How Cap Gemini uses thought leadership as a strategic growth driver - with Vito Labate

In the evolving world of B2B marketing, thought leadership has emerged as a critical component for building trust and driving business growth. This strategic approach has become particularly prominent in professional services firms, where expertise and credibility are key differentiators in winning and retaining clients.

To gain insights into this vital marketing discipline, I spoke with Vito Labate, VP of Global Industry Marketing at Capgemini, the $23 billion global tech consulting firm that recently won gold in the thought leadership category at the B2B Marketing Awards in London. Scroll down the page for a video segment of the interview and an audio player for the full interview.

With over 20 years at Capgemini, Labate has witnessed firsthand the evolution of marketing within professional services organizations and offers valuable perspective on how thought leadership has become a strategic growth driver rather than merely a support function.

The evolution of marketing in professional services

According to Labate, the role of marketing in professional services firms has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade. "Ten years ago, you probably would have thought or seen a lot of marketing organizations almost perceived as a support function. Now we're seen as a strategic growth driver. We're responsible for bringing growth to the firm and helping the firm grow," he explains.

This shift has moved marketing from a predominantly brand awareness and event-heavy approach to becoming a strategic part of business growth. Labate points to the increased focus on data-backed marketing strategies, analytics, and hyper-personalized campaigns as evidence of this evolution.

"I think there's a lot more focus in the industry around the benefits that AI is bringing to the table. If you want to run hyper-personalized campaigns today, you need to have that capability of analytics behind it," Labate notes.

He also highlights the growing importance of storytelling in B2B marketing: "I think you see so much more focus on how we go to market in non-traditional ways, how we share stories, either from our clients or from our employees themselves of what we can bring to the table. And I didn't see that 10 years ago."

Thought leadership: Currency for professional services

For professional services firms like Capgemini, thought leadership serves as a form of currency in building client relationships. "In our industry, it's all about credibility," Labate emphasizes. "If you don't build credibility with your influence with the decision-makers, you can't be successful in the professional services world."

Unlike product-driven industries that focus on features and functions, professional services firms sell expertise and insight. "The value that I think we're bringing is around our expertise, our insight, our ability to counsel our clients on how to navigate their transformational journeys within their own organizations," says Labate.

Capgemini has committed substantial resources to thought leadership, establishing the Capgemini Research Institute to create proprietary research aimed at C-level clients. This investment reflects the organization's understanding that thought leadership is not a peripheral activity but central to their business model.

Award-winning approach: The 'Building trust in data' campaign

Capgemini's gold-winning campaign, 'Building trust in data sharing', focused on the public sector and addressed the challenge of helping groups of organizations share data securely and compliantly to make more informed decisions and deliver better public services.

The campaign faced unique challenges, including targeting organizations across Europe that spoke different languages and often worked behind firewalls, making them difficult to reach through conventional means.

"Part of the approach that we took to overcome some of those challenges was thought leadership," Labate explains. "We needed to provide our target clients there with credible insights... We used ad campaign techniques to be able to amplify some of those challenges on how Capgemini can help address that for our clients."

The campaign successfully balanced both brand building and demand generation objectives. "It served both purposes because thought leadership was such a major part of it," notes Labate. "It helped us build not only that trust and credibility—the mindshare—but also led to some of the pipeline impact and market share."

Finding the balance: brand and demand

In B2B marketing, there's often tension between brand-building activities and demand generation initiatives. Labate argues that effective thought leadership achieves both objectives when executed correctly.

"Thought leadership was really focused on speaking to the executive of our audience organizations and generating some interest amongst the analyst community, amongst tier-one media, and getting some of that analyst recognition that all kind of contributed to the success of the campaign," he explains.

The key to this dual approach is creating engagement pathways that lead to business conversations and opportunities while simultaneously building trust and credibility. This balanced strategy helped Capgemini position itself as a thought leader in the sensitive area of trusted data sharing while generating tangible business results.

Amplifying the message: The social media dimension

A distinctive aspect of Capgemini's approach was leveraging the company's business advocates to amplify their thought leadership content through social media channels.

"We even actually used it with our advocates from our own business on their social media profiles. Each of them have these incredible networks within those industries or within those communities, and they were able to amplify the message," Labate shares.

He emphasizes that this approach wasn't about making a hard sell but rather about provoking meaningful conversations: "When we post something, when we ask our leaders to post something on their social networks, it's about provoking a conversation. Not 'here's our product, buy our product.' We're really trying to build this dialog in the industry or in the public sector around the work that we can bring to the table and how clients can solve some of the challenges."

