Way back in the midst of time, 1995 to be exact I was asked to set up a start up company for WPP Group. Under the umbrella of their branding giant, Sampson Tyrell Enterprise…the first names were soon to be dropped, I started Sampson Tyrell Corporate Marketing. With a great deal of energy, optimism and a shared desk I began the task of establishing a new brand in a very crowded marketplace. Critical to my success was going to be some early new business wins, but how to differentiate myself from my peers?
Very soon I realised that at my disposal I had access to some of the world’s leading marketing brands (WPP companies), through which I could both leverage new business leads and original thinking.
Original thinking, what is now called “Thought Leadership”, was at the heart of my marketing strategy and paid instant dividends. In my previous agency I had been very involved with many of the recently privatised electricity companies…PowerGen, The National Grid and NORWEB and I knew a lot about how to market these entities to their multiple stakeholders. I wrote a thought leadership piece about this which was picked up by someone from the Department of Transport (DOT) and after a protracted tender I ended up being one of the main communications advisers for the Railtrack Privatisation. This allowed me to staff up, obtain new premises and by the end of the year we turned in a PBT of £750,000 and had added to our client list with Avis, Citigroup, Guardian Royal Exchange and Bahrain Investment Bank
This success allowed me to focus on continuing to build the important thought leadership platform for the agency. It became very clear that Thought Leadership marketing was not only a great differentiator, through promoting our insights and ideas, but it also created real empathy with both actual and prospective clients which ultimately drove our commercial success.
Thought leadership became the most powerful type of content marketing, at all stages of our brand growth, as it became clear that people liked to learn from a company that was relevant, informed and not frightened to express an opinion.
With help from companies like the Henley Centre for Forecasting, a WPP company we looked at the macro and micro economic and social changes effecting behaviours and marketing and began trying to make sense of the future. We published our original thinking on subjects as diverse the rise of stakeholder pressure groups and the importance of content marketing, we predicted the importance of social media as a comms tool and looked at how PLCs where going to have to become far more accountable.
At DVC we bring this expertise in Thought Leadership to our Clients. We help them make this the best part of their marketing strategy. We help them meaningfully contribute to topics concerning their industries. We help establish relevant and contextual dialogue with their stakeholders by putting together strategic thought leadership plans. Our senior management have been at the forefront of developing global thought leadership plans in multiple sectors on multiple continents for 25 years It is this expertise. in content management, we offer our clients.
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