Industry Insights
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Gen Z Fashion Fans Outgrow TikTok: The Generation that Demands Authenticity and Credibility
Pulse March 31, 2025A generation that is often viewed as impulsive, immature, and naïve, Raptive has proven with its new study, “DECODING GEN Z: The New Rules of Digital Trust and Influence,” that gen Z has outgrown these stereotypes. Gone are the days of trendy, TikTok-influenced purchases, especially when it comes to fashion. Instead, gen Z are making informed purchases using the open web and turning toward authentic content creators with honest reviews and recommendations.
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Muslim Filmmakers Share Advice on How Brands Can Engage Consumers During Ramadan
Leading Edge March 28, 2025As Ramadan draws to a close and the preparations for Eid begins, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on this sacred month, its significance for Muslims worldwide, and how the advertising industry can better represent it.
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Why Sacrificing Channel Expertise Can Lead to a Vicious Cycle of Diminished Performance
Leading Edge March 28, 2025The conversation between CMOs and CFOs has become increasingly focused on cost efficiency. Faced with rising scrutiny on budgets, many CFOs are questioning the value of maintaining multiple specialized agencies and advocating for consolidation to reduce fees. For CMOs, this creates a dilemma: How can they justify the need for channel expertise when every dollar is being watched?
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Thanks to AI, Remote Opportunities Are Even Easier for Marketers
Leading Edge March 27, 2025Beyond Europe, British ad agencies have long created global ad creative campaigns, and more recently, South American agencies have created ads for the local market which ultimately ran in the U.S. and other markets.
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Three Brands That Made an Impression on Younger Generations
Pulse March 27, 2025Since marketers are often looking for ways to target gen Z and millennial audiences, finding new and unique approaches to do so can present a challenge for brands.
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AI and Anxiety: How People Are Feeling Right Now
Pulse March 26, 2025While AI has been the cause of much emotion, ranging from excitement to fear, and the topic of much debate over the last few years, Pew discovered that 52 percent of workers “say they’re worried about the future impact of AI use in the workplace, and 32 percent think it will lead to fewer job opportunities for them in the long run.”
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Why Retail Media Breaks Marketing Mix Models (MMMs)
Leading Edge March 25, 2025For decades, brands have relied on marketing mix models (MMMs) to prove the value of their investments in advertising. These models, built to assess the mix of paid media channels like TV, print and digital display, helped marketers justify budgets and optimize their allocations. But as retail media networks (RMNs) attract billions in ad dollars, marketers are running into a major problem — MMMs weren’t designed to handle the complexity, speed and ever-changing nature of retail media.
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4 Paths to Absolving the Cardinal Sins of Digital Advertising
Leading Edge March 24, 2025There’s an inherent tension between advertisers’ quest for quality inventory and their stated reach mandates. This tension has taken us down an interesting path and created a system of perverse incentives that have given rise to today’s industry boogeymen: made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, fraud, bots — the list goes on.
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Measuring Loyalty Marketing
Pulse March 24, 2025Loyalty marketing is a big business and increasing in importance. Loyalty marketing rewards customers for their repeat purchases or interactions with a brand. Think about airlines, hotels, and quick-service restaurants. Loyalty marketing programs are offered by national brands and local ones, like a neighborhood pizza shop.
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Editor Highlights: Partnerships, Creators, and Mixed Media Modeling
Pulse March 21, 2025Do you feel like it’s a challenge to keep up with the latest trends, best practices, and marketing strategies? You aren’t alone. Bimonthly, ANA’s Pulse will highlight content within ANA’s resources hub, from Industry Insights, Knowledge Partner contributions, ANA Magazine, case studies, Marketing 101, Tools and Playbooks, and more. This way, the hard work of finding actionable insights, marketing trends, and helpful guides is done for you.
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The 3 C’s Shaping AdTech in 2025
Leading Edge March 21, 2025In the evolving world of adtech, 2025 is proving to be a pivotal year, marked by an increased focus on innovation and adaptability. What’s driving this momentum? It comes down to four powerful C’s: context, convergence, and curation, and the most important of them all, community.
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AI in Marketing: A Review of Recent ANA Insights
Pulse March 20, 2025Apprehension over the role of artificial intelligence in the lives of humans has been stirring nightmares since at least the release of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and that film’s depiction of a murderous mainframe, lent menacing screen presence in HAL 9000’s red, unblinking eye-like camera lens.
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Scaling a Digital Agency: When to Expand, Outsource, or Automate?
Leading Edge March 20, 2025Discover the right time to scale digital agency and how a white-label agency can support growth through hiring, outsourcing, or automation for efficiency.
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Alium Releases the Top Marketing and E-commerce Vendors Used by Brands
Pulse March 19, 2025Understanding peer opinions as an important resource to marketers, Alium released a report in February 2025 listing the top 20 marketing and e-commerce vendors rated highest by brands.
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The Modern CMO: Driving Transformation in an Era of Complexity
Leading Edge March 18, 2025Adapt or become irrelevant. That’s the harsh reality facing today’s CMOs. In a marketplace defined by rapid technological shifts, evolving customer expectations, and relentless competition, marketing leaders are no longer just responsible for brand awareness — they’re accountable for driving growth, building trust, and transforming their organizations from the inside out.
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LinkedIn and AI: Best Practices for B2B Marketers in 2025
Leading Edge March 17, 2025B2B marketers are increasingly relying on digital channels to engage with customers and prospects, with LinkedIn leading the way as a powerful platform for networking and driver of business growth (see Figure 1). As generative AI reshapes the marketing landscape, companies must leverage new tools and technologies to enhance efficiency and drive greater value with their LinkedIn strategies.
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Wanderlust Over Wallets: Why Travel Remains Non-Negotiable for Gen Z
Leading Edge March 14, 2025Despite rising costs and economic uncertainties, one thing remains clear: Gen Z is unwilling to sacrifice travel. While they may cut back on dining out, shopping and daily coffee runs, their commitment to travel remains strong. More than half of gen Z travelers prefer to forego these "little treats" rather than scale back on their trips. They are brand-agnostic, prioritizing cost-effectiveness and unique experiences over traditional brand loyalty.
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Agency Rate Checks: Best Practices in Managing the Rate Review Process
Leading Edge March 13, 2025Some companies have a policy to periodically check rates for service providers — even if there is no new work to award to agencies, no dissatisfaction with the agencies, or a review or agency search.
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Marketers Innovating at the Speed of Success
Pulse March 13, 2025If you aren’t convinced of how innovative today’s marketers truly are, just consider 15 of the most inventive recent campaigns. Abstracts follow below with the full case studies accessible through the embedded links.
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Navigating the MarTech Maze: How Industry Leaders Stay Ahead
Pulse March 12, 2025Marketing technology (martech) offers endless possibilities — and equally abundant challenges. How do leading organizations maintain their competitive edge as budgets tighten and customer expectations soar? A recent session at the ANA AEF Future of Marketing Leadership Conference at Columbia Business School featuring marketing technology leaders from the NFL, Verizon, and Barclays revealed that success isn't just about implementing the latest AI tools — it's about building the right foundation, breaking down organizational barriers, and developing talent strategies that work.
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