ANA Creates a "Flywheel for Action" Led by Global CMOs

The word quotmarketingquot originates from the Latin word quotmercariquot to buy and our great profession harkens back to ancient Mesopotamia in the 4th century BCE when merchants promoted products in wheeled carts ranging from alcoholic drinks to cosmetics to textiles Today those categories are dominated by brands like Budweiser L39Oramp233al and Gucci which together account for 75 billion in brand valueThe Association of National Advertisers ANA was formed over 100 years ago to be a unifying voice for brand marketers with the quotsingular mission to drive growth for marketing professionals for brands and businesses and for the industryquot Bob Liodice president ampamp CEO at the ANA joined the organization in 1995 after a successful career at Kraft and was challenged with a trade association struggling for relevance In the last twenty five years Liodice has transformed the ANA to become a beacon of cuttingedge thought leadership learning and best practices arming discerning CMOs with an arsenal of resources to manage the incessant pressure for brand growth while also delivering them tools to meet shortterm expectationsTo help manage this shortterm and longterm dichotomy Liodice brought on board former Colgate marketer Elliot Lum as ANA39s head of growth and community to help the association deliver the quotgenius of the ANDquot as Jim Collins would put it Instead of just focusing on shortterm initiatives the ANA has developed programs that also accelerate future growth through new customers new markets and new talent using strategies that are grounded in equity and inclusion On Lum39s successes to date Liodice comments quotElliot has been brilliant at what he has done for the AEF and its role in creating the highly insightful research studies into diversity and inclusion amp8211 at the academic levelquotIn recent years the marketing challenge of achieving shortterm gains and longterm brand growth has become extremely complexThe very composition of the marketplace has changed with 40 of US consumers being BIPOC Black Indigenous and People of Color and a louder and louder drumbeat signaling that brands have to deliver growth with purpose equality inclusion and sustainability have become purchase criteria and trust has become the new currency of commerceIn response to these trends and the increased Csuite pressure for growth the ANA CMO Growth Council was established by Cannes Lions and the ANA in 2018 Its mission is to galvanize CMOs to action that will quotaccelerate economic growth and advance societal goodquot Using the wheel as a visual metaphor and honoring its role in the early days of merchants and marketing Liodice explains how the ANA worked with the Growth Council to determine which quotmachines we needed to activate to propel actionquotTo capture the complex capabilities deliverables and priorities of a growthdriven marketing organization the ANA created a cohesive flywheel structure driven by four priorities that shape the Growth AgendaBrand Experience Creativity and MediaData Technology and MeasurementTalent and Marketing OrganizationSociety and SustainabilityThis holistic and inclusive view of growth and the role of consumers is at the core of all ANA39s platforms from the early establishment of the Multicultural Marketing ampamp Diversity Committee more than a decade ago to the ANA Educational Foundation AEF and Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing AIMMThe leaders of the ANA39s diversity equity and inclusion movement over the past four years have been Group Executive Vice President Bill Duggan inside ANA and Gilbert Davila Lisette Arsuaga and Carlos Santiago of AIMM who Liodice credits for the significant gains the ANA has made in delivering expanded depth breadth and value within the marketing community and engaging a wide spectrum of brand marketers in ANA programsEach key priority in the Growth Agenda has a comprehensive list of action items supported by 360 degree support from the ANA including oneonone peer learning forums office hours and industry gatherings all supported by an ecosystem of initiatives pledges and metrics to drive equity and inclusionThe center of the wheel captures the imperative to drive growth and Liodice describes it as quottaking the universe of marketing and organizing it into logical buckets that enable intelligent conversationsquotThose conversations kicked off on October 19 when over 300 CMOs gathered representing thousands of the world39s top brands and over half of global media spend combined to create a blueprint that would quothelp brands step up both as a force for good and a force for growthquot as Marc Pritchard chief brand officer at PampampG and the chairman of the ANA and its Growth Council highlighted during his opening remarks Pritchard is an exemplary choice to lead these initiatives at the ANA PampampG has seen sales grow in each of its business units while at the same time the company has taken action on racial injustice through The Talk The Look and The Choice and other grassroot campaignsBeyond the commercial lens of B2C and B2B the new term Brands for Humans B4H was launched by the Council it is about marketers understanding consumers not just as purchasers but as humans with broader needs desires and ambitions This renewed way of thinking about marketing has even been incorporated in the marketing program at Northwestern39s Kellogg Business School The COVID pandemic has accelerated this humanized approach with brands like fashion brand LVMH pivoting to make hand gels for hospitals and AnheuserBusch transforming their breweries into sanitizermaking facilities with over 500000 ounces of hand sanitizer donated to polling sites in New York State in the lead up to the Presidential elections The humandriven approach has become part of the marketing playbook as Mathilde Delhoume global brand officer at LVMH and Marcel Marcondes US CMO at AnheuserBusch will attest who both happen to also chair the Brand Creativity Experience and Media priority of the ANA39s Growth AgendaFor the last twenty years The Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing AIMM has committed to showcasing the humanity in our industry Focusing on the dignity and equal rights of every person they have focused on ending the quotageold virus of racismquot in this country Together with the ANA Educational Foundation AEF which serves as the bridge that connects the advertising marketing and academic communities the ANA has created quotbusiness machinesquot as Liodice refers to the programsElliot who oversees AIMM and the ANA Education Foundation has an important mandate he is tasked with bridging the academic industry and talent community for the AEF while also bringing the whole industry together in a farreaching and consequential alliance at AIMMThis is a challenge that energizes Elliot who as an Asian American knows all too well that the road to true inclusion and belonging is going to take deep cultural transformation measurable and decisive action and courageous demonstrable leadership The 7point manifesto launched by the ANA and AIMM provides clarity and an urgent call to action on a number of fronts from equity in representation to removal of bias to inclusion and accuracy of dataEnergized by the SeeHer platforms progress continues on gender equality and its measurement through the Gender Equality Measure GEM which has proven that accurate portrayal of women can result in a 10 increase in trust ratings and 25 increase in purchase intent AIMM39s SeeAll industrywide movement amplifies this effort by simultaneously ensuring the accurate representation of women and the BIPOC community in ads programming and brand plans as measured by the Cultural Insights Impact Measure CIIM The recent collaborative Structural Racial Disconnect Research report is a synthesis of three AEF annual studies that highlights disconnects across academia industry and talent specifically new hires and undergraduate studentsThese initiatives underscore how the commercial profession of marketing is transforming into a nobler profession of societal transformation and economic growth This is a tall order even for the most ambitious CMOs The ANA39s Growth Agenda provides a valuable blueprint not just of the what and the why but the how it is the specific actions in the quothowquot that our industry has been missing until now The interconnectivity synergies and interdependencies across the four strategic priorities and the underlying actions mean that the flywheel of change needs to be dynamic agile and in perpetual forward momentum CMOs are increasingly seeing purpose as more than a nice to have but as a responsibility they need to deliver on to achieve the growth agenda It is no longer growth or good purpose or profit shortterm or longterm it is all of the above embracing the best diverse talent the most inclusive technology and the most representative thinking to escalate the impact of brands on our lives and solidify the legacy of the CMO as an agent of transformational changeTo support AEF and AIMM support the Advancing Diversity Education FundClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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ANA Creates a "Flywheel for Action" Led by Global CMOs

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Raquelle Zuzarte

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