Fidelity Investments, LEGO Systems and USAA Named Finalists for $50,000 Marketing Analytics Leadership Award

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is pleased to announce three finalists for the first-of-its-kind award recognizing leadership in applying analytics to plan and measure successful marketing programs. The finalists were chosen by a distinguished panel of industry judges. The winner will receive a $50,000 cash prize for demonstrating the most effective application of analytics to benchmark and improve marketing investment ROI.

The Marketing Analytics Leadership Award was created to highlight today's important and rapid adoption of sophisticated analytics in the planning and measuring of global marketing investments. This inaugural award will be presented at ANA Masters of Marketing Conference, taking place October 3-6 in Phoenix, Ariz.  Brand marketers at the conference will have a chance to vote for their preferred nominee and the award will be presented on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The Fidelity Investments submission, "Building a Leading Marketing Effectiveness Analytics Practice", addresses their journey in creating a best-in-class marketing effectiveness analytics practice which delivers quantifiable business results.  LEGO Systems presented its four year program, "Achieving Excellence in Marketing Effectiveness & Data Analytics" showcasing advanced modeling techniques and predictive approaches to measuring digital ROI.  USAA's "Marketing Mix Optimization" highlights their experience in taking the analytics program from initial launch to best-in-class over a three year period.

"Our three finalists truly demonstrate excellence and effectiveness in marketing analytics within their companies," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. "Implementing advanced analytics improves marketing ROI, builds brands and drives fundamental business growth. These individuals deserve recognition – which we plan to do as we honor the winner at this year's Masters of Marketing Conference."

Entries were evaluated by a panel of nine current and former CMOs and leading academics.  Entries were judged on clarity of goals; relevance and magnitude of the marketing questions being addressed; scientific rigor applied in the approach; steps taken to align key stakeholders; and demonstrated impact on the business. 

Judges had many positive reactions to the submissions of the finalists and other entrants.  Jon Iwata, senior vice president of marketing communications at IBM said that he was "very impressed by the degree to which these leading companies leverage big data analytics to create quantifiable business results."  Tom Davenport, renowned author of Competing on Analytics and distinguished professor at Babson College commented on the "innovative use of proven techniques in solving some thorny marketing problems" that he saw in several submissions which "showcased the true value of marketing science."  And, Jim Stengel, former CMO of P&G and former ANA Chair highlighted "the degree to which these leading companies focus not just on the analytics and data, but by the very important organizational adoption they put forth."

The Marketing Analytics Leadership Award program is underwritten in partnership with leading marketing analytics firm, MarketShare.

About the ANA


Founded in 1910, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) leads the marketing community by providing its members with insights, collaboration, and advocacy. ANA's membership includes more than 525 companies with 10,000 brands that collectively spend over $250 billion in marketing and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote, and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit http://www.ana.net, follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

About MarketShare


MarketShare is an analytics company that enables businesses to grow efficiently by uncovering which actions really drive results. Founded in 2005, MarketShare has a track record of groundbreaking innovations in data, modeling and software, and has worked with over half of the Fortune 50. MarketShare's platform provides a combination of technology, data, modeling and business intelligence solutions that lead to improved decision-making, next-generation attribution and optimization for businesses. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo and Bangalore. For more information, visit: http://www.marketshare.com/; follow us on twitter @MarketShareCo.

Press Contacts:

Marcus Hardy

CooperKatz & Co. for the ANA
[email protected]

917-595-3043

Danielle Arnold
CooperKatz & Company for the ANA
[email protected]
917-595-3062

Jonathan Zaback
For MarketShare
[email protected]
917-293-5047

SOURCE MarketShare