ANA to Marketers: Let's Take a Pause
August 31, 2021
"Take a pause?" That's not something you say to a marketer. What force on earth could make thousands of professionals "stop, drop, and learn?" Answer: the past 20 months. Our industry has undergone nearly a decade's worth of transformation in less than two years.
Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer and ANA Chairman Marc Pritchard characterized the pace of our industry as nonstop: "So much has changed around us. That's why we all need to make sure we're caught up on the latest capability and best practices. The road ahead is challenging, exciting, and important, so we need to make sure our industry can operate at its full potential to drive the growth we need."
In the words of Nick Primola, marketing's Global Day of Learning on September 14 results from "a groundswell of top CMOs reconciling with the rapid transformation of business culture and capabilities." Not even a pandemic stopped the creativity and ability of the marketing industry to pivot, responding in real-time to customer needs as varied as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, escalating food insecurity, and a dramatic shift from in-person retail to e-commerce. Our industry showed greater creative capacity than in previous years, but it has taken its toll. Add in concern about returning to work safely and slowing down before powering through makes complete sense.
If marketers intend to continue operating in alignment with the ANA Growth Agenda to pursue its mandates at full potential, this day is critical. In pausing for just one day to focus on capacity, marketers around the globe are committing to emerge, supported to do their best work every day. It is as simple as this: "To Move the World Forward, First We Have to Stop It."
Stopping does not mean doing nothing. The ANA's Global CMO Growth Council built out a comprehensive schedule of offerings, including live workshops, a "Masters" track of live and recorded events, live streams, on-demand e-learning, conference keynotes, webinars, white papers, case studies, award entries, playbooks, and podcasts, all intended to refresh and inspire marketers, from interns to global brand leaders, on best practices as businesses return to their new normal worldwide.
Confirmed education partners have generously provided complimentary access to world-class learning resources, including the ANA and its network of subject experts and instructors, Cannes LIONS, 42Courses.com, Spencer Stuart, Morning Consult, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, MediaLink, Verizon Media, Forbes CxO Series, best-selling author and global CMO Raja Rajamannar, and Yale School of Management, to name just a few.
Personal Day ON
The road ahead will not be easy. To prepare for changes we haven't anticipated in the world, three things are crucial, pausing to reinvest in ourselves, refueling by learning from our best of brightest, and aligning to keep moving forward. Our leaders have told us that entire teams are committing collectively to the Day of Learning. Another mentioned that their group's calendars would reflect "out-of-office" with a strict policy of no phone calls. Others have invited external partners, agencies, and consultants to join them in collaborative learning, building into performance plans for which they are accountable, year after year.
Did We Mention That It's Free?
Register today. Bring your people; experienced marketers, interns, college students, your tech-savvy parents or grandparents who still don't quite understand what it is you do. All they need to know is this: when the going got tough, so did the creatives. Now we've earned a reset.
On behalf of the ANA Global CMO Growth Council, on September 14, 2021, we welcome you to join us. We're rebooting with an infusion of the world's best practices, designed to help marketers (you know, the creatives) refuel for growth at full potential moving ahead.
All around the globe, for 24 hours, we're taking PTO — personal time ON — putting down our tools to elevate our game.
What new things will you learn?