Media Leadership Committee

The Media Leadership Committee is for members with a senior-level role leading integrated media strategy within their organizations. The committee will take a holistic, channel neutral approach to media with a focus on the media types of most interest to members. We will drive industry thought leadership, share best practices and expertise, and facilitate discussion and topics to inform better decision making. The committee will provide a forum for members to elevate themselves and their respective organizations via interaction with their peers (i.e., the media leaders at some of the most important companies in the world!), as well as an outside perspective from invited guests.

This committee helps program the ANA Media Conference, next planned for April 10-12, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes in Orlando, FL. Registration will open in September 2018. Presentations and event recaps from the 2018 Media Conference can be found here.

Committee Co-Chairs:
Rex Conklin
Jennifer Gardner, Senior Director Media, North America, Unilever

The ANA staff members managing the Media Leadership Committee are Meghan Medlock and Molly Knol.

Discussion Topics

• Media transparency
• Media measurement
• Data
• Emerging media opportunities (e.g.: VR, AR, AI, etc.)
• Digital media trends
• Programmatic media buying
• Content marketing
• Video
• Media agency relationship management
• Organizational structure for internal media management
• Global media issues

Leadership Initiatives

The Digital Transformation of Video Advertising Arrives
This report from the ANA and Forrester will help marketers plot a course to an omnichannel TV and video strategy, establish new processes, and upgrade their planning and buying skills. The research indicates that television advertising is at the cusp of significant change as marketers are incorporating the data-driven approaches of addressable and advanced TV into their plans.

The State of Programmatic Media Buying
Programmatic media buying has been a rising trend in the marketing industry over the last few years, and 2017 was no exception. Research conducted by the ANA shows that 85 percent of our members are now conducting programmatic initiatives, either in-house or with an agency. One of our most significant findings is that more than a third of our respondents (35 percent) are relying on their in-house media buying capabilities and as a result have reduced the role of external agencies that previously performed the same function. The 35 percent figure marked a notable increase from a 2016 ANA/Forrester report that found only 14 percent of ANA marketers were reducing the role of their external agency as a result of in-house expansion.

One Year Later: How ANA Members Are Addressing Media Transparency Issues
Sixty percent of ANA members have taken action steps in the past year to address media transparency issues. The most common action step related to the advertiser/agency contract. Audits and changes to programmatic buying practices also received attention.

The Bot Baseline 2016-2017: Fraud in Digital Advertising
The headline from the third edition of the ANA/White Ops Bot Baseline report is, "The War on Global Digital Ad Fraud is Winnable!" The study is based on an analysis of the digital advertising activity for 49 ANA members between October 2016 and January 2017. Fraud losses for 2017 are estimated to be $6.5 billion globally, down 10 percent from the $7.2 billion reported in last year's study. Traffic sourcing is still the major risk factor for fraud. Meanwhile, the very best ANA member performers — those study participants in the top quintile (20 percent) of performance — have shown dramatic positive outcomes. Extrapolated globally, those top performers would project only $700 million lost globally to fraud in 2017. Our recommended action steps are drawn from what the top performers have put into practice.

Programmatic: Seeing Through the Financial Fog
With the rapid adoption of programmatic media, the supply chain has quickly become complicated — with agencies, trading desks, demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, data management platforms, exchanges, and publishers. To many, the result is a financial "fog." ANA, ACA (Association of Canadian Advertisers), AD/FIN Solutions, and Ebiquity PLC commissioned a study that provides practical solutions to help advertisers take greater control of their programmatic investments and to investigate the costs and economics of the programmatic ecosystem.

ANA Members on Walled Gardens: Overwhelming Support for Independent Audits by MRC
Facebook and YouTube have announced that they would break down their "walled gardens" and allow independent audits by the Media Rating Council. In an era of concerns about transparency in the advertising supply chain, these are very positive developments. The ANA calls on other large digital enterprises which have not yet undergone (or announced support for) such independent audits to embrace transparency and "break down their walled gardens" by allowing independent audits by the Media Rating Council.

Media Transparency 
ANA has been active on the issue of media transparency since 2011 when discussions on transparency began on a grass roots level in ANA committee meetings, including the Media Leadership Committee.  Those efforts paid off in 2016 with the release of the following:

• The report “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry,” which concluded that non-transparent business practices were pervasive in the U.S. media ad-buying ecosystem.
• “Media Transparency: Prescriptions, Principles, and Processes for Advertisers,” which outlines recommended responsibilities for advertisers and agencies.

