TRENDSETTERS: ANA’s Bob Liodice on What Matters Now to Marketers

The Internationalist Trendsetters is written by Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist.

Bob Liodice, CEO of ANA, has been busy. However, when your membership consists of over one-thousand client-side marketers that represent 20,000 brands and invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually, you must move quickly in a crisis. The organization has compiled articles, playbooks, recommendations, and best practices—all designed to provide marketers with tools that can help reduce COVID-19's impact on businesses and brands.

To hear more from Bob Liodice, tune in to our Trendsetters podcast as he shares what marketers should be communicating in this time of crisis and how associations like the ANA are moving quickly to help their needs. Our conversation is intended to provide some useful ideas for any marketer-- big or small. CLICK HERE.

In late March, the ANA today announced it had formed a new working community of top CMOs, called ANA's Global CMO Leadership Coalition on COVID-19, which includes a cross-industry coalition of CMOs and industry partners. All are dedicated to helping the marketing community manage the ongoing global crisis by sharing insights and offering guidance.

The group is comprised of a select team from the Global CMO Growth Council, a community of CMOs representing many of the world's biggest brands that the ANA founded and operates together with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The Council focuses on brand experience and innovation — two areas greatly affected by the crisis.

"We're once again turning our leadership community of CMOs into the force for action that our industry needs now," said Bob Liodice. "This new group's mission is both clear and urgent. It is to help chief marketers shape intelligent practices and provide functional guidance through this unprecedented time."

On April 2nd, ANA released a 31-page Legal Guide, prepared by its General Counsel Reed Smith, to help marketers address brand concerns posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. Each of the guide's fifteen chapters addresses a different facet of contractual arrangements and legal risks that marketers may encounter with partners, vendors or regulators. The Legal Guide also provides background information, general guidance and recommendations. During this time, brands may be considering the termination of contracts, delaying performance under a contract, or modifications, so fundamental terms and concerns are discussed at length including the force majeure clause, termination rights, breach of contract rights, makegood policies, amendment and modification rights and insurance.

"The impact of the coronavirus crisis has had an immediate and, in all likelihood, lasting impact on the marketing and advertising industries," said Bob Liodice said in a statement. "Questions regarding legal issues are among our members' key concerns at this time, and this wide-ranging, all-inclusive guide provides many of the answers they are looking for."

A copy of the guide is available for free on the ANA website at www.ana.net.

This week, ANA announced another sweeping industry initiative in conjunction with the Ad Council, Google, and other leading advertising, media, and marketing trade associations. Called #StayHome. Save lives, it's a message intended for 18- to 34-year-olds to help change behavior and slow the spread of COVID-19. A #StayHome message kit includes a roof icon that can be added to a brand logo to demonstrate support of this movement to stay at home—under your roof. Plus, there's sample copy for sharing assets on social channels with the hashtags #StayHome and #AloneTogether.

The Internationalist was founded to help better understand the "reinvention of marketing" by connecting the people and ideas in international advertising and marketing. Our Trendsetters eNewsletter lives at the heart of this Internationalist mission as it spotlights a person and an idea in international marketing. Over the last decade, we have amassed hundreds of profiles of extraordinary individuals and their groundbreaking work on our website.

We've learned that there's interest in hearing the voices of these marketers directly, which gave life or our TRENDSETTERS podcast, now part of the Success Made to Last Network on Blog Talk Radio. Started by an Executive Producer with a past marketing/branding career at Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and General Mills, the network boasts nearly 1 million listens in the US.

If you'd like to learn more about The Internationalist's Trendsetters podcast series, here's an introduction to the show:

Bob Liodice is chief executive officer of the ANA. He previously served as executive vice president, responsible for member relations and business development with a primary focus on strengthening relationships with ANA member companies and broadening the membership base. Bob joined the ANA as senior vice president in 1995.

Prior to the ANA, he was vice president of global marketing and sales for Grupo Televisa, a major worldwide broadcaster. His previous experience includes more than 15 years in marketing and financial management at Kraft General Foods and tenure as category marketing manager for the Jell-O and Bakers brands.

He is a member of the boards of directors of The Advertising Council, Advertising Research Foundation, Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, Geopath, Advertising Educational Foundation, Digital Advertising Alliance, Trustworthy Accountability Group, and World Federation of Advertisers.

Bob holds bachelor degrees in accounting and management and an M.B.A. in finance from New York University.

TRENDSETTERS: ANA's Bob Liodice on What Matters Now to Marketers