How Allegra Spender cut through on tax + Thought Leadership 2024 surge + BoJo’s food addiction

Hi

In this edition, I look at three distinct bits of news around content and communication. But the theme is consistent: those producing high-quality comms are gaining attention and trust in this challenging and distracted world.

Also, this newsletter goes to a discreet list and the content is not publicly available. But if you want to recommend someone suitable to be added to the list, let me know.

Thanks.

Ben

How Allegra Spender cut through on tax reform

Most people are aware of Allegra Spender, the high-profile ‘Teal’ member for Wentworth in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. But she really grabbed my attention recently with the launch of her ‘Tax Reform’ Green paper, which has received an inordinate amount of coverage.

I don’t want to comment on the paper itself (nor Spender’s politics). But I do want to briefly comment on her process because Spender’s Green Paper reflects best-practice thought leadership communication in today’s noisy market.

Spender:

1. Addressed a pressing problem

2. Performed in-depth original research

3. Published the results in a hefty document: in this case an extensive Green Paper

4. To maximise its impact, she leveraged that paper across several channels: Media, social media, events, etc.

As mentioned, the cut-through has been substantial.

Spender, of course, could have popped off on X, TikTok or Instagram about tax. She could have written the odd op-ed, shot LinkedIn videos, and appeared on television.

But she achieved amazing cut through because she performed the hard intellectual and research work needed to produce a document of substance that is truly worthy of attention.

As I’ve mentioned before, many of my clients follow a similar process to Spender’s Green Paper and get great results.

***

Trust crisis: Why thought leadership’s value surged in 2024

Spender’s ‘thought leadership’ works in politics, but recent research shows it is becoming even more important in B2B (business to business). (Note: I consider any sophisticated buyer – such as high-net-worth investors – as the equivalent of a B2B buyer.)

Global marketing and advertising giant Dentsu recently released its B2B Superpowers Index 2024. The report surveyed 3528 B2B buyers globally to find out exactly what is driving their purchasing decisions.

A surprise result, as you can see below, is that B2B buyers ranked being an ‘active thought leader’ as their third most important consideration when purchasing – that is, they are much more likely to buy a brand producing thought leadership.

Only last year thought leadership ranked just 20^th.

What explains the huge jump from 2023 to 2024?

Dentsu itself says that as AI accelerates and disrupts every industry, “buyers are understandably looking to brands that can demonstrate genuine expertise”.

What people really want now more than ever – which was a key finding of the overall report – is brands they trust.

Amid global uncertainty and the noise created by AI, both of which accelerated in the past twelve months, trust is at a premium.

In the B2B and sophisticated buyer marketplace, it is high-quality thought leadership that builds trust and brand.

But just when B2B buyers are seeking high-quality thought leadership, brands aren’t delivering that quality.

The Superpowers Index report found that “only just over a quarter of B2B buyers rate B2B brands efforts highly.” (Could quality be deteriorating because more firms are using AI to produce content?) 

The Dentsu report is interesting because it highlights two important facts:

· The huge opportunity for companies to build brand and trust in an uncertain environment using thought leadership.

· The even bigger opportunity for B2B, knowledge and investment firms to produce high-quality thought leadership to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage. As Dentsu says: “It [quality] is a big opportunity for those brands that get it right to set themselves apart.”

The Dentsu data reflects my experience: those producing strategic and high-quality thought leadership are the ones winning in this tough market.

***

Why is Boris Johnson addicted to talking about food?

Boris Johnson recently released his autobiography Unleashed. While some might think ‘BoJo’ is a great British bounder and buffoon, he is acknowledged to be a brilliant rhetorician. (Eton – the elite British school that BoJo attended – is one of the few schools that still teaches rhetoric.)

Despite being a former Labour Party (UK) speechwriter, Simon Lancaster is one communications expert who admires Johnson’s persuasive skills. Lancaster says Johnson’s language and rhetoric particularly makes use of metaphor … especially around food.

Food?

Well, sure enough in Unleashed, Johnson banged on a lot about food. Indeed, Boris’s whole life philosophy seems to be summarised by what he calls ‘cakeism’: “My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it”, he says. We can see this, of course, in both his political and personal life!

After years of delay and stalling around Brexit, Johnson won the 2019 election, in part, because he promised UK voters to ‘Get Brexit Done’ with an ‘oven ready deal’ to finally leave the EU. (His critics, of course, fired back that his deal was ‘half baked’ and a ‘recipe for disaster’!)

So why is Johnson constantly serving up food on his rhetorical platter? As Lancaster says: “Food has long been one of the most powerful sources of connection anyone in communication can make. Our brains are hardwired to forage and feed.”

Johnson is influencing us by connecting with our instinctive brains. We don’t even realise it, but all his food metaphors give us a literal sugar hit – they make us feel good and satiated. And in doing so, they make us more amenable to BoJo and his messages.

One of the most powerful metaphorical connections, of course, is between food and wealth. (Money = ‘dough’ … they ‘bring home the bacon’ … she is the ‘breadwinner’.)

As Lancaster notes, metaphor allows us to connect things that people don’t really care about … with things they do really care about, like food. Master communicators and persuaders are doing this all the time.

Those who connect their language, concepts and brands with food, particularly, become more persuasive and influential. What, after all, is the most successful consumer company on earth?

Apple!