Accountability Ranked Number One Among Advertisers

An annual survey by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) conducted to help shape its Annual Conference in October 2005, ranked accountability as senior marketers' top priority. The survey asked senior marketers to choose their top three issues from a comprehensive list and then rank them in order of importance, from one to three. Of the 111 respondents, more marketers indicated a greater concern about ccountability (61 total responses) than any other issues. Building strong brand franchises and integrated marketing communications ranked closely in the second and third positions with 48 and 45 total responses respectively. While last year the same top three issues emerged from the survey, this year building strong brand franchises switched with accountability for the top issue on marketers' minds.

The following is the list of issues ranked in order of importance according to the total responses: -- Accountability -- Building strong brand franchises -- Integrated Marketing Communications -- Media fragmentation -- Structuring a marketing organization -- Consumer control over how they view advertising -- Innovation in a marketing organization -- Globalization of marketing efforts -- Growth of multicultural consumer segments -- Advertising creative that achieves business results -- Impact of technology on marketing -- Regulatory/legislative issues