ANA Marketing Musings

The "Whys" Behind the ANA Enhanced TV Initiative

As I blogged earlier, the ANA is creating a venue in which advertisers will participate in test cells for upwards of a year in a variety of enhanced TV applications including addressability, ad supported video on demand, and personal video recorders. You may naturally wonder why we feel the ANA is suited to tackle this and why our members are electing to participae . Let me shed some additional light .

Some advertisers have tested some or all of the emerging models, but for proprietary reasons , the results are not widely shared. This inhibits the learning which could accrue to all interested parties. Since little information from these trials is broadly shared, they are not gaining traction with the advertising community.

As the advertising industry’s trade association that is advertiser, agency, media and content provider neutral, we believe the ANA is in the best position to lead a non biased initiative to explore this new frontier. We offer an environment that is advertiser, distribution, content and technology neutral. Through our relationships with the key constituencies, the ANA can bridge the gap for the benefit of all advertisers and discern its implications for the future of TV advertising.

There are a variety of reasons why ANA members are excited about participating in this initiative:

* This is a relatively new and rapidly changing field and it may be difficult for many advertisers to keep abreast of developments in this arena, gain valuable learning when experimenting and make the right choices that will best affect their brand’s future.

* Since it is an emerging area, many advertisers do not have internal personnel that specialize in the enhanced TV arena. For example it may be cross functional and handled both by television specialists and/or or the interactive group – neither of which may have the time and energy necessary to comprehend this important future media arena.

* Finally, the shared learning of the advertisers that participate in the test cells will allow participants to accelerate any learning they might garner.

Next up - How the test will work.

NARC Documents How Self-Regulation is Working

Today the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) published a white paper that clearly documents the advertising industry's ongoing self-regulatory efforts. The paper highlights all the major decisions that have been made in the food advertising category and provides a historical overview with representative examples from over 900 cases and inquiries on food and nutrition advertising. It also includes a section on current developments that synthesizes the Children's Advertising Review Unit's principles, guidelines and decisions related to food advertising to children.

The ANA applauds this effort and everyone associated with it. It is truly superb. It brings so many elements of the self regulatory process together in a most cohesive, comprehensive and comprehendible manner. I am quite impressed -- and I continued to learn about this marvelous self-regulatory system. It certainly elevates my pride about our system of social responsibility and industry responsibility. It also elevates my respect for our predecessors who had the foresight and will to create what we currently enjoy today.

The NARC paper demonstrates that our industry is hard at work - through self regulation - at addressing major societal concerns such as obesity. This effort is backed up by strong FTC regulation. We reiterate our longstanding position that there is absolutely no need for new restriction on advertising to children. I urge all members of Congress and the entire industry to carefully read the NARC white paper and consider the following reasons why a ban wouldn't solve the obesity issue. All of these are further documented in my recent Congressional testimony (PDF).

1. Ad bans don't work, as demonstrated in other countries
2. Ad bans could lead to declines in children's programming -- there's no scientific evidence this works
3. Ad bans are prohibited by the First Amendment
4. Obesity is a societal problem -- it's best left to parents to regulate for their children.
5. Responsible advertisers are guided by CARU
6. The ad industry is reacting - the Ad Council/Health and Human Services have produced an obesity control campaign
7. The food and restaurant industry is reacting by making changes to menus