The Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference returned to the familiar comforts of Orlando, Florida’s Rosen Shingle Creek resort and such familiar topics as brand purpose. But underlying the same old, same old was plenty of change—and in many cases covert discomfort about it.

Marketers attending last week’s event got deep dives about artificial intelligence and the changes it will bring, and expressed worries about the impact it will have. The growing role of data in marketing was a recurring theme and an obvious business opportunity amid a sea of data and analytics providers who dominated the display space outside the conference hall, even as quality concerns and debates continued. Retail media’s growing role and clout were obvious. And while the increasing power of big digital platforms was clear and concerns about it substantial, public criticism was muted as usual.

In-person attendance of 2,300 was about 200 ahead of last year and the highest since the 3,000 in pre-pandemic 2019, with another 400 online registrants.

Below, some takeaways from one of the largest marketing industry events of the year.

AI’s ANA moment

AI talk was ubiquitous. That included a deep dive for the 200 or so marketers at the ANA’s Global CMO Growth Council, a private, invite-only gathering held Oct. 24, drawing executives from Microsoft, Adobe, Meta, Bloomberg and Google.

One senior marketer speaking on the condition of anonymity came away feeling better informed but with a jaded outlook based on experience, recalling how the initial hype of how social media would change marketing then led to a host of problems, including brand safety concerns.

Of course, the big digital platforms are all in on making AI safe for brands and society. Meta used its lunch sponsorship on Oct. 28 to walk the crowd through how it trains its “Llama2” open-source large language model. Maggie Burke, global director of client councils and industry initiatives at Meta, provided reassurance with an acknowledgment perhaps best known as the wisdom Spider-Man got from his late Uncle Ben: “With great power always comes great responsibility.”

Big platforms don’t get much public heat

As predicted by Video Advertising Bureau CEO Sean Cunningham before the conference, big digital platforms Google and Meta, which are major ANA sponsors, didn’t get any direct criticism from the ANA big stage. The VAB has paused talks with the ANA on funding a cross-media measurement panel and participating in ANA pilots, alleging undue influence from the tech giants.  ANA CEO Bob Liodice didn’t address Cunningham’s criticism publicly.

Big platforms got more skepticism from others privately. One marketing executive characterized YouTube’s recent shift to using its own survey-based measure for co-viewing as currency to be little more than a way to grab more dollars.

The closest thing to public criticism of the social platforms was Liodice showing Dove’s film from earlier this year about the mental health risks posed to teens from social media and advocacy of the Kids Online Safety Act.

Social media broadly, and X (formerly Twitter) specifically, did get a dressing down from fellow platform Pinterest in its sponsored breakfast. “The signals are tuned to content that shows anger, envy and fear,” said Katie Dombrowski, VP of partnerships for CPG at Pinterest, noting that using algorithms to amplify such content drives more time spent on platforms. But, that’s not the approach Pinterest takes, she said, suggesting relative brand safety can pay rewards.

MikMak CEO Rachel Tipograph, also on Pinterest’s panel, noted that advertiser volume through her company to Twitter fell 86% immediately after Elon Musk bought the company last year and has since remained down 99% year over year as content moderation controls went away.

“We saw a real shift of money out of Twitter, now known as X, into more brand-safe environments,” she said, including Pinterest with an 8% increase in brand traffic.

YouTube in its own sponsored lunch had what amounted to a rebuttal to the contention by Cunningham and VAB members that the base-level two-second impression standard favored by the giant platform for currency will drain ad dollars networks need to fund premium content away to YouTube's vast trove of low-quality user-generated content.

Kevin Allocca, global director of culture and trends for YouTube, presented the platform’s own reel of high-quality creator content, including from the Lofi Girl channel, which among other things inspired copycat four-hour Nissan content that has had more than 18 million views since February.

Retail media grabs consumer budgets

There was also a newer group of walled gardens in town. Liodice noted that retail media is a $50 billion business growing fast. And it had its biggest presence ever at the Masters conference.

Related: A brand and agency guide to retail media networks

Walmart Connect hosted a well-attended opening panel showcasing strong results from connected TV campaigns on NBCUniversal sports content for Danone and Mondelēz powered by Walmart data. Amazon Ads sponsored the snacks. And mentions of retail media networks popped up broadly in many presentations. Vinny Rinaldi, senior director of media for The Hershey Co., noted that he’s been pitched by Home Depot’s retail media network since it does sell candy at checkout. And, yes, even 7-Eleven has a retail media network, as Marissa Jarratt, executive VP and chief marketing and sustainability officer for the convenience chain, pointed out.

The attention given to retail media at the event signals that the channel could soon receive even more investment, including from dollars normally dedicated to traditional advertising.