The integration with account-based marketing

One of the campaign's strengths was its integration with account-based marketing (ABM) strategies. This marriage between thought leadership and ABM allowed Capgemini to deliver content in a way that felt contextual and personalized for specific accounts.

"Your marketing program from an industry marketing perspective has to be married with your account-based marketing approach," advises Labate. "If the two aren't operating in sync, you look disconnected and fragmented in the market."

He credits the ABM team, particularly Melanie Dressel, for their ability to take thought leadership content around data sharing and present it to clients in a way that felt created specifically for them, rather than simply pushing generic content to all accounts.

Lessons learned and future directions

Reflecting on the campaign's success, Labate identifies several key learnings that will inform Capgemini's future thought leadership initiatives:

1. Personalization and industry relevance - "We need to really double down on that idea of personalization and industry relevance... go deeper on tailoring those messages and real-world use cases."

2. Executive advocacy - "One of the things that stood out was the value of executive advocacy. When we had our leaders and experts actively engage with sharing these insights on their social programs, at events, on stage, the impact just multiplied."

3. Balance between brand and demand - "We learned a lot about the balance between building brand and building demand. I'd love to tighten the connection between content engagement and nurturing leads."

4. Data-driven approach - "I'd love to use more data in the next go around, more insights that helped us be more predictive around what our audiences want to know more from us and from our leaders."

Why thought leadership matters in today's B2B environment

When asked why thought leadership seems to be growing in importance, Labate offers a compelling perspective: "Product-based organizations, it's information overload. They'll provide you with features and functionality. But we are not a product-based organization. We are a services-based, people-based team. And so when you're selling to people or buying from you based on trust... they're buying from our experts that they trust and they value for their counsel in the industry."

He argues that in an environment saturated with information, thought leadership cuts through the noise because it provides genuine value rather than just sales messaging: "I think thought leadership cuts through that noise because it feels like real value. It's not just sales messaging. It's actually valuable value that someone can take away and either learn from or have a further conversation about."

This is particularly important in professional services contexts where buying decisions are not impulsive but involve extensive research and consideration. "B2B Professional Services is not... these are not impulse buys," Labate explains. "Our clients tend to do extensive research before they make a decision. It's a huge decision that they're making from a financial perspective and a commitment to work with us."

The evolving format of thought leadership

Labate also notes a shift in how thought leadership content is being consumed and packaged. "I have a bit of a feeling that there's been a shift from long-form content and multi-format. I think people, there's more demand for bite-size insights rather than 'kathunk, here's a hundred page piece that we drop on your desk'."

He points to the growing popularity of formats like podcasts and videos, suggesting that audiences now want content that's more interactive and digestible while still providing substantial insights. Additionally, he observes resistance to content that feels "corporately messaged" versus expert-led advocacy.

"I think audiences want to hear from experts, not just brands," he states. "Some of the most successful thought leadership that I've seen feels authored and discussed by the industry experts themselves. It's not the language of a marketing team."

Advice for B2B marketers starting their thought leadership journey

For marketers looking to embark on or enhance their thought leadership efforts, Labate offers three key pieces of advice:

1. Start with why - "Every time I answer this question, I always think back to Simon Sinek. You know, start with why. Whatever you're doing, you always have to understand the why. What are you trying to achieve with your thought leadership? Why are you doing it?"

2. Authenticity and expertise - "Don't fake it. You have to have the chops behind you to be able to provide thought leadership that feels like it's coming from a place of expertise and that people want to hear about that engages them."

3. Think holistically about content strategy - "Think about how you're going to package it. Think about your content strategy. Don't think of it as a campaign, but is it part of a longer-term, more holistic effort of what you're trying to say with your audiences or in the marketplace that you're competing in?"

He emphasizes that the most successful thought leadership is not viewed as a one-off campaign but as part of a longer-term journey: "What I've seen work most is when you consider it part of a longer-term journey. You get more value out of that, and you have more impact on your audience."

Conclusion: Thought leadership as a strategic imperative

Vito Labate's insights reveal that thought leadership has evolved far beyond a marketing tactic to become a strategic imperative for professional services firms. By building trust, demonstrating expertise, and providing genuine value to clients throughout their buying journey, organizations like Capgemini can differentiate themselves in competitive markets and drive substantial business growth.

As the B2B marketing landscape continues to evolve, with increased emphasis on personalization, authenticity, and multi-format content delivery, thought leadership will likely remain a cornerstone of successful marketing strategies for organizations seeking to build meaningful connections with their clients and prospects.

For Capgemini, their gold-winning approach demonstrates that when thought leadership is executed with strategic intent, creative presentation, and a genuine commitment to addressing client challenges, it becomes not just a marketing activity but a fundamental driver of business success.