Ana’s Annual Conference Start. And Nike Confronts A Doping Scandal: Wednesday Wake-Up Call

Meditations on marketing
Starting today, brand marketers are shutting themselves off from the outside world to reflect on topics like “The Reawakening of Chipotle” and “The Power of Love at Dunkin.” Don’t laugh: Those are actual conference titles at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual “Masters of Marketing” event, which runs through Saturday in Orlando, Florida. It’s where marketers go for enlightenment.

Though many speakers will be CMOs telling inspirational stories about their companies, ANA also now offers programming with more unexpected or free-wheeling perspectives, too. Strategic consultant Joseph Jaffe is set to forecast the demise of the corporate era, which “seems an odd choice for an event that lures marketing execs from some of the biggest corporations in the world,” Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz and Jack Neff write. Read their take on what to expect in Orlando, such as discussion about the FBI’s investigation into shadowy media-buying practices, but also “navel-gazing about the evolution of the CMO role.” 

Oh, and OneRepublic is performing tonight, too.

Blurred lines
Big corporate players are devoting a lot of energy to creating start-up-like direct-to-consumer brands; Procter & Gamble has 180 of them. Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli and Jack Neff look at the “blurring of d-to-c and established brands,” with young and established players trying to emulate each other’s tactics. They’re doing battle, too. Take what happened after women’s razor brand Billie launched in 2017. By the following year, as Pasquarelli and Neff write, P&G “had prepped the launch of a new women’s shaving brand, Joy, priced and positioned similar to Billie, to be sold exclusively at Walmart”—a way of blocking Billie out of the biggest U.S. retailer. With an explosion of new brands from big and indie players alike, it’s survival of the fittest..…[Read More]