‘Data is king’

As Stagwell CEO Mark Penn summed up in a presentation, “data is king” in the marketing business today, and a proliferation of data, analytics, measurement and programmatic vendors only helped prove the point.

In his opening remarks, Liodice cited data from Gartner showing that investments in data and analytics surged 37% last year and are taking a growing share of marketer budgets. But he also noted numerous issues with measurement. “We need to recognize the complexity around measurement has increased and we have to take the bull by the horns and look at various ways to improve the precision,” he said, including “alternative currency investment,” particularly in such areas as connected TV.

Data-driven approaches came up in several presentations, including Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer and ANA Chairman Marc Pritchard noting that the company uses AI to pre-test all of its ads today.

Recent news: Empower staffers leave the agency for P&G

The rising relevancy of data firms was evident in a presentation from Tabata Gomez, chief marketing officer for tools and outdoor at Stanley Black & Decker, the owner of brands including Craftsman. Sn talking about a new campaign for Craftsman, Gomez made the ad testing firm (Dumbstruck) something of a rock star, as the agency (Colle McVoy) got fewer mentions.

Gomez took the audience through animatics of the six options tested for the campaign and how Dumbstruck (an emotion analytics firm that uses AI and facial coding to measure response to ad concepts) recommended an ad with a rock band that she and others on the marketing team never would have expected to score well. Based on the testing, she convinced superiors to run the spot, and it beat expectations. She even brought the ad’s “rock star” on stage at the ANA for some brief entertainment.

“Trust the data and be courageous,” Gomez said. “You’re investing in hearing what consumers have to say. So make sure you listen to that.”

Agency alternatives take center stage

While Dentsu had a prominent presence, including a well-attended session outlining addressability work for Hershey, agencies generally didn’t get that much love or attention. Some of the most prominent work featured came from non-agency creators, who generally were called out for credit.

Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar focused entirely on his Priceless Restaurants campaign of setting up distinctive Mastercard-branded restaurants around the world.

Pritchard got the strongest reaction from the crowd for Old Spice’s “Writer’s Room” work from Kevin Hart’s LOL Studios. P&G has turned to non-agency creators in part to help improve the diversity of the teams behind its work.

Read more about celebrity-owned agencies

Alia Kemet, chief marketing officer of Shipt (a delivery company owned by Target), focused her talk on a campaign led by actress and writer Issa Rae and largely carried out by Howard University students in a mentorship program she helped create.

Shipt’s marketers envisioned a student membership campaign focused on the value of deliveries for students staying up all night to study. “Gen X, that’s what we did,” Kemet said. But the students preferred focusing on Shipt delivery as offering “wellness moments,” she said, and it was a proposition that worked much better.

Purpose lives despite doubters

Purpose marketing, which has historically been a huge topic at ANA gatherings, has hit some bumps of late. P&G’s Pritchard largely avoids using the ‘P’ word at all. Some research suggests brand purpose messages aren’t resonating with consumers or helping brands differentiate themselves. And the fallout and sales hit Bud Light faced over hiring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney led to many individual marketers being targeted in social media.

Instead of purpose, P&G has been striving in recent years for “irresistible superiority” around tangible benefits. Activist investor Nelson Peltz, generally not a fan of purpose initiatives according to people familiar with the matter, left P&G’s board in 2021 and joined Unilever’s board last year. Now, Unilever has it’s own brand of “superiority.” New CEO Hein Schumacher during an investor presentation last week outlined his own take on an “unmissable superiority” brand framework. He also had at best qualified praise for purpose.

“Our focus on purpose is laudable, and it inspires many people to join and stay with Unilever,” Schumacher said. “So we must never lose it. But I don’t think we advance the cause of purpose by force-fitting it across every brand.” That would be in contrast to former CEO Alan Jope, who set a goal to have every Unilever brand find and advance a purpose.

Even so, you would never know that purpose had doubters from this year’s ANA. At least half of the presentations dealt with brand purpose approaches in some way.

“This whole conference is about purpose and its growth,” said Victoria Lozano, executive VP of marketing at Crayola. “This is the way for us to drive growth to redefine what the brand stands for, how brand experiences come to life and the role that it plays in consumers lives. Because if we do that, well, why shouldn’t the purchase frequency go up?”

Land O’Lakes CMO Heather Malenshek outlined how her brand is trying to bridge the urban-rural divide, and, as a farmer co-op, stay true to its roots (and purpose), including with a content series highlighting towns and farmers in the co-op, working with NFL and Big 10 athletes from rural communities, and lobbying for broadband access in rural America.

Contributing: Erika Wheless