ANA

The Association of National Advertisers suffered a phishing attack last year that may have resulted in the theft of employee data, including names and Social Security numbers.

In an ironic twist for a company whose corporate motto is “do the right thing,” the Association of National Advertisers issued an advisory warning members about the brand safety of YouTube and reminding its parent Google that the top priority for any platform used by brands is “to do no harm.” The advisory comes after a number of big ANA members pulled their advertising from YouTube when it was discovered that they were being placed adjacent to unsafe content, including hate speech and “terrorist-oriented” Web sites.

In the first advertising industry-wide initiative to tackle technical standards and formats associated with the rapidly changing marketplace, a joint venture of the Association of National Advertisers and its agency counterpart, the 4As, has spearheaded a coalition of the advertising, TV and digital media industry’s leading technical groups to create standards and best practices for managing video assets in a non-linear world.

The Association of National Advertisers and its Alliance for Family Entertainment are out to eliminate bias against women from advertising and media, launching #SeeHer in an effort backed by the White House and tracked by ongoing consumer surveys.

The Association of National Advertisers surveyed its members to understand marketers’ perspectives of viewability verification procedures used by digital media owners and found that the majority of respondents (97%) believe all digital media owners’ inventory should be measured by a third party.

Viewing with over-the-top streaming devices on connected TV sets is rising sharply — 380% in the first quarter of this year — yet engagement in ads on these platforms remains low, according to a recent study by Freewheel cited by the ANA/BrightLine research.

The Association of National Advertisers is hiring a consultant to do a broad study on how media is purchased by agencies for advertisers. This initiative, which comes amid allegations of widespread media agency rebate schemes in the U.S., is being conducted solely by the ANA and is separate from the joint ANA-4As task force that was announced in April that is looking at agency-advertiser contracts and the development of a code of conduct.

In a move that could accelerate the shift toward so-called “viewable” ad impressions, the Association of National Advertisers has issued an advisory to its members, asking them to  transition their digital investment strategies to pay for digital advertisements that are “measurably viewable.” The request was described as a push to move digital ad spending toward a “minimum opportunity to see” standard.

The issues advertisers keep an eye on in DC don’t change that much, but what is different  are the political, regulatory and tech environments. “The overlap of regulatory issues and agencies is becoming far more complex and not clear cut,” said Dan Jaffe, EVP of government relations for the Association of National Advertisers. “That’s happened because of the convergence of media.”

Discussion of a governing authority for media measurement will be on the agenda of a joint meeting of the Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Media Rating Council and Advertising Research Foundation. Bob Liodice, the CEO of ANA, talked about the need yesterday in an address opening an ANA conference.

The threat is more a specter right now than a real danger, but ad industry lobbyists are treating the possibility that Congress could eliminate or curtail the expensing of advertising fees as a looming Armageddon.

A group that might have at least slowed government approval of the proposed Nielsen-Arbitron merger through loud defiance signaled it will not stand in the way. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) believes the deal could enhance cross-platform measurement for the industry and won’t have any impact on stifling competition in the TV arena,

New research from the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester shows 76% of marketers plan to keep their media budgets stable in 2012. About half (47%) of all budgets will go to TV. That’s a 6% bump from the 2010 survey.

New survey results from the Association of National Advertisers show that both traditional TV and new media are doing well: 47% of marketers said they increased their TV budgets since 2009, while 23% said their TV budgets decreased. At the same time, 44% of marketers said they are creating incremental budgets for new media, up from 37% in 2007. The key takeaway may be that the number of marketers shifting funds from existing media budgets decreased to 44% from 63% in 2007.

At the Association of National Advertisers’ conference, there was relief that the worst has not happened but worry about sluggish growth and high unemployment.

Association of National Advertisers chief Bob Liodice claimed a certain level of victory with the organization’s efforts to eliminate the decades-old fees ABC, CBS and NBC had charged for the physical work of inserting ads in the system before they run. Liodice said Thursday that CBS and NBC have dropped the so-called network-integration fees, while ABC still charges “on occasion.”

While the list of key marketing issues has not changed significantly over the past two years, senior marketers’ priority rankings in the latest Association of National Advertisers survey provide some revealing insights about changing business conditions and shifts in emphasis, points out ANA President/CEO Bob Liodice.

In a strongly worded statement, the Association of National Advertisers’s Television & Video Committee took TV networks to task for filling up the pillars to the right and left sidebars of standard-definition commercials that air in high-definition feeds.