The Association of National Advertisers wants the marketing world to take a training day Sept. 14, billing it as “24 hours to reboot the global marketing industry” through a wide range of free expert-led online courses and discussions from the ANA and elsewhere.

The Global Day of Learning, which comes in conjunction with Ascential’s Cannes Lions, was spawned by the ANA’s Global CMO Growth Council and developed in virtual meetings during the International Festival of Creativity last month.

Spearheading the effort have been Lego Chief Product and Marketing Officer Julia Goldin and American Express Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Rutledge, alongside Nick Primola, exec VP and head of industry leadership and the chief marketing officer practice at the ANA. He says it sprang from "a groundswell of top CMOs reconciling with the rapid transformation of business culture and capabilities.”

Online courses will be available free over a 24-hour period for anyone who registers at the Global Learning Day website. The full range of offerings will be built out over the weeks ahead, but in addition to ANA and Cannes Lions offerings, courses also will come from 42Courses.com, Spencer Stuart, Morning Consult, Facebook, Google, Twitter, the B2B Institute at LinkedIn, Forbes CxO Series, Mastercard Global CMO Raja Rajamannar and Yale School of Management.

Registrants can create their own agendas from the menu, which will include self-directed on-demand classes, pre-recorded “Ask Me Anything” Q&A modules, keynotes, insights and research presentations and private group workshops for teams.

While skills training is a focus, broader industry issues including diversity and inclusion, mental health and best practices for bringing people back to offices post pandemic are also likely to be addressed, Primola says. Some chief marketers noted the mental health toll the pandemic has taken on people in their organizations and interest in offerings to address those needs, he says. And since Sept. 14 will be a time when many companies are just bringing people back to offices, discussion of policies on how to do that will be another possible focus, he says.

Rutledge sees Global Training Day as extending American Express’ focus on talent development to the broader marketing community. “Whether attendees are just starting out in marketing, or they’ve been in the field for years,” she says, it will be “a great opportunity for the marketing community to hear about new trends, digital capabilities and get inspired by peers.”

While the day was developed for marketers, it’s also open to their agencies or other partners. White Castle CMO Lynn Blashford is among the marketers who plan to invite agency teams to participate.

“As kind of a medium to smaller-sized company we don’t necessarily have all the training resources that many of the really large companies have,” Blashford says, but White Castle has regularly used ANA on-demand training. “So the Global Day of Learning is really a great catalyst for us to be very purposeful about setting aside a day and actually having some fun with the program.”

White Castle put the training day on marketers’ calendars last Friday, Blashford says. “We’re looking forward to maybe a combination of self-paced classes and listening to some great marketers from global brands,” she says. “And then we want to cap it off with a happy hour and having a fun day, or bringing in lunch.”

Given the relatively quick turnaround, the ANA decided not to bring in the whole range of industry organizations to organize the day. But the open-access policy allows anyone in the industry to partake, and Primola expects other industry organizations may want to put courses on the menu.

The day represents the emphasis the Global CMO Growth Council puts on talent development, Goldin says. “We really, truly feel that it’s the future of our profession,” she says. “Dedicating a full day to it is also a signal to say let’s make sure that we create the right amount of time and space.”

Unfortunately, Sept. 14 falls on a key day for marketing and product development planning at Lego, so its marketers won’t be able to take the full day off for training, Goldin says. But Lego also has its own Brand Marketing Academy and a bespoke LinkedIn program where they’ll be able to make up the time.

“The industry has gone through five years of transformation in 15 months, and we have all been at it nonstop,” says Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer and ANA Chairman Marc Pritchard. “We all need to make sure we’re all caught up on the latest capability and learning, because the road ahead is important and so that our industry can operate at full potential.”

P&G, through its Brand University, has been working with the ANA for years on training, Pritchard says, “and we’ll be doing the same for the Global Day of Learning – to make our brand builders globally aware of the day, its intention and encourage participation.”