ANA Recap: Two Words Say It All
For those agencies that attended the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando last week, I hope you enjoyed the “show.”
It was great meeting those of you who stopped by the booth.
Heard some fantastic speakers including Mark Addicks, the CMO of General Mills; Kirk Perry, President Agency Solutions at Google; and Mike Seivert, the CMO at T-Mobile.
For those of you not at the ANA, there was one speech that proved truly powerful – and from within the speech, two words that really hit home.
The speech was given by Jim Stengel, the former P&G CMO.
One word was HUMANITY.
Jim talked about the importance of thinking in terms of how what we do is bettering humanity.
You market a product, you sell a service…which is all great. But do those products and services do something good for society either as they present themselves to the market or in what they do philanthropically?
On the RSW/US side of our business, we help agencies find and meet with right-fit marketers and on the RSW/AgencySearch side of our business, we’re in the business of helping marketers find better agencies – so they can better communicate and engage and make peoples’ lives better.
We also partner with Soles4Souls every year and rally the community to donate shoes for those less fortunate. This year we collected 4,200 pairs of shoes.
As an organization, we are trying to offer something back. Jim is simply suggesting that you consider your business universe in the same light.
The other word was LEGACY.
Jim said that we all need to think in terms of what legacy we are leaving behind.
Not just our business legacy, but our legacy as a father or mother, a son or daughter, a business leader, a community member.
So amid all the talk about driving business growth in this week’s ANA Masters of Marketing conference, a spark of “feel good” was re-ignited which made me think about my business and the people I work with, and for, every day in an even better light.
Think HUMANITY and LEGACY and you’ll feel better about yourself and your business at the end of the day.
Great seeing you at the “show!”
Mark Sneider
Mark is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and marketing service industry. Mark started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to earning his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in Marketing and Economics. Prior to starting RSW/US in 2005, Mark was General Manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in Marketing for S.C. Johnson and KAO Brands. Sneider has been invited to speak at numerous Agency events and network conferences domestically and internationally including the 4A’s, Magnet, NAMA, TAAN, and MCAN. Sneider has been featured in prominent industry publications including Adweek, Media Post, e-Marketer, and Forbes. When not working (which often seems like not often), Mark likes to run miles, go to church, and just chill with a hard copy issue of Fast Company.