Sourced Traffic: Buyer Beware!
The concept of sourced traffic, or traffic sourcing (any method by which digital media sellers acquire visitors through third parties) is unique to digital advertising. Marketers investing in digital advertising need to understand sourced traffic, the issues associated with it — including lack of transparency and high levels of bot fraud — and the action steps required to safeguard investments and optimize spending.

Programmatic Transforms Digital Media Buying
Programmatic buying remains a huge opportunity as marketers are allocating a greater proportion of their media spend to programmatic while expanding its use well beyond online display to include all media types. While programmatic offers the benefits of targeting and efficiency, it also has many challenges including a lack of transparency and higher levels of fraud. This ANA/Forrester Research survey provides a view on the "current state of programmatic" among the client-side marketing community. (Available to ANA members only.)

Brands Working With Startups
ANA conducted research, "Brands Working With Startups," in conjunction with the CTA (Consumer Technology Association). The purpose was to explore marketers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward engaging the startup community in the marketing and advertising space. Specifically it examines how brands work with startups, approaches to using startups, activities associated with startups, pros and cons of using startups, experience with startups and expectations with startups.

The Critical Need for Accredited Third-Party Measurement for Viewability of Digital Advertising
ANA conducted a member survey on the issue of independent third-party measurement for viewability of digital advertising. Some large digital media owners do not allow third-party measurement vendors to report viewable ad impressions to their clients and instead, rely on internally derived metrics that have not been independently verified. This means marketers must trust the viewability metrics provided by those digital media owners, without any independent verification, to determine if their ads performed as contracted. Key survey findings include (a) an overwhelming 97 percent of marketers believe that the larger digital media owners should allow their inventory to be measured by a third party and (b) 61 percent of respondents would shift their spending elsewhere, if a digital media owner does not provide third-party measurement.

The Connected TV Opportunity
Connected TV refers to when a television is connected to the Internet. This includes Smart TVs where the connection is built into the TV, or any IP-connected over-the-top (OTT) device/box such as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, or Xbox that brings an array of content apps directly to a TV screen. ANA and BrightLine teamed-up to research how the overall ANA member community is using connected TV/OTT devices. The large majority of total respondents believe connected TV is an opportunity for the television advertising industry, with audience targeting cited as the top benefit.

Advertising Is Going Native
Native advertising is an advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing messaging in the context of the user's experience. Native ad formats match both the form and function of the user experience in which they are placed. The advertiser's intent is to make the paid advertising feel less intrusive and increase the likelihood users will engage with it. The ANA white paper "Advertising Is Going Native" covers issues including how marketers use and budget for native advertising, manage its implementation internally and externally, measure its success, and opinions on disclosure and ethics.

Media Buying's Evolution Challenges Marketers
The rise of digital media and the increasing use of new, automated, impression-by-impression platforms for planning, buying, and measuring all forms of media have upended traditional marketing and media buying processes. ANA teamed with Forrester Research to better understand how marketers in charge of important media budgets are coping with this evolution.  The research focuses on media transparency, programmatic buying, and metrics

Optimizing Integrated Multi-Screen Campaigns Survey
This survey was conducted by ANA in partnership with Nielsen. Integrated multi-screen campaigns are defined as campaigns that have the same set of marketing objectives and run during a similar timeframe across two or more screens, including TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, and digital place-based media. The objectives of this survey included assessing the importance of integrated multi-screen campaigns, evaluating the metrics used to measure their success, examining the attributes that can lead to increased spend on multi-screen campaigns, ascertaining the importance of the different screen types, and determining the ad formats best suited for integrated multi-screen advertising. 

Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings-Benefits and Solution Providers
Earlier this year ANA convened the Commercial Ratings Summit, and then a follow-up webinar, to discuss solutions that could help facilitate the availability of brand-specific commercial ratings for television. Those events featured presentations from eight companies: comScore, INVIDI Technologies, Kantar Media, Nielsen, PrecisionDemand, Rentrak, Simulmedia, and TRA. ANA released a new white paper "Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings-Benefits and Solution Providers" which highlights solutions from these respective companies for brand-specific commercial ratings, including case studies, and helps continue the industry dialogue on this issue.

Agency Trading Desks White Paper
The purpose of this document is to educate ANA members on agency trading desks regarding what they are, what they do, potential benefits, questions to ask, and more.

One Year Later: How ANA Members Are Addressing Media Transparency Issues

Sixty percent  of ANA members have taken action steps in the past year to address media transparency issues. The most common action step related to the advertiser/agency contract. Audits and changes to programmatic buying practices also received attention.