10 | Thought leadership
and brands doing it well beyond LinkedIn.
In the in-between months, before leaving the warmth and increasing polarization of Venice Beach for the Pacific chill and increasing polarization of my hometown of San Francisco, I worked on a project with David Harry Stewart.
DH was a photographer during the industry’s latter heyday, from the early 90s on until the middle 2000s. He realized something as he was getting older. The models stayed the same age (allright allright allright).
No one was capturing those who were aging dynamically. He started a platform, Ageist, with the help of friend-of-the-letter Matt Hirst and myself, that sought to upend the narrative around aging.
He photographed his interview subjects like he had his models, looking vibrant and irreverent. All were beautifully composed. All had interviews running with them along with insights from DH’s own journey.
This wasn’t raging against the dying of the light, but active inspiration and service editorial on people who’d started companies for the first time, or finally landed in the vocation where their passion and skills intersected. His thought leadership was unique in a marketing and communications landscape that treated aging like a health & wellness topic.
Sculptor Daniel Wheeler as photographed by DH for Ageist.
We treated his platform much in the way a brand should treat all narratives it wants to put out in the world:
What are the topics that felt authentic to him?
What was his angle on those topics?
How did he present them using the tactics that suited him best?
It’s hard to be a thought leader as a person. There’s so many of them. Just count the newsletters in your inbox.
Now imagine how hard it is for a brand, with all the internal tension and points of view that come with its prominence and its drive for profit.
They’re hoping the content they create builds credibility and influence and leads to conversions. They use it to comment on the trends in their industries, take their own positions on these trends, and establish not just authority over their domain, but a steely-eyed confidence as they gaze toward the future.
And all this without endangering shareholder value.
There are clever executions in the SaaS world, like what software company Hubspot did with the millenial newsletter darling The Hustle. Do you know that one? It’s a daily newsletter featuring curated news and trending topics relevant to anyone who wants to be a founder. It was started in San Francisco by Sam Parr and — after it was acquired — became a showcase for the kind of CRM magic and growth hacking wizardry Hubspot could provide its customers.
At the very least, those newsletters, white papers or feverish LinkedIn posts are raising a brand’s profile, maybe winning over customers. At best, they’re steering important conversations into the general discourse.
The brands below belong to the latter group.
👇🏼 some nice examples
IRL by Mozilla 🎧 A nonprofit that owns a for-profit corporation, Mozilla’s unique standing in Silicon Valley cannot be understated. They began in 1998 with an open-source approach in launching their web browser Netscape Navigator (throwback!). The company’s philosophy from the get-go was promoting an open, transparent, and accessible internet. They jettisoned Navigator and gave us Firefox in 2004, and, well, that mighty browser doesn’t own more than 5% of the market (Chrome and Safari utterly dominate). But Mozilla’s advocacy message has persisted, even in its product. An update to Firefox in 2017 made user privacy and data protection core principles. For more on those principles, head to their web site and read their manifesto and their blogs. They’re meaningful and might resonate a lot more in these days of “entshittification” (credit to Cory Doctorow). But if that feels a little preachy, then their podcast might do the trick. I’ve created podcasts for big brands, and getting an idea this obvious and objective sold in is hard. IRL is now in its seventh season. Each one explores a different topic that ladders up to the brand’s purpose: the meaning of truth online, the human cost of digital ubiquity, making AI more humane. There’s wit, and pathos, and deep research that goes into each season — crucial because they so often tilt at the windmills of their own industry. The whole vibe is more NPR than branded podcast. And here’s the secret bonus: customers spend more time with podcasts than any other marketing touchpoint. So there’s a good chance their message is not just sinking in, but expanding their brand relevance in a vital conversation.
Rimowa Design Prize by Rimowa 🛄 The heritage German luggage maker (bought by LVMH in 2017) has had a decidedly Louis Vuitton gloss-up, what with their Lewis Hamilton-y brand ambassadors and Off-White-y collabs. But the heart of their brand story remains their craftsmanship and innovation (they introduced their aluminum design in 1934, when suitcases were still largely leather and wood). That’s why this design prize, now only in its second year, is such a clever initiative. Students from 28 leading arts and design universities in Germany participate, and a murderer’s row of German design heritage — Vitra, Porsche, Braun — sit on the jury, Rimowa’s intention is not just to burnish their own authority in the innovation space, but serve as good custodians of the next generation of German design. All students that advance into the first round take part in a mentorship program spearheaded by a jury member. The winner receives €20,000, and there are cash prizes for all who finish in the top 7. A theme of “mobility” last year (and this year as well) netted a winning entry by Noa Grgic that glamourized prosthetics. This year’s finalists are similarly occupied with complex issues like mental health and climate change. Though there’s content around it, this thought leadership is in a more demonstrative vein. Rimowa’s showing their commitment to tackling not just the trending topics of their brand space, but the issues that lie beyond.
🐳 Flotsam & Jetsam 🧊
Random links from this week’s haul
📕 I love fiction. How else do you get close to understanding the comedy and tragedy of the human condition? Here’s a good, recent list of the greatest American novels. Go crazy.
🎧 This Business of Fashion interview with the cultural philosopher behind one of Cairo’s most innovative retail concepts expanded my world view in one episode. And he drops a beautiful Rumi quote. Use it in your next contentious meeting.
🎹 How many free New Yorker articles do you get? Use one on this essay on the twilight of the music manager. Yes, an anecdote of someone dangling someone else from a balcony is included.
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