ANA Studies Reveal Advances in Marketing Measurement But Difficulty in Overcoming Organizational Impediments | About the ANA | ANA

ANA Studies Reveal Advances in Marketing Measurement But Difficulty in Overcoming Organizational Impediments

New York City, July 17, 2006 – Results from the third annual ANA Marketing Accountability survey, conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in conjunction with Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) and the 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force, reports substantial improvements in the ability of senior-level marketers to measure and act on ROI, but difficulty in turning marketing metrics into action due to organizational impediments and process barriers.

Thirty two percent of marketers polled in the survey said they are satisfied with their ability to measure and act on ROI to improve business results, up from 19 percent in 2005. However, another 20 percent of senior-level marketers said they can measure ROI, but cannot act on it.

Only one third (36 percent) of respondents reported that their marketing accountability efforts include the finance division and/or a cross functional team. One quarter (24.7 percent) described their marketing accountability efforts as siloed within the marketing department. ANA best practices from the 2006 Marketing Accountability Task Force indicate that the marketers who are most successful with marketing accountability, work in tandem with departments such as Finance, Analytics, IT and strategic planning.

“We are pleased to see that marketers are moving up the accountability curve, said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. However, organizational hurdles are still holding back the adoption of accountability. We continue to work with our members to disseminate practical information to help marketers break through the organizational silos that are hindering the creation of a true culture of accountability.”

“The ANA/MMA survey shows that while marketers have made progress over the year, marketing accountability is a multi-step process of measurement and management,” said John Nardone, MMA’s Chief Client Officer. “Many more marketers are able to measure ROI, but now need to take the next steps to integrate marketing analytics into the marketing process in order to improve business results.”

The marketing respondents reported that senior executives in their company find metrics such as brand awareness and market share more important (29 percent say such metrics are very important to senior company executives) than metrics such as customer lifetime value (only 14 percent say the latter is very important to senior company executives). ANA Task Force members note that they struggle with reconciling the longer term nature of brand equity and customer lifetime value measures with short term business results.

There is some evidence that accountability as a corporate initiative is not sitting high enough in the organization.  Although 65 percent of the respondents noted that understanding the sales impact of marketing is important to senior executives, less than one-third (32 percent) indicated there was senior level sponsorship of this key initiative.

“One somewhat mystifying and frustrating discovery from the 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force is the unwillingness of many companies to fund accountability programs when the known payout is many times the modest cost of most accountability related activities. This suggests someone in upper management is either ignorant of the payout economics of accountability or lacks the courage to make the right decision,” said Gordon Wade, Founding Partner, EMM Group, and consultant to the ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force.

The ANA/MMA marketing accountability survey was completed by 101 senior-level marketers/ANA members in April 2006. The 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force, in its second year, is comprised of 20 ANA member companies including Charles Schwab & Co., Intel, National Football League, IBM, Microsoft, Allstate, The Home Depot, BP Lubricants, Nestle, Unilever, Dow Corning Corporation. Final task force results will be presented at the ANA Masters of Marketing Annual Conference in October, 2006.

The full survey will exclusively be revealed at the ANA Marketing Accountability Forum on July 20, 2006 at the Hyatt Grand Central, NY and there will be a preliminary report from the ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force. The Forum will highlight current thinking in marketing accountability and present best-in-class case studies.  Conference information and online registration can be found at https://www.ana.net/calendar/index/calendar_filter/training.

About the ANA

The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.

About Marketing Management Analytics, Inc. (MMA)

MMA pioneered the use of marketing mix modeling to help companies plan, measure, validate, and optimize their marketing performance. Since that time, MMA has conducted more than 1,000 studies on hundreds of brands and businesses in more than 20 countries. MMA’s clients include many of the most recognized marketers in the world. MMA has been a unit of Aegis Group, PLC, London (AGS.L) since 1997. For more information about Avista DSS and other MMA services, visit http://www.mma.com.

About EMM Group

EMM Group are the creators of the discipline of Enterprise Marketing Management and the authors of the book, ‘The New Marketing Mission, How Process, Metrics and Technology Can Unleash Growth, published by the ANA.