Ever wonder what SAP, CISCO and FORD have in common in terms of why and how they use content on the internet? The answer isn’t far fetched, and we at Brooks and Blake think it’s high time Nigeria brands enter that space.

Thought Leadership is something we are all used to. As an already existing marketing buzz word, it is a subtle area of marketing where the experience, talent and passions of a business or its community is used to answer tough questions facing a target audience or topic. It is an aspect of content marketing.

As mentioned earlier, big brands like CISCO and SAP have already taken to thought leadership. CISCO is championing IoT (Internet of Things) while SAP is leading the business of innovation. On the benefit side, asides positioning their brands as authorities in the chosen focus area, thought leadership projects the brand as problem solvers – the very reason brands came to be.

In Nigeria, some brands are already flexing but yet to perfect their muscles on this issue thought leadership. Easy examples are First Bank for SME and Unilever for Sustainability.

A key aspect of thought leadership is in the projection of someone who embodies what the brand intends to push. Most times, the person is a CEO, a top staff or an ambassador that readily fits the brand’s speak and topic interest. Take for instance how Apple pushed innovations with Steve Jobs and Unilever with its CEO Paul Polman. These are opportunities Nigerian brands are yet to explore fully.

Nigerian brands need to begin projecting their CEOs, CMOs, CFOs … and all other Cs as well as their brand ambassador beyond press mentions, interviews or promotions. Thought leadership offers brands a new perspective for the use of their organization assets and opens up opportunities for more recognition, consideration and loyalty from its target audience. A weird suggestion may be to even project employees who have interest which tie into the brand’s interest, products or services and messaging.

The next phase will be to talk about areas brands can use thought leadership in and how to go about it. These will be discussed in our next article.

This piece first appeared on Brooks and Blake’s blog blog. http://brooksandblake.com/is a top PR agency in Nigeria and 2016 winner Outstanding PR Agency Award.[color=#990000][/color]