ.

PR trends for 2021, include self-love and body positivity will be a purpose for many buyers, especially those who emerge from isolation hibernation with a few extra pounds. GenZ is feeling stressed. While some are still below the age of 18, they remember the great recession. Right now, self-care and home comfort are top of their list. Pre-pandemic, GenZ was actually returning to malls, but the pandemic has left this generation feeling a bit powerless and reconsidering purchasing behavior, at least for now. But 51% of GenZ’ers say they will return to in-store shopping. But when GenZ returns to stores, according to Retail Dive, they’ll do so with the expectation of safety and a frictionless environment that mirrors the ease of online shopping.   GenZ is also moving towards “thoughtful consumption,” especially those brands with responsible sourcing, environmentally friendly policies or support social issues. Local businesses and minority-owned businesses are also on their radar in a whole new way.

As for Millenials, the eldest of whom are in their 40’s already, are leading the way, followed by the often forgotten GenX, to continue online shopping across almost all verticals from essentials to alcohol, according to McKinsey.

Plus, record low-interest rates have created a whole host of new home buyers. In September 2020, 60% of U.S. homebuyers were Millenials, they’re likely to spend an increasing amount of time at home, items that allow them to spend more quality time with friends and family will be attractive, so delivery and home-based products will take a new focus for that generation.

PR Trend #5: The New Corporation

The media loves cultural changes and the radical changes to corporate America as a result of the COVID pandemic are monumental. From new work structures resulting from work from home to updated DEI hiring practices, diverse executives, and the great resignation, the media is covering companies through a very different lens today.

Technology is a considerable sub-topic here. If your brand is using technology or inventing technology to address these radical changes, there are considerable thought leadership opportunities for you.

From a spokesperson perspective, the media is also being more proactive about gathering a multitude of diverse perspectives on almost any topic. If you’re hiring corporate spokespersons or brand representatives, be clear on your objectives, and your audience. Not all spokespersons are useful in PR, and that doesn’t mean they aren’t perfectly good spokespersons for things like ads or social media, but they might not get a lot of lift in PR.

Trust is no longer a trend – it’s an imperative. From a public relations standpoint, you’ll want to be thinking about how your brand will differentiate itself in the media and marketing activities. With trust and security taking new precedence, brands will need to think about how they will reinforce those messages in a brand-consistent way.  Now is the time to explore partnerships and the potential activations, which will create the memorable moments consumers are craving.

From tourism to retail to direct-to-consumer products, brands will need to be thinking about how they will be relevant at the right moment.

From content to media relations to events, now is the time to plan, but bake in flexibility. For example, secure your video producers now, and create three original scripts, secure the time and the talent now, so you can move faster than everyone else when the moment is right.

PR Trend #5: Cross Collaboration

This is the year where everything needs alignment. If you haven’t already, tear down the silos between PR, Marketing, and Branding. Get those people together now so they can be more effective together in 2022. Think about how each department can align on digital and in-person initiatives. Think about initiatives that are word-of-mouth worthy, there will be plenty of industry and even national coverage for brands that are thoughtful about how they align.

A unified, personal experience will be an expectation in 2021. So ensure your messaging, your purpose, and your plans are operating together, not just in tandem, but together.

Use your owned, earned, and paid media together in new ways and your brand can benefit from the realignment of brand loyalty happening right now.

 

If you’re ready to use these and other marketing & PR trends for 2021 in a more customized way, let’s talk. 

This article has been updated

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5 Tips To Secure Executive Speaking Engagements

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Key Takeaways

  • Do Your Homework: Research the conference and its audience thoroughly before pitching. Understand the topics in demand, review past speakers, and align your presentation to add genuine value to attendees.
  • Focus on the Organizer’s Needs: Tailor your pitch to emphasize how your presentation will benefit both the conference organizer and the audience. Highlight your credibility, social proof, and how you can help drive attendance.
  • Develop a Strong Point of View: Be bold and articulate a distinct perspective or unique insights. Create memorable statements that resonate with attendees, ensuring your presentation stands out and sparks discussion.

There are only so executive speaking spots in a given year.

Securing an executive speaking engagement is an honor, so if your  PR and marketing plan includes pitching trade show organizers, it’s never too early to get your house in order. Every conference opens calls for speakers differently and every conference accepts pitches differently, but if you get your house in order submitting for speaking engagements will become exciting and fun!

1. Do Your Homework 

Before you submit your industry speaking pitch, take a look at the speaker FAQ page, if one doesn’t exist, send an email to the conference organizer asking what topics they’re seeking and what parameters you should consider before submitting.  As a former conference organizer, it always surprised me how many questions we received which were readily available in the FAQ; alternatively, when I received questions, it was always a welcomed opportunity to hear what was unclear and how we could improve.

