Why Thought Leadership Is Failing — and How to Solve It

Industry leaders are developing thought leadership more than ever. Nearly 90% of decision makers and C-suite executives say they are more receptive to access from companies that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership, yet engagement continues to decline.

Linked posts flattened. Long-form material collects dust. Events feel predictable. The effort is there, but the effect is not.

It shows how people engage with ideas. We now operate in a zero-click world, where audiences rarely leave the platform they’re already on. They skimmed. They scroll. They have low confidence. Ideas are evaluated quickly, often without a second chance, and judged when they appear.

As a result, thought leadership is entering a new phase. One that relies less on volume and more on experience. Ideas need to do more than just exist – they need to be felt and remembered.

This new phase is experimental thought leadership.

The process of experiential thought leadership

Rather than relying on a single report or article, experiential thought leadership brings insights to life through moments that engage and sustain attention. This can include interactive webinars, in-person sessions, immersive events, podcasts or installations designed to take the audience out of their usual distractions. The thinking is serious, but the delivery is designed to engage, not just inform.

Experiential thought leadership challenges the status quo by asking a simple question: If every brand activates its ideas in the same way, why would the audience choose you?

The old system is collapsing

Thought leadership remains powerful, but the way it is activated no longer has the same impact.

For years, long reports and gated content worked when audiences had time to concentrate. Today, even interested readers start a report and get pulled by emails, meetings or notifications before reaching the end.

At the same time, most brands mobilize thought leadership in a similar way. A report is published, shared on social media and supported by an email campaign. When everything follows the same pattern, strong ideas get mixed up and are easy to ignore.

If a report can be summarized in ChatGPT in seconds, why would anyone spend time reading it? Whether we like it or not, this behavior signals that the experience is no longer paying attention.

Contrast that with moments like the Cannes Lions B2B Festival, where thought leadership is experienced rather than exercised. Live discussions, immersive sessions and dedicated spaces remove everyday distractions and keep the audience focused on the ideas in front of them, making those ideas much more likely to stick.

The cost of blending

B2B has a lot to learn from B2C.

Consumer brands understand that attention is earned through experience. They take people out of their normal environment, remove distractions and create moments that leave an impression. B2B audiences are no different. They are just as hungry and just as affected by how an experience makes them feel.

The assumption is that experimentation means big budgets and complex constructions.

It doesn’t.

This means designing moments where people are engaged, not distracted, whether on a large stage or in a smaller, more controlled setting.

Events like Thought Leadership for Tomorrow show how this can work in practice. Built around a clear sense of community and shared challenges, this intimate event takes people out of their daily routines and into an environment designed for conversation and connection.

But not every experiential moment needs to be an event. For example, Carn Ferry’s briefings The podcast brings thought leadership closer to home by focusing on realistic leadership scenarios rather than expert monographs. Audiences hear situations they recognize, which makes insights feel instantly relevant rather than filed away and forgotten.

None of this works without a deep understanding of the audience. Organizations cannot create meaningful experiences without understanding who they are for. Experiential thought leadership depends on cross-department collaboration, with marketing, sales, leadership and customer-facing teams aligned around real pain points and priorities. When that alignment is there, experiences feel relational rather than performative.

Memorizing thought leadership

Design leadership as an experience, not an asset:

Start by identifying where your vision currently resides as a single document or article. Then ask how that thought can be experienced instead. This might mean turning a report into a live talk, a workshop-style webinar or a small in-person session where the idea is explored rather than read. Its purpose is to create attention and memory, not just to advance something in the world.

Think big, but design within your means:

Experiential thought leadership doesn’t need a big budget. Start with a well-defined moment where focus is protected and distractions are minimized. A well-crafted virtual roundtable, half-day in-person session or focused hybrid experience can be far more effective than a large-scale event if it’s intentionally designed and executed well.

Stop relying on personal opinion to decide what works:

Replace internal discussion with observation. Test ideas in small ways, pay attention to how the audience responds, and use that feedback as the scale you measure. If a short session generates more discussion than a long presentation, it’s worth a signal. Let audience behavior, not senior priority, shape future decisions.

Take calculated risks, not complacency:

Identify an element of your thought leadership that feels overly familiar and change it. It can be the shape, layout or the way people participate. Pilot new approaches on a small scale, evaluate what’s getting attention and what’s not, and adjust quickly. The goal is to learn quickly without jeopardizing the entire program.

Create experiments about real audience understanding:

Don’t just rely on marketing insights. Bring sales, leadership and customer-facing teams into the planning process to surface genuine buyer questions, objections and moments of hesitation. Those teams listen to what audiences care about every day. When this perspective shapes experience, thought leadership feels relevant rather than staged, and trust develops more naturally.

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Industry leaders are developing thought leadership more than ever. Nearly 90% of decision makers and C-suite executives say they are more receptive to access from companies that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership, yet engagement continues to decline.

Linked posts flattened. Long-form material collects dust. Events feel predictable. The effort is there, but the effect is not.