ANA Marketing Maestros

Cisco Redefines Speaking in Person

By Cara Brooke Schultz

At last week’s 2010 ANA TV & Everything Video Forum Presented by YouTube, Cisco wowed the crowd by executing a virtual presentation. Now this wasn’t just any presentation where a talking head appeared on a TV screen—instead Cisco brought in a vertical life-size screen, which sat in the middle of the stage. Carlos Dominguez, Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems was walking around the stage talking to the audience about the importance of video when all of a sudden the lights dimmed and a life-size image of Marilyn Mersereau, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing, appeared standing on stage. You heard a few “ah’s” radiate from the audience and then Marilyn asked a question that required audience participation. Members in the audience raised their hands and she responded. Not only did it seem as if she was standing on the stage in New York City (not in sunny California), but she could also interact with everyone as if she was in New York City. Watch a short clip of what people experienced firsthand at the conference:  

Opportunities & Key Threats for TV and Video

By Bill Duggan

For the fifth time since 2002 ANA has partnered with Forrester Research on survey work to better understand advertiser perceptions and use, both now and expected in future, on television and video.  Forrester has summarized the key research findings and provided their perspective on the results in their report titled TV Advertising Budgets Are Under Siege. Meanwhile, the following provides a topline from ANA’s point-of-view.

Overall:
The death of television has been greatly exaggerated. While it’s true that television budgets have been reduced (per the title of the Forrester report), those reductions are more a reflection of broader economic conditions impacting all media. The reductions in television spending have, in fact, been less severe than most other media. 

From the broadest perspective, when asked to “comment on the value of TV advertising for the specific needs of your company” representative responses were:
• Pro: “Television is essential for building broad reach and brand awareness.”
• Con: “Television’s effectiveness/value is diminishing.”

The ANA/Forrester survey helps point to many opportunities, as well as some key threats, for television and video.

Opportunities:
• Branded entertainment: Eighty percent of advertisers agree that branded entertainment will play much more of a role in television advertising. Thirty-eight percent plan to spend more on branded entertainment in 2010 as an alternative to the traditional 30-second TV spot.
• Addressable television: Seventy-eight percent of advertisers are interested in the ability to target consumers more precisely—by demographics, zip code, or purchase behavior. However, advertisers don’t expect to pay much of a premium for such targeting.
• Interactive television: Seventy-five percent believe that interactive television will be an effective source of lead generation, but only 28% plan to spend more on interactive ads in 2010 as an alternative to the 30-second TV spot. Advertisers may want to see the interactive television advertising landscape further develop before they increase spending.
• Brand-specific commercial ratings: An overwhelming 82% are interested in having ratings for individual commercials (also called brand-specific commercial ratings) available for analysis.  
• Online video ads: Forty-six percent of advertisers plan to spend more on ads in online video/online television shows in 2010 as alternatives to the traditional 30-second TV spot.
• Place-based video: Sixty-four percent agree that place-based video in stores, elevators, and other locations will become increasingly important.

Threats:
• Overall effectiveness: Advertisers believe that television advertising is not as effective as it used to be. Sixty-two percent of respondents think television advertising has become less effective in the past two years.
• Clutter: Sixty-nine percent of advertisers would like fewer commercials in a pod in order to gain visibility.
• DVRs and video-on-demand: Sixty-six percent think that DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce (61%) or destroy (5%) the effectiveness of the 30-second television commercial.
• Shifts to other media: Advertisers plan to spend more on various forms of non-television media including social media (77%), web advertising (73%), search (59%), email (46%), and mobile (46%).

ANA members can download the complete report at www.ana.net/thoughtleadership.

2010 ANA Key Findings Report--ANA Recession Survey 4th Edition

By Bill Duggan

ANA recently fielded the fourth wave of what has become known as our “recession survey.”  Over the past two years ANA has polled our members at six month intervals to determine how marketing and advertising budgets are being impacted by economic conditions. 

