So what did they talk about?  Getting back to basics in some cases–brand purpose and strong creative. Other discussions were about marketing of the future with discussions on “programmatic buying.”   What is programmatic buying? Joe Zawadzki, CEO, MediaMath defines it as “the use of technology to automate processes and the use of math to improve results.”

‘Brand purpose’ is still a mainstay of marketing.
 For years the ANA conferences have been touting the power of brand purpose and this year was no different. Ad Age quotes General Mills CMO, Mark Addicks, “What I love about purpose is that it really asks your team to think big. What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Where can the brand grow?”

A successful campaign that has shown “brand purpose” is Unilever’s Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.  The aim of the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves.

Big Data

Another topic at the conference was ‘big data.’  Ad Age says “Marketers are drowning in — but not always using — data.” Big data is defined as an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process them using traditional data processing applications. The challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and privacy violations.  While there was a lot of talk about “big data,” most of the ANA members admitted that they do not have the right analytics in place and are not using all of the data they have now to make decisions.  It seems using Big Data is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

Creativity is still the differentiator.

Heineken CEO Dolf Van den Brink noted that a strong creative idea trumps ‘big data and progammatic buying.’  Good creative will always generate interest.  It is as simple as that. His evidence…The Most Interesting Man in the World campaign for Dos Equis running since 2006 has been extremely successful…a 22% increase while other brands were having a 4% decline.

And you can’t get anymore basic than making every employee a marketer. That is what Marty St. George, Senior VP-Commercial at JetBlue, teaches new hires.  JetBlue is out spent in media by 15 to 1 by Southwest Airline and has a 3% market share compared to 80% by the big four airlines.  So how does it compete?  Make every employee a marketer.  We teach our values constantly said Mr. St. George.  And you don’t get hired if you haven’t studied our values. What are the values—safety, caring, integrity, passion and fun.  This isn’t new it’s basic.

Advertise.  It pays.

About Ken Gasque

Ken Gasque is a brand image-maker, marketing planner and designer. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services to stand out in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing—his work reflects his belief that “We buy with our eyes.” Ken writes and lectures on brands, design, images and brand development.