Industry Insights
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How AI Can Unlock Greater Campaign Performance for Less Carbon
Leading Edge January 24, 2025Only 36 cents of every dollar spent on programmatic advertising reaches working media. The rest — according to the ANA’s Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study — goes to DSP and SSP fees (29 percent) or losses on productivity from non-viewable, non-measurable, and made-for-advertising impressions (35 percent).
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From Storytelling to Story-Living: How Technology and Creativity Reshapes Brand Experiences
Pulse January 23, 2025At the ANA’s Marketing Tech Momentum conference, VML's global chief experience design officer Kaleeta McDade delivered a compelling perspective on the evolution of brand engagement, tracing the journey from traditional storytelling to what she calls "story-living."
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The Comeback Jingle: Why Brands Are Reigniting Advertising’s Catchiest Tradition
Leading Edge January 23, 2025For decades, jingles have been a key part of a brands marketing arsenal. Worming their way into consumer’s minds, with just a few catchy lines set to an unforgettable tune. And then they, sort of stopped.
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The Psychology Behind CTV Advertising
Pulse January 22, 2025The average hours of viewing for CTV viewership are steadily on the rise. That’s according to “The CTV Trends Report 2024” from Wurl, a CTV platform focused on advertising, marketing, and distribution. In a conversation on the key revelations from the report with Ron Gutman, the CEO of Wurl, he notes that many of the findings, such as an uptick in viewership of holiday channels in May and the most frequently scheduled genre across FAST TV being reality TV, have to do with a key social science field — psychology.
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The Surprising Trend Behind Ad Tech’s M&A Boom: Context Is King
Leading Edge January 21, 2025As the advertising industry grapples with the challenges of signal deprecation, privacy regulations, and fragmented consumer behaviors, a new era of innovation is emerging — one where ad tech finally serves the human side of advertising.
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On Scope: ANA Launches New Podcast for Marketers
Pulse January 20, 2025Launching in early 2025, On Scope will be the most authoritative marketing podcast available in our industry. Leveraging the resources of the ANA, the show will represent the voice of the marketer and platform the most consequential marketing leaders, giving them an opportunity to share their insights on key topics driving the marketing landscape.
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The Hidden Costs Eating Your Ad Budget
Leading Edge January 20, 2025Every day, marketers are paying full price for their digital ad campaigns while getting only a fraction of what they paid for. It's like you pull up to a gas station that advertises premium fuel, but instead they fill your tank with watered-down regular gas. You’re paying top dollar but driving away with a fraction of the horsepower you paid for.
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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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