Article placement: Featured

How to Become a Kick-Ass Client [INSIGHT]

Becoming a great client for agencies is not easy, but it is necessary. It’s no coincidence that successful brands are known to be great clients.  By Bruno Gralpois, ANA Faculty

Advertisers Must “Lean In” to Media

Media is the largest marketing expenditure at many companies and, simply stated, advertisers should be responsible for assuming greater internal stewardship of their media investments.   By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA

5 Ways to Win With Social Media Strategy

The threshold of having a successful engagement with consumers on social media is constantly on the rise. Like for most things, there is no correct way to approach this task however, it is important to keep some key principles in mind such as: having a grasp of consumer insights, being fluent in Internet culture, staying true to the brand and being tech savvy.

Is It Time To Reinvent The Agency Review Process? [REPORT]

Based on the importance and frequency of agency reviews, we created a short survey for client leaders in marketing and procurement and agency leaders to give a sounding board for what’s good and less good in the new business process.

Guidelines For Achieving Media Transparency [REPORT]

Marketers should require media agencies to be fully transparent to elevate trust and restore confidence in the client/agency partnership, according to a wide-ranging set of recommendations released \ by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Ebiquity/FirmDecisions.  A key recommendation was that clients require their agencies to disclose all potential conflicts of interest and allow thorough audits of the agency, its parent company, affiliates, and subsidiaries to ensure full transparency and contract compliance.

75 Marketing & Business Acronyms & Abbreviations Every Industry Pro Should Know

Have you ever heard an acronym but you didn’t know what it meant? It can really throw you off your game in a conversation. I usually try to write it down discreetly or, if I have a laptop, look it up online without anyone seeing.  But industry-specific acronyms can have multiple meanings, and sometimes Wikipedia doesn’t do them justice.

Optimizing Transparency in Your Agency Relationships [REPORT]

As the ANA report generates increased discussion in the industry, and it will, those debates will also drive more transparency. The discussion is important – and it should be leveraged to put steps in place to help organizations get the most from their media investments.

Operational Data Gaps Compromise Customer Experience [REPORT]

While digital marketing technologies and engagement channels multiply, many marketers remain concerned that they are still not delivering what customers want most: a seamless, frictionless and individualized buying and problem-solving experience.

Cannes Is No Longer An Ad Festival [INSIGHT]

My conclusion is that Cannes is an ad festival by tradition only anymore. What it has turned into is a tech-deal-makers meet, agency-deal-makers swap meet.  Don’t get me wrong. Deal-making is really important. And to have a large number of buyers, sellers and middle men in one place is convenient, allowing for meeting after meeting after meeting in search of a deal. But it has very little to do anymore with celebrating great creative work.

Meet today’s American Consumer

Compared with the rest of the world, Americans are feeling pretty good about their finances. While many consumers in other countries are living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about becoming unemployed, American consumers are comparatively unconcerned about their household’s financial future. This isn’t to say that US consumers are exuding confidence: financial-market volatility and the political uncertainty surrounding the upcoming presidential election are stoking fears of another downturn.  By Max Magni, Anne Martinez, and Rukhshana Motiwala

Online Research Panels and the Hispanic Market [INSIGHT]

When I worked on my first survey with Hispanic respondents, circa 1980, the best-in-class approach to reach a fully representative sample was to go door-to-door.  Of course, this was pre-cellphones, pre-internet and when Hispanic landline telephone penetration was around 70 percent.  The market was growing and evolving rapidly (and still is, but in different ways).  By the later part of the 80s we were able to complete fairly representative surveys via landline.  We’ve come a long way since those early years in Hispanic marketing, and for the most part, the Hispanic consumer is as savvy and sophisticated as the general market consumer, but there are still sampling nuances to take into account.  By Raul Lopez – Principle and Chief Research Officer / New American Dimensions

Don’t Blame The Agency [INSIGHT]

It should come as no surprise that agencies have these kinds of practices around rebates and credits in place.  Every person who has ever worked in an agency environment knows this to be the case — it’s not much of a shock, although the press is treating it as such.  

Global Advertising Revenue Forecast to grow +5.4% in 2016

This year’s events (US elections, UEFA Euro 2016 , Summer Olympics in Brazil, and Copa America in the US) will generate incremental advertising spending and thus boost media owner advertising revenues compared to 2015 (when no such events took place.) Neutralizing the impact of those cyclical events in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the global advertising market would grow by approximately +4% in both 2015 and 2016, which suggests no significant acceleration in the underlying ad demand beyond the cyclical drivers, as the economic environment remains uncertain.

The ANA Report Considered

It’s been about a week since the ANA’s report into transparency hit the best seller lists. Lest we forget (and judging from some of the less temperate comments flying around some seem to have forgotten) the report was titled “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry.” It was not titled “Why Advertisers Hate the Holding Companies” nor “We Name the Guilty Parties.”  By Brian Jacobs The Cog Blog

4A’s Statement on Media Transparency and the Recent K2 Report

The ANA released a K2 report on media buying practices. Although the 4A’s has worked collaboratively with the ANA via a joint task force, this report is anonymous, one-sided and paints the entire industry with the same negative brush. This statement further elaborates the 4A’s position on this issue.

The Really Guilty Party In The ANA Debate? Advertisers! [INSIGHT]

So it has been a week since the Association of National Advertisers report on media transparency came out. It paints a dire picture of agencies using all kinds of smoke and mirrors to generate income for themselves, while still being able to claim they are upholding their contractual obligations to their clients.

The ANA – A First Stab

The first of two ANA reports has landed, containing the results of 150 interviews conducted by the investigators K2 with ‘marketers, media suppliers, ad tech vendors, current and former advertising and media agency professionals, trade association executives, industry consultants, attorneys, barter company employees, and post-production professionals’.  By Brian Jacobs / Brian Jacobs & Associates

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