The advertising and marketing ecosystem is fueled by brand budgets, but agencies, publishers, vendors, and other constituents have not been aligned on marketer growth.
That’s the view of Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), who sat down exclusively with ADWEEK at the organization’s flagship Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando, FL.
“The ability to pull the industry to be truly aligned with that was lacking significantly,” he said. “That’s why we have the level of transparency issues we have. That’s why we have concerns about the way we deal with things on a more global basis, like privacy.”
The ANA is working to align groups around cross-industry coalitions that prioritize the marketers’ agenda above companies’ individual interests. He pointed to Aquila, the group’s cross-media measurement initiative, as an example.
“Brands have to step forward and say, ‘this is what we need to get done.’ And if we don’t do this collaboratively, we’re going to sub-optimize the growth agenda,” he said.
Liodice spoke with ADWEEK about how the ANA is rallying a fragmented industry around marketers’ biggest challenges, from transparency to translating their value to the C-suite.
ADWEEK: Why is it so challenging to align the industry around brand growth?
The issue really lies in what I would call a very large dichotomy between marketers, agencies, and sell-side. Agencies and sell-side have their own respective interests. They are corporate entities. They are expected to drive growth for their shareholders. But, in my opinion, we’re not optimizing the strategic foundation necessary for collaboration to the best that we can.
You need to do this through the lens of the marketer. It’s the brand’s money. Not that it needs to be exclusively their agenda, but it should be predominantly their agenda.
Does inherent competition between marketers make it difficult to align on priorities?
It’s the infrastructure of the industry. Marketers pursue what they need to pursue to grow their respective businesses. Mark Pritchard [chief brand officer of Procter & Gamble] has been very vocal in saying, ‘This should not be a share of market game. It needs to be a market growth game.’ Because we will all win far more if we accelerate the market as opposed to beat each other over the head going through a share of market battle.
You brought up transparency in your speech. It’s been eight years since the ANA began looking into media transparency. How has the conversation evolved?