Editor's Picks for ANA Magazine
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Striking a Positive Tone
B2C July 16, 2021Marketers are adapting their messaging as the U.S. starts to emerge from a tragic period. But without a single ecstatic moment to mark the pandemic’s end, brands will have to continue to recalibrate their strategies and update their ad creative on a fairly constant basis.
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Web Analytics Switch Tracks
B2C July 9, 2021Recalibrating how their audiences consume information is just one of the key challenges facing marketers on the analytics front post-pandemic. The death of cookies and the rise of online privacy concerns will also spur brands and organizations to bring new strategies to bear when it comes to data management. First-party data awaits.
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Consumers Hit Play on Interactive Ads
B2C June 25, 2021Consumers are much more likely to remember interactive ads, perhaps because they’re not interruptive in nature. As marketers boost their online budgets, there are several ways they can improve the performance of their interactive ads and make them a more robust aspect of their overall communications strategy.
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Slowly, Brands Are Improving Their Digital Accessibility
B2C June 18, 2021There are deaf people who like to use sign language while others prefer using their voice. There are people hard of hearing who culturally identify as Deaf and those who do not. As brands add more assistive tools to their advertising and marketing campaigns, marketers and organizations need to keep such nuances top of mind.
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Flurry of Account Reviews Reflect Major Changes for Agency-Client Relations
B2C June 11, 2021Marketers and agencies are struggling with how to tackle the issues that have taken on newfound urgency in the past 18 months, ranging from spurring diversity to protecting consumer privacy to cultivating talent. The various challenges are perhaps most vividly represented by the striking number of agency reviews, consolidations, and overall account changes in the past few months.
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The Pot Market Is Blazing New Trails
B2C May 28, 2021A growing number of states are moving toward legalizing recreational use of marijuana and publishers are getting more accepting of cannabis-themed advertising. Nevertheless, achieving scale will likely be a long slog for brands that want to join the fray. For clues as to how cannabis might eventually emerge as an everyday product, marketers should take a closer look at the CBD space.
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Brands for Humans Is a Movement with Purpose
B2C May 14, 2021Brands for humans (B4H), or the humanization of brand persona, is starting to circulate throughout the marketing field. However companies choose to operationalize B4H, there’s a growing onus on marketers to provide clarity to the public about a corporation’s values and beliefs and how it is meaningfully acting on those convictions.
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The Real Work on Diversity and Inclusion Is Just Starting
B2C April 21, 2021While diversity has been moving to the forefront in recent years, the reality is that the marketing industry remains mostly white, particularly within the C-suite. To stay viable, a growing number of agencies and brands are taking concrete steps to build more diverse teams and respond to a rapidly changing country demographically.
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Fitness Brands Are Working It Out
B2C April 16, 2021When lockdowns began in March 2020, they accelerated a change in consumer behavior that gyms and other fitness studios had seen coming at a gradual pace for years. Wearables, health tracking apps, and digital media fitness experiences moved to the forefront, and brands had to adapt digital technology like apps and livestreams quickly to meet customers in a new setting — their living rooms.
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How Marketers Capitalize on the Trust Deficit
B2C April 9, 2021The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the country’s health, economy, and psychological well-being. It’s also contributed to a severe lack of trust in major institutions, according to Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer. As the U.S. starts to recover from the virus, people are looking to companies to fix problems the government can’t.
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A Frictionless Holiday Shopping Experience Is Still a Work in Progress
B2C April 2, 2021Brands may need to assuage any hard feelings among consumers who believe they got stiffed during last year’s holiday buying season amid a wave of deliveries. Being transparent with customers about return policies is a good place to start — and an opportunity to strengthen relationships that many marketers may be missing.
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The Brand-Led Effort Driving COVID-19 Vaccinations
B2C March 24, 2021More than 300 brands are participating in the Ad Council's COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative, rolling out various advertising campaigns that urge people to get vaccinated and address those who are reluctant to get the shot.
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Turning the Page on Content Marketing
B2C February 12, 2021Unlike the campaign-to-campaign mode of traditional brand advertising, content marketing requires brands to constantly refine their storytelling efforts and strategize for the long haul.
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A Bright Outlook for Digital Out-of-Home Advertising
B2C January 29, 2021The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines will spur additional opportunities in DOOH, as consumers return in droves to shopping in brick-and-mortar stores and eating inside restaurants after being stuck in their homes because of the pandemic.
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Brands Step Up Their Sustainability Efforts
B2C January 27, 2021Brands ranging from P&G to PepsiCo are rolling out various initiatives to tackle issues such as climate change and environmental waste across several touchpoints, including product development, packaging, and raw material sourcing.
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What’s in Store for Marketers Once Cookies Bite the Dust?
B2C January 15, 2021The demise of third-party cookies provides marketers with an opportunity to be more transparent with consumers and recalibrate their methods of measurement.
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Showing the Love for Small Businesses
B2C January 8, 2021Mailchimp's latest ad campaign draws on classic animation to help its small business customers build big ideas. Michael Mitchell, director of brand marketing at Mailchimp, calls the campaign a "love letter" to entrepreneurs making their way through the pandemic.
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The Recruitment Race Resumes
B2C December 4, 2020Creative, wide-ranging internships from brands like IBM and Verizon must become the rule rather than the exception if marketing is going to win an increasingly fierce battle for entry-level talent.
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Marketers Raise Podcast Volume to Eleven
B2C November 13, 2020The recent decline in podcast advertising is merely a pandemic-induced blip on the radar. The longer-term outlook remains quite attractive, with spending projected to reach more than $1 billion in 2021. Marketers are whetting their appetite.
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Taking a Stand on Systemic Change
B2C August 19, 2020The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among others, reignited a national conversation around racial injustice and systemic inequalities. With consumers increasingly expecting brands to take a stand against racial injustice, keeping silent is not an option for many companies. But to help effect real change, companies need to resolve the problematic practices that exist within their own houses first. Here’s how they can get started.
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