CMO Panel to Discuss Emerging Marketing Trends at ANA Annual Conference
New York, NY (October 12, 2007) – As the media environment becomes increasingly complex and rooted in the digital space, the existing marketing agenda and capabilities need to be re-tooled and marketing organizations, agencies and media companies are having to change at an unprecedented pace. A new cross industry study details how marketers and their agencies must change as the convergence of media and technology, combined with the fragmentation and personalization of media, changes the connection between marketers and end users.
Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010, identifies the priorities, capabilities and partnerships required across the marketer – agency – media value chain to optimize now and prepare for the future. The first cross-industry partnership of its kind, MME 2010 is a joint study between the ANA (Association of National Advertisers), IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies), and management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The initial phase of this multi year study was recently conducted by the ANA and Booz Allen Hamilton and will be revealed at the upcoming ANA Masters of Marketing Annual Conference October 11-14, 2007.
“The initial findings of this study confirm what we at the IAB have been hearing and saying: More and more marketers as well as agencies and others across the industry have embraced the reality that interactive is the fulcrum on which their brand strategies need to be based,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Ongoing IAB initiatives creating standards for rich internet applications and exploring interactive audience measurement are just two examples of ways we are helping marketers navigate this new and complex landscape.”
“The impact of new media is changing the way marketers interact, target and distribute their marketing message,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. “As the marketplace shifts to a digital interactive environment, marketing organizations, agencies, and media companies need to transform existing marketing agendas and capabilities to succeed.”
“Now, consumers not only talk back to marketers and interact with marketing messages, but they also reshape and distribute those messages through global communities. The mix of media channels has shifted from a one-way broadcast model to a set of dynamic two-way media forums,” says Andrea Rasmussen, Booz Allen Principal.
Marketing fundamentals have not changed, but the strategies, investments and capabilities required to succeed in marketing have shifted. Over two hundred and fifty marketers participated in surveys, interviews, or both. They identified the ways in which the complex media environment is reshaping the marketing ecosystem and they spotlighted the priorities, capabilities and partnerships that will be increasingly required across the marketer-agency-media value chain.
While all senior marketing executives recognize the importance of creating a digitally focused culture, less than one in four agree their organizations are currently digitally savvy. Further, over ninety percent of respondents indicated they planned to increase marketing spend in digital. Yet many identified significant barriers including: insufficient metrics (62%), lack of organization support (51%) or lack of experience (59%) in the new media.
Five key themes emerged from Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 study:
Marketing as Conversation: Marketing is becoming less about sending a message to consumers and more about conversing and co-creating experiences with consumers. Marketers are calling on a new mix of media to further the communication of their messages. For example, close to half of marketers are planning to increase their PR budgets as a part of marketing.
Insight into Foresight: Technology enhances consumer insights and targeting capabilities on steroids; amplifying ability for perspective and accuracy. Eighty percent of marketers place high importance on behavioral targeting.
Media: The New “Creative”: Distribution mechanisms and context rivals creative execution in importance. Marketers are investing in capabilities that bridge the gap between media, creative and brand strategy chain (e.g., communications planning and “integrator” positions). Again, over 80% of participants agree communications planning capabilities will be critical moving forward.
Marketing + Math + Technology: Data quality, quantity and accessibility have brought math to all aspects of marketing. Leaders are more likely to have the metrics and capabilities to judge the effects of new media.
The Network Effect: The move to digital media necessitates a higher level of collaboration and coordination across all players in the ecosystem. Almost 60% of participants believe that creative, strategic, and media capabilities should be rebundled but there is no consensus as to which agency ‘type’ should lead. Further, traditional creative partnerships are taking a back seat to media partnerships twice as many participants indicate that media company and media agency partnerships will become more important than traditional full service agency partnerships.
The study also identified specific digital capabilities, investments and attitudes across leaders. Leaders disproportionately prioritize consumer insights and are characterized by their almost universal belief (over 95%) that strong consumer insights are critical and require data transparency and partnerships. They lead in their deep understanding of how consumers leverage new media for community and entertainment and they utilize progressive quantitative tools, impose minimal organizational barriers and encourage a strong digital culture.
