ANA Masters of Marketing Conference

ANA Master of Marketing Conference

November 5-8, 2009

I attended the ANA Masters of Marketing conference last week in Phoenix Arizona, along with 1,200 other participates. The size of the audience indicates the importance marketers place on this ANA annual event. 

There was a great variety of speakers from various companies, including marketers from Coors Light/Miller Light, The New York Times, Kodak and Wal-Mart among others.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the speakers focussed on how to get beyond the recession and they discussed the attributes of different techniques, including viral marketing vs. mass marketing and staying with your core - defining and communicating who and what you are in this economical climate.

Just a few examples of marketers responding to the econoomic challenges, included:

Dairy Queen: leveraging their 70 years of heritage and strong brand recognition in updating and growing the QSR (quick service restaurant) business.

Kodak: keeping their valuable core “Kodak Moment’ and firmly moving into the digital market

Wal-Mart: going back to the power of their roots - Save Money Live Better

In regard to hot issues, viral marketing was strongly endorsed as a "fabric running through all marketing genre".

And there was also considerable discussion about the use of newer, digital techniques, such as viral marketing, facebook, twitter, etc and the challenges marketers face in trying to access measurable metrics.

All in all a very worthwhile investment in attending the conference to refresh my understanding of best-practice marketing.  

Author: Liz Geiser (Decideware)