Industry Insights
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Target's New Santa Ads: A Masterclass in Brand Reinvention
Leading Edge December 13, 2024The challenge? For retail brands, holiday performance can make or break their entire year. Target faced this reality head-on after a particularly tough year of declining sales and mounting pressure to win back customers. They needed a bottom-of-the-ninth home run during the critical Christmas shopping season. And they delivered by breaking three unwritten rules of holiday marketing.
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The Evolution of DEI: Why Inclusive Marketing Remains Essential
Pulse December 13, 2024In recent months, headlines have declared the "end of DEI" with some companies retreating from diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. However, this narrative misses a crucial point — DEI is not a fleeting trend but an evolving business imperative that continues to drive growth and innovation. At the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), we understand how inclusive marketing practices are becoming more integrated into core business strategies.
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“Endemmatic” Healthcare Advertising: The Best of Endemic and Programmatic
Leading Edge December 12, 2024Healthcare advertising is undergoing a transformation. While search has been the cornerstone of digital healthcare marketing, recent developments have introduced uncertainty. Google's AI Overviews have reshaped the search experience, impacting SEO and SEM strategies. The company also faces a DOJ inquiry that could restructure its advertising operations.
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2025: The Year of Hard Truths and Razzle Dazzle in B2B Tech Marketing
Leading Edge December 12, 2024As 2025 approaches, the B2B marketing landscape is primed for transformative shifts. Whether it’s the evolution of ABM, the emotional renaissance of B2B creativity, or the power of AI, the year ahead will be one where B2B marketers have the tools to re-imagine what’s possible.
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Editor Highlights: Gen AI, ABX, and SQL Conversions
Pulse December 12, 2024Do 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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Bots and Fake Traffic Can Wreak Havoc on Holiday E-Commerce: Here’s What to Do
Leading Edge December 11, 2024With the holiday shopping season in full swing and consumers more plugged into online shopping than ever, businesses face unprecedented increases in fake traffic.
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These Brands Utilized Sports and Esports for Successful Media Strategies
Pulse December 11, 2024One of the most important parts of culture across the world is sports, whether it is professional, amateur, or online. Many brands take advantage of this part of society and continue to focus their campaigns and media strategies around sporting events and athletes.
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Holiday Ads: Which Brands “Sleighed” It in 2024?
Leading Edge December 10, 2024So, with this season’s festive advertising all but wrapped up for another year, who are this year’s winners?
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Seizing the Moment: How Micro-Moments Drive Consumer Engagement
Leading Edge December 10, 2024Micro-moments are powerful opportunities for marketers to meet consumers' immediate needs and build lasting brand relationships. These "I want to know," "I want to go," "I want to do," and "I want to buy" moments represent key times when people turn to devices for quick information or solutions. Each phase offers an avenue to deliver targeted, helpful content that encourages engagement and action.
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Do Marketers Have the Time & Resources to Boost Efficiency and Performance?
Leading Edge December 9, 2024According to a recent McKinsey & Company study, marketers believe that they are being asked to “do more, with less.” Further, many survey respondents feel ill-equipped to deliver on the expanded expectations of the marketing department.
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Best Practices for Increasing MQL to SQL Conversions
Leading Edge December 6, 2024Every company’s marketing department works hard to funnel marketing qualified leads (MQL) to its salespeople. Ideally, sellers want every MQL to convert into a sales-qualified lead (SQL). Having an MQL to SQL rate of 100 percent is not realistic, but far too often, this number ends up being lower than it should be.
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Advertising Is Being Lost in Translation
Leading Edge December 5, 2024On the surface, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is about two foreigners navigating a place where they don’t speak the language. However, the real message is that even when people share the same words, the real meaning can still be lost as it is translated into different personal contexts. That’s exactly what’s happening in advertising today.
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ANA 2024 Marketing Word of the Year: AI
Leading Edge December 5, 2024Since 2014, the ANA has surveyed our members to select the ANA Marketing Word of the Year. For the second year in a row and third time in the past eight years, AI is the ANA Marketing Word of the Year in 2024.
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Account-Based Experience: Bringing the Power of ABM to the Full Customer Journey
Leading Edge December 4, 2024ABX represents a more holistic, data-driven approach that spans marketing, sales and customer success. Already, B2B firms are using ABX to transform B2B customer engagement and growth strategies.
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Giving and Growing: How the Industry Is Leading the Communities We Serve Together
Leading Edge December 4, 2024After years of collaborating with the ANA on what has now become its 350-member strong Brand Purpose Committee, I was honored to accept a co-chair last year alongside Dan Grimm, distinguished executive-in-residence at Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation. In these roles, we work closely with tireless ANA EVP Ken Beaulieu and director Alicia Osgood, to ensure committee members are learning and growing their organizations as well as the industry and communities we serve together.
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AI Powering the Future of Travel: How Destination Marketers Leverage Intelligent Technology
Pulse December 3, 2024At the ANA’s AI Marketing Reality Check conference, Steve Paganelli, Tripadvisor’s senior head of Americas Partnerships, Christine Maguire, Tripadvisor's VP of global advertising, and Cody Chomiak, VP of marketing at Travel Manitoba, explored how DMOs are using AI to create more personalized and seamless journeys for their visitors.
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Today’s Brands Lack Core Strength — Let’s Fix That
Leading Edge December 3, 2024Rather than constantly forcing ourselves to evaluate the success of campaigns by “end-all-be-all” conversions, consideration measurement offers a better way forward. Consideration is the ultimate lynchpin that helps tie awareness and performance together. Being known is great, but it's not enough. Your brand has to be considered for someone to take that next step.
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The Cool Ways Brands Have Used AI and VR/AR
Pulse December 2, 2024Innovative technology can truly change the way people experience their lives, whether it’s because they can Zoom with a family member or coworker or sort through large amounts of data more quickly to understand a demographic and its needs better.
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The Power of Diversification in Affiliate Marketing: Lessons for Q4 and Beyond
Leading Edge December 2, 2024Every holiday season, the perennial question for businesses is: how can we maximize growth while maintaining sustainable, diversified revenue streams? Affiliate marketing offers a powerful solution, yet the running perception of this channel often narrows it down to last-click, coupon-driven models. This is a missed opportunity, particularly when brands should be thinking about diversification — not just in their partner types but in how they plan, execute, and adapt during the busiest time of the year.
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Dynamic IPs and the Battle Against Ad Fraud
Leading Edge November 27, 2024Despite relentless efforts to combat ad fraud, bad actors continue to exploit vulnerabilities, resulting in billions of dollars in losses each year and eroding trust in the ad tech industry. Amid the many strategies for preventing ad fraud, one crucial aspect is often overlooked: the role of IP addresses.
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