Turning thought leadership into global influence

Thought leadership is one of those things PR teams talk about constantly and still sometimes struggle to achieve on a large scale.

Adam Kiefaber, senior director of content at Worldpay, said, “We spend too much time asking what’s PR-able instead of asking what our audience expects us to know.”

Speaking at the PR Daily Conference, Kiefaber shared how sustained, research-driven thought leadership can grow from a single idea into a global influence machine.

Don’t chase coverage

One of the biggest mistakes PR teams make is asking what will get coverage instead of asking what is useful to their audience, Kiefaber said.

Knowing what people expect should “drive what you research and what you publish,” he said.

Worldpay processes payments in 174 countries, so its clients expect deep expertise on how people pay, not necessarily commentary on every trending topic. That clarity shaped the Global Payments Report, a deep dive into customer behavior, now in its 10th year.

The same principle applies to any industry, he said. HR firms publish talent data. Reputation companies publish trust data.