The recession may be officially over, but it appears that marketers have reset their expectations and a greater degree of frugality has set in. Cost savings and reductions may be the “new normal” even as the economy improves. However, the deepest cuts are likely to have already been made.

Highlights from the most recent survey:

• Marketers are still being pressured to reduce their costs and spending in light of the economy, though reductions are less severe than were reported in the three previous surveys. 
• The top four ways marketers are reducing costs and spending:
  1.  75 percent are challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions.  
  2.  73 percent are reducing departmental travel and expenses.
  3.  53 percent are reducing advertising media budgets.
  4.  50 percent are reducing advertising production budgets.
• Though the majority of marketers forecast no change in spending for the balance of 2009, predictions about advertising budgets in the next six months suggest some degree of optimism since the last survey.
  1.  59 percent expect budgets will stay the same.
  2.  22 percent forecast that budgets will be reduced (versus 39 percent, 49 percent, and 53 percent respectively in the last three surveys).
  3.  19 percent are hopeful budgets will increase.   
  

Full survey results are available at www.ana.net/recessionsurvey.   

The ANA's Marketing Constitution

By Cara Brooke Schultz

On the occasion of the ANA's 100th Anniversary, the ANA has created a Marketers' Constitution. The goal of the Marketers' Constitution is to inspire the entire marketing community to come together and embrace a successful future.

The document sets forth what the ANA believes are ten key principles of marketing. This constitution will help to ensure that our industry thrives and continues to contribute significantly to the economic health and wellbeing of our society, for at least the next 100 years.

Bob Liodice, president and CEO of ANA, wrote an article for Ad Age, “Musts of Marketing for the Next 100 Years,” highlighting the ANA’s Marketers’ Constitution. Read the article in its entirety, and please join us in demonstrating our commitment by digitally signing the Marketers' Constitution.

Value Based Compensation

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

At the recent 2009 ANA Agency Relations Forum, Sarah Armstrong from The Coca Cola Company updated the audience about Coke’s journey with value based compensation. You may recall that Coke first spoke publicly about this at the ANA’s 2009 Advertising Financial Management Conference because they wanted to socialize the marketing community to this new agency compensation model with the hopes of more widespread adoption of a construct that has been discussed for the past several years with little action taken against it. They wanted to expose their learning so that as more advertisers utilized VBC they would add to the body of knowledge on how to generate maximum results, thus benefiting all advertisers including Coke. Coke has rolled their VBC plan to many markets and expects full implementation by 2011. 
Along the way they have made some refinements but the central tenet still remains the same–Coke believes that there is no correlation between the amount of hours an agency works and the value it provides. It is not about cost cutting Sarah emphasizes, it is about focusing on the components of business growth. But Coke feels very strongly she adds, that they are no longer going to guarantee their agencies’ profits if the agency performance does not meet up to certain predetermined standards. An agency can make up to a 30% profit if it meets a set of prearranged goals–or none at all. The importance is that agencies are being measured on results–not on hours worked. There is no doubt that for marketers, labor based compensation was an advancement over fixed rate commissions. But spending hours and hours constructing and tracking labor based compensation does not move the business ahead nor does it work well in an era of integrated marketing. Advertisers generally agreed that although progress had been made, labor based compensation was not the end game. But not much progress had been made on moving forward. The groundbreaking work of The Coca Cola Company certainly adds to the debate–and knowledge–on improving agency compensation. The discussion will no doubt continue for years to come.

ANA members interested in participating and sharing their agency compensation learnings should consider joining the ANA’s Advertising Financial Management committee.       

ANA Masters of Marketing - CONFERENCE REWIND Part One

By Barry Garbarino

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2008

The 2008 ANA Annual Conference once again attracted a who’s who of CMO’s from leading global brands. As promised, the three-day event held October 16-19 in Orlando, Fla., showcased the industry leaders who are driving growth to deliver real results and build brand equity. Many took the stage in front of a record crowd of more than 1,200 attendees, sharing their wisdom, expertise, insights, and opinions — along with examples and clips of the campaigns they have orchestrated to drive growth.

