Stuart Elliott: The ANA Conference, Then and Now

It39s the annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers known for the last decade or so as ANA Masters of Marketing The 2015 conference being held in Orlando Fla at the Orlando World Center Marriott starts today and runs through Oct 17Although I won39t be at this one I39ve reported on 22 of them from 1991 through 2013 That goes back far enough to when the ANA met at genteel remote resorts such as the Homestead reminiscent of restricted country clubs and ended each conference with a blacktie dinnerdance with bigband entertainmentThe association bills the conference as quotour industry39s signature eventquot and for once it39s not huckster hyperbole Masters of Marketing usually has a huge turnout for an event of its type and draws a Who39s Who of marketing chiefs and maestros from such ad mainstays as Allstate ATampampT Bank of America CocaCola General Electric General Mills Google Microsoft Mondelez PepsiCo Procter ampamp Gamble Progressive Visa and WalmartThe conference achieves its popularity and success by following a simple yet effective formula The presence on the program of the panjandrums of marketing making speeches presumably filled with pearls of wisdom encourages their peers and competitors to attendThat in turn encourages attendance among executives of advertising agencies who would like those marketing executives to become their clients That encourages attendance among executives of media companies who would like to sell ad time and space to those other executives And if that39s not sufficient attendance is further stimulated by the scheduling of myriad opportunities for networking over drinks and mealsLast year Masters of Marketing drew a record 2800 attendees up from 2200 in 2013 1850 in 2012 1700 in 2011 and 1600 in 2010 That39s especially impressive considering that there were only about 250 people at the conference as recently as 2002That rockbottom terrible turnout was the result of factors that included a headscratching decision by the thenleaders of the ANA to sell sponsorships of daily general sessions and speaker slots at 100000 apiece to media companies hoping to promote themselves to audiences of potential customers The result was three years of agendas that were widely derided as infomercials or advertorialsI covered those conferences when I was the advertising columnist at The New York Times and they were excruciating to sit through That is when we reporters were allowed to sit through them A couple of years before the sponsorship fiasco the ANA top brass decided to exclude outsiders from what was designated as a quotmembers dayquot even the agency executives who took part in a panel were kicked out of the dinner that followedAfter those shenanigans a group of major marketers determined they had had enough and changed the leadership of the ANA installing Bob Liodice as president and chief executive officer posts he still holds today Liodice recruited two respected marketers Jim Speros and Jim Stengel to help him refocus the purpose of the conference and crucially to encourage wellrespected members who direct marketing for bluechip firms to participate in the programs primarily by offering realworld quothow I did itquotstyle case studies in presentationsThe turnaround began almost immediately and the ANA hasn39t looked back There has been grumbling over how crowded the conferences are and whether the association may be killing the goose laying the proverbial golden eggs And golden they are with individual member registrations at 1795 each for individual nonmembers they39re 2495It39s easy and fashionable to question the meaning or lack thereof of annual industry events like Masters of Marketing or Advertising Week and I must admit I39ve been guilty of wondering occasionally what purpose they serve beyond being schmoozefestsStill when you look back you can find valuable nuggets that shine today such as references in 1994 to quotthe dizzying changes being wrought by the new mediaquot and concerns quotabout the blurring of the line between advertising and editorialquotThere was also this admonition that year from Rishad Tobaccowala then of Leo Burnett and now of Publicis Groupe quotGet used to dealing with chaos This is not an evolution this is a revolution In a revolution kings and queens lose their heads think like a peasantquotBoy imagine how well off you39d be if you39d bought peasant futures thenThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: The ANA Conference, Then and Now

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