The much-discussed topic of media transparency first arrived at ANA Media during a 2015 presentation and has subsequently helped reshape, and been a leading story in the advertising industry. Much has been done since then to uncover the issues and, ultimately, propose the path forward to help create transparency and improve the media buying ecosystem. One such effort, the ANA Media Transparency Initiative from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), K2 Intelligence, Ebiquity, and FirmDecisions, took an in-depth look directly at the issue of transparency in the U.S. advertising industry. This initiative sent shockwaves through the advertising industry and the list of recommendations and guidelines put together for brands to right the ship still holds true today.

At last year’s ANA Media Conference, the topic of Media Transparency was still front and center as brands sought out how to best shine a light on the dark corners of a murky advertising world. As a proud partner and sponsor of the ANA Media Conference, we look forward to the conversations on how the topics have progressed since the 2015 ANA Media conference – as well as what new topics have emerged.

What to Watch For

Transparency: 3 Years After Jon Mandel (ANA, Nationwide, Reed Smith)

Transparency is still a vital and important piece of the advertising puzzle and, while a lot of progress has been made, it will continue to be a theme at this year’s conference. However, you’ll notice that this year’s conference agenda has skewed more towards the data behind the scenes. As transparency has helped set the foundation for advertisers to shore up relationships with their agencies and understand how their media spend is working for them, we are now seeing a shift to better understand differences, advantages, and drawbacks of both television and digital as well as how they coexist within the marketing and media landscape.

The Evolving Television and Video Landscape – New Research (Forrester Research)

One topic we’ve been following closely is the evolution of linear TV. We are interested in this session because the programmatic approach initially found in digital buying is being applied to television advertising and presenting its own advantages and challenges. 

Even with all the benefits of programmatic and addressable TV, advertisers would be wise to learn from Programmatic digital buying and apply previous lessons learned to this new television advertising trend. It should be a great kickoff conversation on Wednesday evening with Jim Nail from Forrester. Jim will be chatting about the continued evolution of television and video in addition to what advertisers are doing to adjust to the new research and changes over the last few years.

Come Say Hello

From programmatic and transparency to in-house agencies and content marketing, it should be an excellent and informative time once again at ANA Media. We are looking forward to seeing both friendly faces from previous ANA events as well as meeting some new ones at the Grande Lakes resort.

If you’re in town and interested in setting up a time to meet with us, please feel free to reach out to us directly at info.US@ebiquity.com or meet us at the Thursday morning coffee break at 10:35 am to meet us and recharge with a cup of coffee.

See you there!