“Great brands truly do lead to impressive and stronger business results,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA, reflecting on the conference. “That’s an underlying philosophy that we have to embed in the minds of all marketers and agency people. The focus needs to be on building brands because all of your results come from that, whether it’s growing top-line revenue, bottom-line profitability, or shareholder value. And what we saw from a lot of the presenters were essentially different ways to grow brands.”

A few memorable moments from 2008 include:

Jim Stengel, Procter & Gamble
In an inspiring and touching keynote address that kicked off the conference, Jim Stengel outlined a road map for “marketing, branding, and life.” Having recently stepped down as global marketing officer at Procter & Gamble, Stengel took the stage for the last time as a P&G employee. His speech was billed as a valedictory address, an opportunity to share a career’s worth of knowledge with peers.

Anne Finucane, Bank of America
“The Bank of America brand stands for action, authenticity, and simplicity. Consumers of all kinds, particularly at times like these, are looking for simple and relevant brand promises that are true on a consistent and reliable basis. Being simple is key. We live in a time of ‘too.’ Too fast, too complex, too much information, too little time, too much stress. It’s our job to be simple.”

Joe Tripodi, The Coca-Cola Company
“The secret formula for growth is that there is no secret formula. It’s doing some of the basics really well, including breaking down internal silos, and moving away from ‘spray and pray’ advertising in favor of precision marketing. Focus on innovation occurs at every level of the organization and extends beyond our breadth of products. Simplicity is key. When you think about innovation, stop chasing the Holy Grail.”

To find out more about the 2009 ANA Annual Conference – The Masters of Marketing and the great line-up of speakers, click here.

Drawing Attention to Yourself by Going Local

By Adrienne Tallacksen

My daily commute takes me past a local gym. I always look forward to checking out the latest advertisement they have to get people in the door, which is posted on a chalkboard easel on the sidewalk. The handwritten ads sometimes feature quotes (always altered in some way to play up the fitness angle), sometimes verge on offensive (needling those who might not be physically fit), and sometimes they aren't ads at all (a simple "YAY!" was posted on November 5th after President Obama was elected). The messages are often targeted to the Jersey City, NJ audience with references to local restaurants and even our most recent political scandal. Above all, the ads are clever and witty and almost always get my attention.

The gym is part of a small New York/New Jersey chain, so it may be easier for it to target the local audience than it would be for a national advertiser. But new tools are making targeted ads possible on a larger scale. At a meeting of the ANA's Television Advertising Committee Meeting in March, committee members learned about how Canoe Ventures is using community addressable advertising to target television viewers in different markets.

When an ad is targeted at people who live in my community, I feel like I can relate to the advertiser, even if I might not be interested in its product. This can be a powerful connection for marketers to make with consumers.

Economy Still a Concern Leading to Restrained Spending

By Bill Duggan

In July/August ANA surveyed our members to determine how marketing and advertising budgets were being impacted by the economy.  This survey, which was also done six months ago as well as a year ago, has become known as the ANA “Recession Survey”.  (I look forward to someday having a survey called the ANA “Economic Boom Survey”!)

The news continues to be a bit grim.  87 percent of respondents indicate they are being challenged to reduce their costs and spending in light of the economy.  That’s the same as a year ago, and only slightly improved from 93 percent six months ago. The top four ways marketers are reducing costs and spending remain the same.

• 81 percent are reducing departmental travel and expenses
• 74 percent are reducing advertising media budgets
• 71 percent are challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions
• 64 percent are reducing advertising production budgets

Reducing agency compensation continues to gain greater consideration by marketers.  56 percent are planning to do this today, versus 48 percent six months ago and 32 percent a year ago.  This is a topic that we will explore more in ANA committee meetings in the fall—is there really still room to reduce compensation and what are the tradeoffs of that?

