Video Highlights From ANA Conference

Al Gore, A-B's Bob Lachky, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, AT&T's Wendy Clark, DDB's Chuck Brymer, McDonald's Mary Dillon, Clorox's Derek Gordon, Motorola's Casey Keller, Schwab's Becky Saeger, P&G's Jim Stengel

Published: October 14, 2007

PHOENIX (AdAge.com) -- The Association of National Advertisers' annual Masters of Marketing conference is wrapping up at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. Below are some video highlights from the event.

Ad Age Videography by Steve Raddock

AL GORE: TV STILL THE STRONGEST MEDIUM FOR ADVERTISERS

Despite hype to the contrary, the internet has not yet become the dominant medium for advertisers, former vice president and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore told the ANA conference. And although the major TV networks are repurposing their content onto the internet, they're doing so in a manner that dilutes their creative critical mass for advertisers, he said.

BOB LACHKY: REVIEWING THE BUD.TV DEBACLE

In an acid-tongued review of his company's failed Bud.TV media experiment, Anheuser-Busch's exec VP-global industry development, Bob Lachky, characterized the effort as a purposeless waste that featured "bizarre" content and that also specifically avoided Anheuser-Busch branding.

STEVE BALLMER: MICROSOFT TO SPEND "WHATEVER IT TAKES"

In another of his frantic onstage performances, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer said the company believes that software is the key to the future of digital advertising and plans to "spend whatever it takes" to gain the lead in the field that is now dominated by Google. "I'm a big believer for advertising as the business model for everything that happens online," he said.

SCHWAB CMO FRUSTRATED BY MARKETING INDUSTRY FRAGMENTATION

The intense fragmentation of the marketing services industry that now requires a marketer to deal with an often unruly hydra of specialist companies has become a major frustration for Charles Schwab CMO Becky Saeger. "We need to find a way to manage and focus these relationships more effectively," she said. On the same panel, Procter & Gamble Global CMO Jim Stengel unveiled his latest mantra: "Advocacy trumps awareness."

CMOs LOOK BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR MEDIA PLANNING

Participants on the CMO panel emphasized that while digital media is crucial, it still must be viewed as one of a marketing plan's many components. Clorox VP of marketing Derek Gordon noted that in-store campaigns are very important. Motorola chief marketing officer Casey Keller explained that young consumers' multitasking habits demanded a broad range of traditional and new media advertising.

WENDY CLARK: AT&T'S BONANZA OF IPHONE PUBLICITY

The iPhone launch earlier this year provided AT&T with an extraordinary bonanza of earned media, according to Senior VP-Advertising Wendy Clark. She told the ANA conference that AT&T's iPhone's "earned media" -- free product publicity presented as news -- included more than 12,000 print and broadcast stories that netted more than 3 billion impressions.

DDB'S CHUCK BRYMER: AGENCIES NEED A "CHIEF COMMUNITY OFFICER"

DDB President-CEO Chuck Brymer said ad agencies have to add entirely new sorts of skill sets, including a new sort of executive to serve as "chief community officer." He said this would be someone who "understands all patterns of influence online and offline in the same way a media planner understands patterns of media consumption."

MARY DILLON: IMPORTANCE OF McD's CUSTOMER SERVICE

At an ANA gathering heavily focused on complex digital-media issues, McDonald's Corp.'s global chief marketing officer, Mary Dillon, stressed the critical importance of basic customer service. She noted that her own company's worst past mistakes involved taking its "eyes off the fries."

PRIVATE EQUITY STATES CASE TO MARKETERS

For most marketers, the moment private-equity firms start knocking on your brand's door brings to mind dark days of cost-cutting and ruthless, short-term financial engineering with a blunt goal: to turn a company around and then flip it. But General Atlantic's Anton Levy painted an upbeat picture of market opportunities.

BOB LIODICE: WHY THE RECORD ATTENDANCE

The ANA Masters of Marketing Conference has over 1,200 registered attendees this year -- a new record. In this on-site interview with Ad Age editor Jonah Bloom, ANA President-CEO Bob Liodice says attendance has exploded because CMOs are so pressed to find solutions to the quandaries posed by today's constantly changing media and marketing technologies.

KEVIN NEALON: GOOFING ON BOB LIODICE

Loosening up the Biltmore crowd that included representatives from 600 of the country's top marketing companies, actor and comedian Kevin Nealon conducted his own mini roast of ANA chief Bob Liodice.