Verified Confidence: low
Primary source found; it says the same thing, the scope matches, and it is reasonably current.
Safe rephrasing
In the 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn survey of U.S. business executives, 53% of hidden and target decision-makers agreed that high-quality thought leadership makes brand recognition matter less.
What the source says
53% of both audiences agree that if thought leadership is high quality, then brand recognition matters less.
Edelman and LinkedIn — 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report
- Commonly cited as
- "Thought leadership lets challengers beat big brands"
- True origin
- Edelman and LinkedIn — 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report
- Type
- Stat check: A widely repeated statistic traced back to its origin.
- Year
- 2025
- Data as of
- 2025 survey
- Last checked
- Method & sample
- Online survey of 1,934 business executives recruited on LinkedIn (the report says 'global', but lists the United States as the market surveyed and labels this chart 'Hidden decision-makers and target decision-makers, U.S.'); fielded March 17 – April 3, 2025.
- Drift between quote and source
- Stated attitude; sponsors benefit from the finding
- Population: U.S. respondents per the chart footnote and markets surveyed, not a global sample
- Interest
- Edelman is a PR agency and LinkedIn sells B2B ads.