Industry Insights
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Generative AI for SMBs: Myths, Uses, and Risk Mitigation
Pulse January 17, 2025The ANA spoke with Ryan Stone, creative director of Lambda Films, to address these concerns, discuss the common misconceptions associated with gen AI, and explore how SMBs can leverage the technology to create budget friendly content and drive efficiencies.
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With TikTok Ban Looming, Advertisers Face a Gen Z Connection Crisis
Leading Edge January 17, 2025Brands are scurrying to pivot their influencer and advertising plans in advance of the (potential) looming U.S. TikTok ban, but there’s little that can be done to avoid short-term disruption. When more than $10 billion in ad revenue is in flux, the market is going to feel it — perhaps nowhere more so than in the connections between brands and gen Z.
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Reconfiguring Tomorrow: Cultural Trends Shaping 2025
Leading Edge January 16, 2025If history has taught us anything, it’s this: Purpose is not dead. Like an ethos of trust and connection and strategic planning to guide operations, it is simply waiting for a new form — one that feels more honest, more actionable and more aligned with where we are now.
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SEO and AI: Best Practices
Leading Edge January 16, 2025Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has long been regarded as one of the most effective digital marketing channels for delivering a high return on investment (ROI). In fact, Forrester predicts that “AI-integrated search will triple SEO budgets…as consumers increasingly trust organic, gen AI-powered summaries.”
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The Psychology of Choice
Leading Edge January 16, 2025Marketers spend a lot of time thinking about customers as well as navigat¬ing through complex professional relationships, so understanding the psychology of choice can not only illuminate the cognitive biases and factors influencing people’s decisions but also provide valuable perspectives for both consumers and business leaders. Moreover, marketers can leverage this understanding to design more effective strategies that resonate with their target audiences and stakeholder groups.
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Finding Advertising’s Anchor in the Storm: Ahoy, TV
Leading Edge January 15, 2025None of us are strangers to turbulence. Today’s advertisers face real or perceived challenges in a time marked by unpredictable stock market fluctuations and an increasingly polarized political climate. The market volatility, driven by inflationary pressures, interest rate adjustments, and global economic uncertainties, is rippling across industries, making it tricky for companies to forecast and confidently allocate their advertising budgets. There’s a delicate balance between maintaining brand visibility and managing financial risks. It’s natural to go looking for an anchor.
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Humans and Machines: Why Brands Are Going Back to Real-Life Connections and Creativity
Leading Edge January 14, 2025There’s something undeniable about real-life experiences. In my role at Wanderlab, I’ve watched the shift firsthand. More and more, brands are realizing that while digital platforms are vital, it’s the tactile, human connection that leaves a lasting impression. After years of digital-first communication — especially during the pandemic — people are craving something deeper, something real. And brands are taking note.
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Creative Optimization Is All About Orchestration and Relevance
Leading Edge January 13, 2025Ad tech is ever-changing, a truth proven out by the short lifespan of some of its central terms. We have moved on from several integral shorthand phrases that found their way out of favor – like "online behavioral data” and "data management platform." More recently, we’ve seen the deprecation of platforms like Amazon Ad Server and Oracle Advertising. Meanwhile, there’s another term, enduring since the early days, that now flirts with obsolescence. That phrase is "dynamic creative optimization” which is too limited to describe its real meaning, and its critical importance for the current moment.
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Editor Highlights: ANA's Inclusive Marketing Study, Pet Marketing, and Media
Pulse January 10, 2025Do you feel like it’s a challenge to keep up with the latest trends, best practices, and marketing strategies? You aren’t alone. Bimonthly, ANA’s Pulse will highlight content within ANA’s resources hub, from Industry Insights, Knowledge Partner contributions, ANA Magazine, case studies, Marketing 101, Tools and Playbooks, and more. This way, the hard work of finding actionable insights, marketing trends, and helpful guides is done for you.
