2007 ANA “Masters of Marketing” Conference

I had the privilege of attending the 97^th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers a few weeks ago in Phoenix, Arizona. 1,200 gathered to network and listen to some of the most powerful minds in marketing and advertising address the theme “Transforming the Marketing Landscape.” I took away several key messages about this transformation that I think are quite timely and have implications for anyone with marketing responsibilities.

Jim Stengel, global marketing officer for Proctor & Gamble, said building brand advocacy is the key to sustaining loyalty among today’s consumer. Stengel sees brand advocacy as action-oriented marketing. This is in comparison to traditional, but passive, brand awareness efforts. Turning consumers and customers into brand champions, enabling them to be the most vocal and visible advocates for your brand, is also a great way to create emotional connections between consumers and the brands they support. I was especially interested in brand advocacy as it is essentially the product of mission-driven marketing. It’s the heart of the work our firm is doing for many of our for-profit and not-for-profit clients.

Chuck Brymer, president & CEO of DDB, a firm I spent 12 years at, talked about the present challenges of today’s marketer to find ways to change the way people think and the best ways to influence people’s behavior. As we move full speed ahead through the 21^st century, technology has truly transformed the marketing landscape. Nontraditional media has exploded, creating what he calls “swarm behavior.” He related it to how fish in the sea move together even though there is no leader. The key is figuring out how we can influence the swarm.

Brymer added that not everything has changed. We still need to address “the herd:” to create awareness, build brand images and connect emotionally with a passive audience watching TV or reading a magazine. But more and more we will need to learn to work closely with a highly engaged, active swarm. It is not an audience in the traditional form. It is not looking to marketers to be influenced. The real new media, the swarm, is you and me, people talking to one another.

To engage the swarm, we need to move from creating communications to creating communities, increasingly focused on creating relationships with connected groups of people. Tying this back to what Stengel said about building brand advocacy, we need to think about the way we’re reaching out to our brands’ passionate advocates to help spread messages from peer to peer. By mobilizing and influencing the swarm to take action for the brands they support via conviction, collaboration and creativity, today’s marketer can begin to face the biggest challenge of swarm behavior: to get the swarm to move toward you.