By Barbara Bacci Mirque
You have probably heard about the ANA’s fourth annual marketing accountability survey, written in conjunction with MMA and fielded on our behalf by Guideline Inc.
This survey was previewed at the ANA’s Marketing Accountability Conference in September 2007. The buzz around the conference was the stark finding that marketing accountability efforts had backslided in the past year. As we discussed these findings at the conference and later at the ANA’s marketing accountability committee, a few things came to light about why satisfaction levels with respondents’ marketing accountability efforts had plummeted versus previous years.
Marketing accountability is hard and requires a culture shift and a commitment to expend both human and financial resources. Also, after a few years working on this, the low hanging fruit – the easier to do tasks – have been plucked. Now the hard work is in front of many companies and that takes a senior level commitment that our survey found was lacking. Another realization was that many of the marketing accountability efforts were spearheaded by the marketing department without cross functional support – in only a little over one third (37%) of the companies surveyed was there a cross functional marketing accountability team (20%) or a team composed of marketing and finance (17%). Without the buy in of finance, marketing accountability efforts are most likely doomed.
An ANA best practice recommends these structures. ANA members can download the results here. We are about to launch the 5th Annual ANA Marketing Accountability survey. Join us at our July Marketing Accountability Conference in Laguna Nigel to learn more about this important topic. ANA members can also join the ANA’s Marketing Accountability Committee.
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