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Humanness: The Key to Strengthening Marketing Performance with Purpose
Leading Edge January 10, 2025What if the key to unlocking your next creative breakthrough wasn’t hidden in another dataset or AI tool, but in a different state of mind?
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Empowering Creators within the B2B Space
Leading Edge January 9, 2025Influencers have the power to capture audiences, build communities, and drive engagement. B2B brands are finally taking notice and realizing the immense potential of collaborating with these creative minds.
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Google Ads, SEM, and AI: Best Practices
Leading Edge January 9, 2025The U.S. search engine advertising (SEM) market, dominated by Google Ads, continues to grow and is expected to reach over $136 billion US dollars by 2026, according to Statista. Although digital marketing involves a seemingly limitless and evolving landscape such as X competitors Thread and BlueSky, social commerce, marketing technology and data privacy, digital marketers will continue to invest in channels with proven return on investment, like SEM and SEO. In fact, according to Forrester’s 2025 Budget Planning Guide, “B2C marketing executives are more optimistic than ever about their marketing budgets: 92 percent plan to increase their overall marketing investment in the next 12 months.”
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A Conversation with The NonProfit Times’ Paul Clolery
Pulse January 8, 2025In advance of his fireside chat with Tunde Wackman, chief development officer for World Central Kitchen, at the 2025 ANA Nonprofit Conference, the ANA Nonprofit Federation caught up with veteran journalist Paul Clolery to get his thoughts on a variety of industry issues.
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Scaling Chaos: Why Codifying Your Brand Is Vital for Survival in the Age of Gen AI
Leading Edge January 8, 2025Generative AI has the power to scale the success of a well-defined brand, and for those brands it will be truly transformative for all the right reasons. But it can also have the opposite effect on weaker brands, potentially exposing or highlighting flaws. Whether AI helps your brand soar or stumble depends hugely on how well you’ve codified it.
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SeeHer’s Best Practices for Representing Women in Health and Wellness Marketing
Pulse January 7, 2025SeeHer, noticing the lack of resources for this prevalent communications issue, created a guide of the best practices for representing women in healthcare advertising.
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The Flight to Quality Could Turn the Open Web into a Walled Garden
Leading Edge January 7, 2025In the past year, reports exposed the problem with MFA websites and advertisers began their “flight to quality,” rooting out questionable websites from their plans. Clearly, ensuring that advertisers only pay for inventory on real websites is a good thing. Not only should advertisers’ outcomes improve, focusing media spend on quality content ensures that publishers with integrity earn revenue, supporting their businesses and giving audiences better experiences and better information.
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10 Opportunities for Marketers Using Generative AI in Search Marketing
Pulse January 6, 2025As we enter the new year, marketers continue to face a progressive transformation, with generative AI emerging as the most powerful tool in our arsenal. As traditional search marketing strategies evolve, savvy marketers are discovering unprecedented opportunities to leverage AI across multiple dimensions of their search marketing efforts.
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As ChatGPT Turns Two, Have Marketers Bought into the AI Hype?
Leading Edge January 6, 2025As AI becomes faster and more advanced, marketers can run queries and develop campaigns much easier on user interfaces using natural language, simplifying activities and removing their reliance on platform experts to do this.
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How Agencies and Brands Create Successful Communications Strategies in 2025
Leading Edge January 3, 2025Across the media landscape, advertisers and marketers are encountering a seismic shift in media consumption patterns. Fragmentation is a challenge and an opportunity. It is one that is reshaping the traditional ways we reach audiences.
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Rewriting News Media’s Journey Forward
Leading Edge January 3, 2025Over the past few years, publishers have been on a roller coaster, navigating steep drops in revenue, sudden turns in ad demand, and a seemingly endless climb to capture the elusive attention of digital audiences. While headlines have painted a grim picture, suggesting that news as we know it is on the brink, the real story is much more complex — and, in some ways, surprisingly hopeful.
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