What Is Thought Leadership Really Worth When Everyone Is Doing It? Featuring Andrew Tindall

Being known in this industry isn’t the same as being good at it. In episode two of Untrended, we look at the gap between the two.

Jamie Fewery, Creative Director at Publicis Pro, takes over hosting for this season’s first guest episode. He’s joined by Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer at System1, who reaches one to two million people a week on LinkedIn. Andrew started posting daily when he had 200 followers. That makes him well placed to say what turns attention into real authority.

They talk about personal branding, B2B thought leadership, AI-written LinkedIn posts and the commercial case for building a profile. Andrew uses System1’s principles of advertising effectiveness to explain how people build brands. He also says why 99% of B2B thought leadership misses, and why your follower count and your reach have stopped moving together.

The episode is for marketing leaders who want influence that leads to growth, not just a crowded dashboard. If your LinkedIn strategy is “post something, anything,” this one is for you.

Key Takeaways

• Andrew says the four principles that make advertising work also build personal brands. One of them involves wearing the same suit for eight weeks on national TV.
• The people with real authority in marketing have two things in common. One is a silly hill to die on. The other is a lot less obvious.
• Andrew has a blunt rule for AI-written LinkedIn content, and he wants Mark Ritson to hear it.
• Social media has become algorithmic media, so follower count and reach no longer move together. New research from System1, TikTok and WPP shows how little follower count now matters.
• Most people who lose their edge stopped doing the actual marketing job somewhere along the way.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Jamie takes the host’s chair, with System1’s Andrew Tindall

00:57 Does personal branding deserve the cynicism?

02:07 How what you post shapes your next job

03:16 Why slagging off other people’s work gets you nowhere

04:15 The four principles of brand growth, applied to people

07:19 Posting every day to 200 followers

08:21 Can a personal brand be a liability? Finding your silly hill to die on

09:36 Why 99% of B2B thought leadership misses

11:05 Does any of it move the needle?

13:37 “If you can’t be arsed writing it, I can’t be arsed reading it”

16:10 LinkedIn bots that don’t get the joke

17:11 Andrew’s advice for building a personal brand in 2026

19:17 The commercial case for authority

20:03 Keeping up: Cannes, research cycles and a 7am AI briefing

22:13 Subcultures, cultural branding and Jack Daniel’s

25:29 Where people go wrong, and why you shouldn’t water yourself down

28:10 Reality Check: does follower count still matter?

30:18 Strip it all away: who are the best marketers?

30:44 Wrap-up and next episode: putting the brief on trial

Useful Links & Resources

Publicis Pro: https://publicispro.com/

System1, home of ad effectiveness testing: https://system1group.com/

Andrew Tindall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-tindall/

The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field (IPA): https://ipa.co.uk/

Connect With the Show

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/publicisprob2b/home/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/publicisprob2b/

Website: https://publicispro.com/

Subscribe to the Untrended Podcast and send your questions using the link in the episode description.

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