ANA Calls On CMOs to Join Forces in "Masters Circle" Initiative

CEO Liodice Says CMOs Must Meet Challenges
 Head-On and Lead the Way for Meaningful Changes

ORLANDO, Fla. (October 20, 2016) — The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) today unveiled a new initiative designed to empower chief marketing officers to meet the serious challenges they face by joining forces to create a unified leadership effort that will transform the marketing industry.

Dubbed the ANA Masters Circle, the program was introduced by ANA CEO Bob Liodice in his opening remarks to 2,700 attendees at the organization’s annual Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Liodice said the ANA was compelled to create the Masters Circle because of the growing number of industry challenges such as talent supply, privacy, ad fraud, ad blocking, viewability, and transparency that have left the overall marketing industry “unproductive, unsustainable, and undesirable.”

To meet those challenges, Liodice said it is imperative that chief marketing officers come together to aggressively pursue an aligned agenda designed to establish new parameters of leadership that will allow them to “take back the industry.”

“Marketers command the marketing decision-making process, but they’re not engaged or leading the industry’s agenda,” Liodice said. “It’s abundantly clear that marketers must take their industry back. CMOs can no longer let others do the heavy lifting. If they want something, they have to lead the way.”

The ANA’s Masters Circle has four primary objectives:

1. Lead the way in an industry-wide call for a strong, transparent, and highly productive media supply chain that is free from fraud, is highly viewable, can be measured and accredited, and has data and analytics at its core. The Masters Circle also must become immersed and take leadership roles in industry programs such as the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS), and similar groups to ensure that media is measurable and accredited by neutral third parties.
2. Passionately advance and promote responsible marketing by focusing on issues such as gender equality, multicultural marketing and diversity, and all aspects of social responsibility, especially efforts designed to protect the well-being of children such as The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.
3. Serve as fervent advocates on behalf of all constituents in the media and marketing supply chains by leading and supporting all efforts to advance, protect, and defend our industry. Specifically, the Masters Circle should provide leadership to the Digital Advertising Alliance and the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, and support organizations that push back against overreach from the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. 
4. Strive to develop a high-caliber, digitally savvy, and diverse talent base through the continued support of the ANA’s Educational Foundation and other like-minded organizations to ensure that university students are encouraged to consider careers in advertising and marketing. At the same time, the Masters Circle should urge all CMOs to aggressively upgrade the training and development of their own staffs, particularly in the area of digital communications and technological advancements.

“As an industry, we need to get out of our own way and refocus ourselves on driving growth and innovation,” Liodice said. “We are on the right track, but we need CMOs to turn up the leadership dial. We cannot leave this to others to do. We must get involved and take the action we need — to build our brands and drive our business results. When CMOs do that, everyone wins.”

Membership in the ANA’s Masters Circle is open to all CMOs, whether or not their companies are ANA members.

The conference runs from October 19–22 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. The conference hashtag is #ANAMasters.

### 

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.

MEDIA CONTACT

ANA
John Wolfe
Director of Communications
Office: 212.455.8011
Cell: 914.659.8663
Email: jwolfe@ana.net