A positive note is that fewer marketers are eliminating/delaying new projects compared with past surveys—53 percent in the most recent survey versus 58 percent six months ago and 61 percent a year ago.

Looking ahead, marketers remain cautious about their future budgets. 17 percent are hopeful that their budgets will increase while 39 percent think that they will see reductions and 44% think they will remain the same.

The recession may be over according to some economic analysts.  But it appears that marketers have “reset” their expectations and a greater degree of frugality could be the new normal.  Full results are at www.ana.net/recessionsurvey3

Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Campaigns

By Irina Skaya

A recent ANA/BtoB Magazine/Mktg survey reported that 66 percent of marketers utilized social media in 2009 compared to 20 percent in 2007.  In order to fund their new media efforts, 55 percent of marketers have already shifted funds from their traditional media budgets. In 2009 Web site ownership, search engine marketing and display advertising are among the new media platforms that received the most funding. And in 2010, blogs, mobile and video are supposed to be at the top of the list.

According to the survey, The top concerns for marketers when considering newer media platforms are the inability to prove ROI (45 percent) and having metrics to properly allocate the mix of traditional and digital media (43 percent).  Social media analytics is young and most marketers do not know where to start.  First thing is first: know what your objective is, what you are trying to measure. Do you want to know what people are saying about your brands? Do you want to see how people are interacting with your brands on specific social networks? Or do you just simply want to know upcoming social media trends or maybe what your competitors are doing in the social media space?

As the social media guru of the ANA, I always look for new measuring and monitoring social media tools. I came up with a social media metrics superlist-my favorite online tools that will help marketers get started with social media analytics.

PS. They are all free!

• Twitalyzer: measures brands' and individuals' impact and success on Twitter by reporting on relative influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity, clout.
• Keotag: monitors mentions of your brands across dozens of Web sites, including Technorati, Blog Pulse, Google Blog, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Twitter, Bluedot, Newsvine, Digg, Blog Lines, YouTube, and more.
• Trackur: a 14-day free trial allows you to monitor your brands' online reputation and your competitors', and track your campaign's effectiveness.
• Social Networking Media ROI Calculator
• Blog Metrics

The ANA Marketing Insights Center has a great number of resources for marketers who would like to utilize social media to learn more about their customers and engage them directly and involve them in their brands.  In the ANA Today newsletter, "How Social Media Transforms Marketing," and "Skittles: Follow the Rainbow on Twitter" are the top-read articles. The above articles are available for ANA members only. If you are not an ANA member, browse through our 101 library where we have an abundant amount of social media resources, including "Marketing with Twitter."

If you use other social media tracking tools, please feel free to share them with us. We'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment or email me at [email protected].

Social Networks

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Maximizing B2B Marketing

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

Eduardo Conrado, Chief Marketing Officer, Broadband Mobility Solutions, Motorola, regaled the crowd at ANA’s 2009 B2B conference with a marketing case study that was a primer about how to conduct B2B marketing and have a seat at the table as a growth driver.  I watched as his colleagues furiously scribbled notes and nodded their heads in agreement as he spoke.  Some key takeaways include:

• Work with the product groups at the start of ideation
• Evolve the marketing mix to go where the customers are
• Embed resources in all key areas early in the development cycle
• Have a single, comprehensive go to market strategy
• Start with the customer mindset
• Define solutions that address each segment’s needs

Tactically Eduardo addressed how Motorola activated social media to create an immersive digital experience.  A final thought he left us with: B2B marketers should not think of themselves just as transaction drivers but as relationship drivers.  

I know that I am going to use many of his learnings as I construct the ANA’s marketing plan.  If you are an ANA member you can access the summary of his presentation at the ANA’s Marketing Insights Center.  If you are a client side marketer who is not a member, shouldn’t you be?  To find out how to join, click here.