Editor's Picks for ANA Magazine

As companies began to double down on their online marketing efforts due to the pandemic, newly hired CMOs were able to command higher salaries. But the calculus for CMO pay may be changing, as companies face a possible recession.

With Black History Month around the corner, a growing number of brands are moving beyond a four-week window tied to the celebration to forge deeper relationships with Black-owned businesses and Black communities. The efforts range from hands-on training to help companies go to market faster to making people aware of rapidly changing demographics in the U.S.

On the road to a streaming universe, linear TV continues to offer advertisers a still-reliable marketing vehicle with broad reach. The next frontier for marketers is how to optimize their ads across both streaming and linear platforms.

The pandemic jolted many brands into beefing up their digital marketing and some into switching their ad agencies. But while the tumult caused by COVID-19 has subsided, the pace of account reviews has only accelerated.

Fraud in digital advertising remains an issue, and while the exact scale of the problem is a matter of dispute, there's widespread agreement that as the market grows, so will the need for brands to take an active role in protecting their investments.

As a hot job market continues and the Great Resignation lingers, companies such as Denny's, Pearle Vision, and EOS Products are turning to DEI and other meaningful initiatives to lure and retain top talent.

The acceleration in scent marketing is being fueled by consumers' post-pandemic thirst for real-world experiences. A powerful driver for human emotion, scent provides food brands with unique ways to stir engagement and fuel sales. As with other brand extensions, context is critical.

Amid a dizzying amount of change, CMOs who collaborate effectively with their CTOs are likely to generate better returns. Establishing strategic alliances with chief technology officers is fast becoming a cost of entry for marketers who want to ascend in their organization.

The upcoming school year will be tricky for brands to navigate. On the one hand, there's a sense of newness as kids return to in-class learning full-time, with expectations for that to continue uninterrupted, for the first time since COVID-19 hit two-plus years ago. On the other, there are major headwinds from soaring prices, with shoppers combating the worst inflation in 40 years and the Consumer Price Index hitting in 8.6 percent in May.

A growing number of brands, including Edelman, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Volkswagen, are hiring chief experience officers. The moves come as tolerance for a bad or mediocre consumer experience continues to plummet, with more than half of brands reporting that those who are dissatisfied with the company will switch brands, per a recent survey.

Quick Response (QR) codes were all the rage in the early 2000s but soon fell out of a favor among most brands. But they have come back to life, spurred by the pandemic and the growing imperative among marketers to thread their message between the physical and digital worlds. And, unlike the first time around, QR codes now seem to have much more staying power when it comes to engaging consumers and driving revenue.

A recent survey paints an ominous picture of the level of confidence chief executives have in their CMOs, with most thinking that CMOs put their own interest above that of the organization. At the same time, about a third of CEOs have great confidence in their CMOs. That presents an opportunity for chief marketers to change the dynamic and demonstrate their business acumen.

With the pandemic starting to fade, this summer is expected to be quite different from the past two. Consumer-facing marketers will need to shift gears somewhat, from supplying an accelerating amount of digital content to ramping up efforts to reach people who will be clamoring for live events and spending a lot more time outdoors.

How brands have responded to the war in Ukraine provides valuable lessons for marketers navigating an increasingly unpredictable world. The crisis has reinforced the need to be nimble and responsive and ensure that every single part of a company’s operation is aligned on the brand’s values.

With their lives turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are leaning toward brands that can deliver simple experiences and talk about their products and services in a straightforward manner. But making things easier for people and explaining brand value in everyday terms does not mean companies have to dumb down the message.

When consumers shame and/or boycott companies and organizations due to actions or statements they deem offensive or harmful, marketers at the center of the cancel-culture storm may want to wait until things blow over, a recent study says. At the same time, a brand could risk irrelevancy if it goes too long before responding to public concerns. How best, then, to respond?

Corona Island is taking brand extension to another level. The island, which opens this summer, will offer visitors a slew of environmental lessons that they can apply at home. Felipe Ambra, global VP for Corona at Anheuser-Busch InBev, hopes the destination will also serve as a beacon for other brands eager to accelerate their sustainability efforts.

With the economy growing at a rapid pace and rates of COVID-19 declining, companies that had sent workers home to work remotely are reopening their offices and people who left their jobs in the so-called “Great Resignation” are beginning to return. But both are bringing with them a different perspective on how the workplace should, well, work. Organizations will have to be much more accommodating compared to before the pandemic.

Podcast advertising still needs to catch up with the explosion in programming in the past few years, with plenty of marketers taking a wait-and-see approach. But with consumers increasingly burned out by screens, podcasts may grab both mind- and wallet-share a lot sooner than marketers anticipated.

Many American consumers may be reluctant to buy stuff from Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms. However, younger generations are among the biggest social shoppers, suggesting that adoption rates are poised to surge. Job one for marketers to join the fray is to meld their catalogs with their social media accounts and tag their products in posts and videos.