Review past speakers and talk to attendees at the conference, if you haven’t been yourself. Find out who the most successful presenters were and why the audience loved them so much. Review the conference hashtag and see who people talked about and why. Take a look at relevant magazine headlines, where are the emerging industry stories and can you tap into that in your presentation? Before you start pitching, do your travel budget because most executive speakers pay their own way.

Take a servant-leadership mentality and really think about who the audience is and how you can add real value to their business.

2. Consider the Organizer’s Needs

During your pitch, it’s not about you. It’s about how you can add value to the conference organizer and attendees. Take stock of your recent PR wins and use them as social proof. Conference organizers want to be sure their limited presentation spots are filled by people attendees want to hear from. The conference organizer’s job is to get people in the door, enough people to make exhibitors and sponsors thrilled by attendance – many people are so focused on promoting their key messages in the pitch they forget about the audience when they’re submitting for a speaking engagement.

Regardless, when you’re developing your pitch, don’t shy away from pointing out how your topic is timely and relevant to the specific audience the conference is trying to attract and why the attendees will be thrilled by your presentation. Articulating how you will drive traffic to the conference will also get an organizer’s attention.

Help the organizer visualize how you can help them, point out your strengths:

Conference organizers are also drowning in applications. Sifting through speaker applications is often like sifting through resumes, it’s monotonous, so speak directly to the conference organizer’s needs in your blurb. For this reason, some conferences are largely pay-to-play, speaker slots are primarily reserved for industry heavy hitters and sponsors or those willing to pay the conference organizer a fee. In that case, you have three choices: become an industry heavy-hitter by using the many PR and content avenues open to you, sponsor the conference, or blow them out of the water the other 4 tips presented here. Want to guarantee a speaker spot? Do all of it.

 

3. Develop Your Distinct Point of View

Be a Bold Thinker

Be bold, be current and don’t be afraid to take a strong stand on an industry or cultural topic. A strong point of view and a strong title will go along way. If you’re unwilling to take a bold stand, then think about sharing an insightful case study that transparently digs deep into what went right and what went wrong.

Be an Expert:

Share your distinct expertise, give the attendees something no one else can give them. Develop 1-2 memorable, quotable statements which you’ll use in your pitch and during your presentation that illustrates your distinct point of view. Show the conference organizers that you’ll have the attendees talking about your presentation.

4. Get Your Assets In Order

Because executive speaking engagements are competitive, make sure your house is in order.  One key element is all your public-facing assets. You might say that you don’t have time for this, but if you look around, the conference speakers who always get the gig do these things – even CEOs.

Social Media

For example, kick it into gear on social media. Many conference organizers will look at your personal and cannabis brand’s social media to get a sense of how engaged you are with the cannabis industry and whether the industry views your CEO or brand as leading in some way. Use your social media strategically and be sure to engage your audience.

Company Website

Create a speaker’s page on your blog with sample topics and presentations you’re prepared to give. Social media is another straightforward way for conference organizers to differentiate executive speakers.

Content

Make sure your headshot is professional, develop some industry blogs for your website that reflect your thought leadership. Use LinkedIn for those pieces as well.  For these pieces, you can think of quality over quantity.

Do a Google search on your name so you know what the conference organizer will see when they look you up,  take the necessary steps to improve the search in advance of your speaking pitches.

If you’re new to speaking at the conference, be prepared to submit a video of yourself presenting on your topic and a letter of recommendation from a communications professional or industry professional.

5. Be Human & Personalize

Speaking at industry conferences is an honor, and yes, a great opportunity. Remember to be authentic and genuine in your speaker pitch. Make your pitch empathetic and about the industry and the organizer, show that you really understand that it’s your job to make your presentation great, not the other way around.

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Why Do PR: Should You Hire In-House or Agency for Marketing and PR?

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Key Takeaways

  • Cost-Effectiveness and Scalability: Hiring a PR agency can be more cost-effective than building an in-house team, as agencies provide access to a diverse group of specialists without the added expenses of salaries and benefits. They also offer scalability, allowing brands to quickly ramp up resources for campaigns or launches.
  • Flexibility and Speed: In-house teams offer immediate access and flexibility for brainstorming, but agencies can start projects faster and bring a systematic onboarding process. Agencies can also provide external perspectives that help maintain strategic focus without getting bogged down by internal politics.
  • Expertise and Resources: Agencies bring specialized knowledge and tools that enhance PR efforts, including access to monitoring and analytics platforms. They can offer insights into industry trends and best practices, helping brands navigate the market effectively while supporting in-house teams when needed.

