December 17th, 2023
Corporate PR: Does Catapult Handle Thought Leadership?
The topic for this blog post arose this week, when we had a new business meeting in which we were asked whether Catapult PR handled corporate PR.
We were also specifically quizzed as to whether we have ever created thought leadership. Would we be capable of crafting a campaign based around thought leadership?
This question was a massive surprise. Given that we won a hugely prestigious national CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) award for the Best Corporate and Business Communications campaign in the UK in 2021, we would hope that we are pretty good at handling corporate public relations briefs.
How did we win the corporate PR national award?
That campaign was all about thought leadership. We took a small SME and made it the leading commentator in its sector. Our research also identified a route through which to make that happen – a game-changing opportunity to change the direction of the sector and take it down an environmentally friendly route.
Our renowned ability to come up with compelling ideas also came in here. We created an initiative that allowed the small SME to instil environmental change in its industry and to make all the ‘noise’ in its sector. As part of that, we created the entire vehicle for commentary – the means through which to position the client as an industry expert and an individual with opinions worth listening to and adopting.
Outcomes of our corporate PR campaign
As a result of this, the industry listened. The client suddenly found themselves dealing with a raft of partnering requests with some of the biggest manufacturers in their industry – a means to suddenly generate far more leads for their service and be taken seriously by all.
The initiative also ensured that they had top spot on the home page of the website that supported the biggest exhibition in their sector, throughout the duration of that exhibition. That drove footfall to their stand in a way they could not possibly have ever achieved without our thought leadership idea.
To build on this and amplify the noise, we even built in a social media initiative that encouraged photo shares from the exhibition, which included the client’s brand.
More corporate PR and thought leadership success
But going back to the query about whether we are capable of creating thought leadership and handling corporate PR, we also won a 2022 Silver NW CIPR Award for the Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign – a feat we’ve repeated this year, in 2023.
We’ve also seen our corporate B3B clients having another great year, flourishing on the basis of various initiatives and thought leadership-led pieces that we have constructed for their respective sectors.
Their opinions – which are often our opinions, built on the basis of in-depth research with regard to what is happening in their markets and what is current – are capturing column inches left, right and centre.
This aspect to corporate PR is hugely important to us. Our clients are not necessarily the biggest enterprises in their sectors but that does not mean that they cannot capture share of voice. That is often our intention when we embark on a business-to-business (B2B) campaign. Our clients speak for themselves, often because we speak for our clients.
What is share of voice in PR?
Share of voice is often a great way of measuring what we do in the field of corporate PR and thought leadership. Sometimes referred to as SOV, share of voice considers how much of the ‘market’ your brand is dominating in comparison to your competitors. In PR terms, it means reviewing the media/online coverage and assessing how much our clients have appeared in leading features and on news pages and how that compares to their competitors.
Share of voice is often a very statistical measure that demonstrates our clients’ success and our own achievements in the world of corporate PR. What is hard for us to measure is perception, although I would argue that this is the most important factor of all. This links directly back to thought leadership. If our clients’ target audiences are continuously reading about them and taking on board their opinions and news, they are left with a perception that they know what they are talking about; that they are setting the agenda in their sector, rather than following it.
Why is the perception that PR creates so important within corporate PR?
That perception is key. It is a trust-builder. It is a basis upon which a target feels confident enough to pick up the phone, make contact with a client, have a conversation about their product or service or move their business across to them. It can also move a client from supporter to advocate for a client’s brand. You cannot underestimate the power of PR (public relations) to do this.
Unlike an advertisement, a piece of editorial, or a thought leadership article, appears to carry the third-party endorsement of the press – of the title that carries the editorial. Nobody sees that the article is typically generated in the background by a PR agency. They feel that a journalist or editor has interviewed the client or constructed the article and that carries with it a fair degree of kudos.
People still trust the press, particularly in the corporate sector. This is fundamentally why corporate PR is so important and so essential to do, if you wish to build your brand.
Catapult PR – a corporate PR expert
When asked the question about corporate PR and thought leadership, there were so many examples that could have been provided – and for clients right across the UK. It’s baffling that still, 25 years into our existence, this sort of question can even come up. Our thought leadership campaigns have enabled clients to retire very early, thanks to the profile we have provided, have helped others attract buyers, have enabled clients to keep trading against all odds, have been the basis of major and prestigious sector award wins for a multitude of clients and have transformed businesses.
In short, ‘yes’ we do do corporate PR. ‘Yes’, we do do thought leadership. ‘Yes’, we are a hugely respected, multi-award-winning agency for both of these concepts.
If you wish to take advantage of our creativity, strategic and innovative thinking within corporate PR and our ability to turn clients into thought leaders, please email jane@catapultpr.co.uk or call us on 0333 2424062.
You can also book a one-to-one Zoom, on a no-obligation basis, to discuss your brief and we can help guide your thinking, if you wish to run an idea past us.
If you don’t make contact and go for an agency lacking our skills in this regard, you could come unstuck, so don’t make that mistake. Empty vessels often make the most noise. We’ve obviously not been making enough noise about our corporate PR services and thought leadership abilities. Now we are!
