Industry Insights

The holidays are a time of celebration and love — both to celebrate the people we love and to cherish the moments we have with them. Regardless of which holiday, any time we carve out a moment to be present and enjoy each other’s company is a gift — and a gift we need to do more of. The best ads don’t just try to sell stuff (and yes, every ad is selling something) but hopefully inspire us and remind us of our own humanity.

Today the C-suite has high expectations for CMOs, requiring them to demonstrate their value to a company's bottom line. Creativity and big ideas alone no longer suffice as senior marketers are expected to also bring data, analytics, and technical know-how to the leadership table.

Today’s brands are increasingly seeking to reach diverse, multicultural audiences to drive revenue. We have seen it with Coca-Cola’s “America is Beautiful” ads and Adobe’s “When I See Black.” However, attempts to reach new audiences can feel inauthentic or simply ineffective.

Since its inception, the internet has allowed us to generate creative ideas together, from across continents, keeping lines of communication open through a vast advertising landscape even during a global pandemic and myriad lockdowns.

“Audience-first” was in some ways a reaction to “content is king.” A decade ago, as the programmatic space was reaching critical mass, the industry glommed onto the glory of cherry-picking audiences based on fancy new algorithms that allowed us to “personalize” impressions.

Advertising has a dire brand suitability problem and needs a systematic solution. The advertising-fueled attention economy has incentivized publishers and social platforms to support the loudest and angriest voices with few safeguards in place to allow brands to exclude false, misleading, and divisive content while prioritizing the suitability factors most important to their business.

Science confirms it: People who give money to others are happier. Regardless of age, gender, or socio-economic status, giving just makes you feel good. And last year Americans opened their wallets and hearts wide, breaking all records for Giving Tuesday in 2021; 35 million U.S. adults participated in 2021, with total gifts of $2.7 billion, a 9 percent increase from 2020. And for the full year, individuals, bequests, foundations and corporations gave an estimated $484.85 billion to U.S. charities in 2021. That’s a lot of happiness!

Kate Bush is in the top 10. Baggy jeans are all the rage. And there’s a new series launching on Netflix about Blockbuster (dance on the grave much?). It goes without saying, what’s old is new again.

A lot of brands have reached a turning point with their first party data. Many have already done the heavy lifting to aggregate internal data, and some have even created their own internal ID to act as a single source of the truth for each customer or prospect.

Want a true sign of the channel’s recovery? OOH advertising revenue increased 28.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year, accounting for $2.62 billion – nearly equivalent to pre-pandemic highs when Q2 2019 OOH revenues totaled a record-breaking $2.69 billion.

Brand purpose plays a significant role in influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers, particularly gen z and millennials. This younger cohort is looking for brands to be authentic and use their platforms to drive change, and impact communities, movements, and policy.

ANA events bring together some of the smartest and most-talented marketers in the industry to share insights and best practices that help ANA members get the most out of their own marketing efforts.

If you’re a company executive and you’re thinking about your team and workplace the same way you did two years ago, there’s a good chance you’re looking to fill a lot of vacancies — and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.

From scoring a touchdown in a virtual sports league to constructing an imaginary metropolis to guessing a series of five-letter words, most adults are playing at least one type of video game. Whether it’s for the love of competition or to fill downtime with a dopamine surge, recent data shows that the number of people playing games via PC, consoles, tablets, or smartphones in 2022 will surpass three billion, according to Newzoo’s Global Games Report 2021)

When Strahl, a drinkware maker, wanted to demonstrate the sturdiness of its polycarbonate bar glasses to the restaurant and food service industry in Norway last year, it sent potential customers drinking glasses by mail — with their address on the shatter-resistant product, which was all the packaging that was needed.

Today, it’s no question that brand marketers and advertisers recognize the value of smart digital advertising. In fact, digital advertising is well on trend to exceed 60 percent of global ad spend by the end of this year, according to Zenith Media. Although performance marketing is all the rage, it hasn’t necessarily been hitting its stride in the way it once did.

The scope of fraud on unsuspecting consumers is on the rise with a loss of billions and billions of dollars nationwide. There is a real opportunity for companies to take a greater leadership role by educating consumers, training employees, and taking preventative steps to protect their brand and support fraud victims.

During the fall months, and during any holiday season, it’s candy’s time to shine (or maybe, better yet, melt in your mouth). Whether it’s Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, or Thanksgiving, having treats on hand can help make the holidays feel special, and more easily shared with others. It’s a small gesture, but sharing a delicious moment matters. Of course, candy and snack brands know this.

People are exposed to about 10,000 ads per day. From Instagram ads to Google search results to commercials on TV – not every ad is going to be memorable or relevant. It’s the advertiser’s job to cut through the clutter.

During the pandemic there were various reports of bad business practices in the agency search and pitch process. The bad practices were found on both the client and agency side of the process. Many of the bad practices cited in the trade press stemmed from inconsistencies in the agency search and selection process. These bad practices leave both client and agency yearning for opportunities to simplify the process and in turn, benefit the business – and the industry as a whole.