Why do PR? Emerging or growing brands often ask should I hire in-house or use a PR agency?

They’re asking themselves this question against a wild backdrop and volatile marketplace. But even during corrections, thousands of businesses are finding their footing and growing. It truly is the wild, wild, west in right now. The reason executives are asking themselves this question is because regardless of lay-offs and investment size, what both these businesses also have in common are some enormous plans that require PR and marketing.

Many companies have concerns about hiring agencies, they worry about finding the right PR agency, they worry about disclosure to people outside the company; they worry about failure. Those are legitimate concerns, many of those same concerns can be an issue with employees, but with an agency, they can be addressed with strategic questions and planning, and taking a little time to get to know your potential pr agency. And the good news is that the best agencies seem to know one another. If you find a great marketing agency or a great branding agency, chances are, they know a PR firm they like and trust.

In-House PR Advantages

Proximity

If you like having someone to bounce ideas off on a whim, in-house PR teams offer that flexibility more than PR agencies. PR agencies are typically a little more formal about meetings and goal-setting.

Cross-Departmental Integration

As companies and brands grow, it’s often great to have someone in-house who formalizes internal communications and ensures other departments are considering PR implications.

Agency Management

If you’re managing multiple agencies, like a marketing agency and a public relations agency, having an in-house point person is a great advantage. Agencies will often work together, but someone needs to ensure the brand’s objectives are always at the forefront.

But what are the practical business reasons for hiring an agency over an in-house team for brands?

Cost-Effective

A single hire’s salary can cost you more than an agency, and that single hire, because they are human, has limitations. Agencies specialize in providing you with the team of specialists you need when you need them. Add this to the fact that you won’t be paying benefits, payroll taxes, and health insurance, and it adds up to savings for both big brands and startups.

Think about it, in addition to your CMO and/or a Communications Officer, who will each need a manager and team, including a media relations specialist, a content writer, a social media manager, a graphic designer, and a multitude of marketing and listening tools which can all easily add up to $400,000 or more, plus benefits.

Plus, if something dramatic happens, it’s also usually less expensive to separate from an agency. Many PR agencies, including us, have a separation agreement in the contract that spells out the process if something radically changes, so it’s a reasonably straightforward process that brings peace of mind to executives in this volatile time.

The IRS Sees PR Agencies As an Expense

Agencies streamline payroll AND they are also a straight business expense.  Talk to your CPA about what makes the most sense for your business.

PR Agency Superpower: Scaleability

Think of your agency as your expansion team. In addition to receiving top-notch strategy and planning, you’ll also have access to team members who are in the thick of it and can give a point of view from the front lines too. When you have a team of people, it’s easier to tap into insights and trends that you might otherwise miss. But it’s also important to note that when you hire a cannabis PR firm or a cannabis marketing firm you’ll get a team of professionals who can more easily scale up during launches or big campaigns.

Even if you do decide to take certain elements in-house, your agency continues to serve you with perspective and resources that support your in-house team. For example, many brands want a PR expert in-house for a multitude of reasons, especially corporate communications and investor relations. But your PR executive still needs a team to help execute, especially in the area of media relations. Few in-house communications executives are actively pitching and engaging with journalists as often as our team is, our media relations team is a top-notch time saver for in-house PR teams.

Seeing the Forest Through The Trees

It’s easy to lose perspective when there’s a lot going on. An agency can provide additional listening and strategy insights you might not have considered. Having a team that has your back and isn’t bogged down in your office politics can really keep things moving along.

In-house team members tend to be front-line advocates internally. And that’s a really important role, especially if you’re trying to build a culture as many brands are. But those day-to-day tasks, meetings, and internal cajoling tend to make consistent outward-looking perspectives difficult. Use your agency to bring you a consistent overall vision of the marketplace and strategies that will set you apart for the long run. Look for agencies with whom you can have open and collaborative dialogue to get the most out of your agency.

Get to Work Fast!

The right agency can get to work much faster than onboarding an employee.  Agencies have a client on-boarding process that will be systematic and strategic because they want to get to work too. You won’t spend your time showing someone where the coffee maker is, you’ll spend your time reviewing strategy and goals.

Access To The Latest Technology & Tools

You pay a fair share for platforms and services that are critical to your business. So do agencies. We have top-notch monitoring, analytics, and communications platforms – you get access to those without adding those non-critical operating costs to your bottom line.

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