Coverage of the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference

A survey from the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference by the ANA and The Harris Poll compares “marketer perception” and “public reality” side by side, a unique dual-lens approach that reveals where industry intuition aligns (or diverges) from consumer truth.

This engaging conversation explored the next era of customer engagement. Speakers shared insights on the future of brand-creator partnerships, community building, and strategies for brands to break through the cluttered marketplace and drive real impact.

Below are some of the rich insights and recommendations from the industry leaders who presented at ANA's 2025 Masters of Marketing Conference.

Discover key takeaways from the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference — from AI-driven transformation and brand fundamentals to creativity, trust, and cultural relevance. Learn how top CMOs and brand leaders are driving growth and staying relevant in a fast-changing landscape.

Kyall Mai from Esquire Bank shared a blueprint for transforming marketing leadership to thrive in the AI era through mindset shifts, organizational reinvention, and hyper-personalization.

Most marketers are accustomed to thinking of “culture” as shorthand for multicultural marketing. But it’s not just “who” people are demographically; it’s what they believe, what they find sacred, what they reject, and what communities they embrace.

United Airlines shared how it reinvented its marketing playbook to deliver cultural relevance, speed, and authenticity while operating within the constraints of a highly regulated industry.

GM shared how it underwent a sweeping transformation built on design and technology. Resilience, innovation, and consumer-centricity sparked a rebirth, making marketing a powerful accelerant for growth across every brand.

The Palmer Group explored how AI is no longer a tool — it’s a leadership test. Marketers must govern AI strategically, embracing agentic systems and reasoning engines to stay competitive in a synthetic, autonomous world.

WPP Media’s Brian Lesser outlined how the future of brand value creation lies at the intersection of ubiquitous media and transformative AI, urging marketers to move from tactical campaigns to strategic worldbuilding for intelligent, measurable growth.

Speed to insight was a challenge that Newell Brands cost-effectively addressed with generative AI.

A strategic shift to food culture is driving growth at PepsiCo.

During a session at the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, MilkPEP discussed its steps to create an audience-first marketing strategy.

Marketers reclaimed $13.6 billion in media value in Q3 2025 as working-media share climbed to 47.1 percent. Connected TV quality surged, made-for-advertising exposure hit a record low, and 99.1 percent of spend occurred in low-risk environments — signaling a new era of efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

Building emotional connections with under 40s is expanding the premium wine market.

Brand building is like pointillism, painted one dot at a time through consistent interactions with consumers.

In this video, Kyall Mai from Esquire Bank shared a blueprint for transforming marketing leadership to thrive in the AI era through mindset shifts, organizational reinvention, and hyper-personalization.

Moving fast and staying relevant are at the heart of United Airlines’ brand marketing.

A challenger brand mindset has been key in making dairy milk relevant to a new generation.

The recipe for reinvention in the “never normal” is to anticipate, adapt, and be resilient.