Leader Keys to Success
- Make your consumer an advocate: Shift marketing objectives from sending a message to facilitating conversations with and between consumers. Understand user-generated content and how consumers use your brand. Vest your brand with meaning. Be authentic.
- Elevate media and communications: Develop an internal ‘integrator’ position (e.g., communications planner). Appoint senior media leadership, incorporate media early in the strategic planning process, and integrate media with marketing.
- Expand consumer insights capabilities: Leverage one-to-one consumer interactions (including ethnography) and digital channels that provide real-time behaviors and patterns. Understand how consumers use media for entertainment, community and information. Lean on partners to provide additional data and insight. Embed them across the organization.
- Apply rigor: refine and iterate your marketing mix: Build partnerships with digital agencies, media agencies and media companies to track ad placement, versioning and effectiveness. Digital media brings a new level of transparency and efficiency to the optimization of the marketing mix.
- Bring digital out of the back room: Digital and interactive are no longer ‘niche’ capabilities. They are part of the requisite skill set for all marketers. Recruit and train accordingly.
- Don’t stop at technology: Align the organization, hire the right talent, and initiate a progressive culture. Identify and address organizational barriers.
- Learn globally: Develop structures to share best practices in new media. Watch technology patterns, social trends and consumer technology adoption rates in leading geographies.
- Institutionalize experimentation and media innovation: Encourage experimentation and support ideas for incremental improvement. Formalize experimental spend efforts. At the very least, have a default budget framework such as allocating ~5% into experimental media.
- Establish an increasing number of marketer, media and technology partnerships. Staff accordingly. Place bets across the media and technology landscape.
- Manage complexity via partnerships: Know the difference between those capabilities to keep in-house and those better managed by external partners. Know when an idea is scaleable, or a competitive advantage, and should be resourced internally.
- Question marketing models: Identify clear brand objectives, evaluate multi-channel (e.g., relationships, event, in-store, email) marketing options to meet objectives, and develop business cases.
In 2008, quantitative studies will be fielded by the IAB and the AAAA and presented at relevant industry meetings. An exhaustive report will be written based upon the results of the three phases of market research.
The Marketing Media & Ecosystem 2010 study is based on responses from over 250 marketers as well as in-depth interviews with over seventy-five leading marketers, agencies, and media company senior executives (CMO, CEO and VP). Participants represented 165 unique companies representing B2B, B2C, and mix businesses across sectors (media/publishing, auto/manufacturing, tech/telco, financial services/travel, consumer goods, healthcare/pharma and other). The study was fielded by Guideline, Inc.
The full study will be revealed this weekend during the ANA Annual Conference at The Biltmore, Phoenix, Arizona. ANA members can request a full copy of the MME 2010 study from the ANA Marketing Insights Center at: www.ana.net/mic/.
For additional IAB perspective on the MME 2010 study please visit www.iab.net.
About the IAB:
Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 300 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the continuing growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates the advertising industry about interactive advertising.
IAB Media Contact:
Marla Nitke
About the ANA: The Association of National Advertisers leads the marketing community by providing its members insights, collaboration and advocacy. ANA’s membership includes 360 companies with 9000 brands that collectively spend over $100 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs and advance, promote and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit www.ana.net
About Booz Allen Hamilton: Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of management consulting for businesses and governments for more than 90 years. Providing consulting services in strategy, operations, organization and change, and information technology, Booz Allen is the one firm that helps clients solve their toughest problems, working by their side to help them achieve their missions. Booz Allen is committed to delivering results that endure.
With 19,000 employees on six continents, the firm generates annual sales of $4 billion. Booz Allen has been recognized as a consultant and an employer of choice. In 2007, for the third consecutive year, Fortune magazine named Booz Allen one of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For,” and for the past eight years, Working Mother has ranked the firm among its “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.”
To learn more about the firm, visit the Booz Allen Web site at www.boozallen.com. To learn more about the best ideas in business, visit www.strategy-business.com, the Web site for strategy+business, a quarterly journal sponsored by Booz Allen.
Press Contacts:
Rachael Adler
CooperKatz & Co. for the ANA
Lesley Weiner
CooperKatz & Co. for the ANA
