ANA Data & Analytics Virtual Conference (jschmid.com)

Disrupt. Delight. Drive. Three words that, together, form a mandate for our catalogs. From crowded mailboxes our books need to stand out and garner attention; pay off that attention with content that creates desire, and – ultimately – compel our customers to click, call or visit. It’s a tall order. And that first piece, Disrupt, is the 1st priority. If it doesn’t happen, the other two won’t. We could mail an 11” x 17” oversized book. That will get noticed. So would a ‘scratch and sniff’ cover? But most of us don’t have budget to add a bunch of bells and whistles just to make us louder than the other guys. I’m particularly mindful of this as I wade through the current flood of women’s clothing catalogs in my own mailbox, most of them conveying the long-suffering mashup: covers graced with women pouring each other glasses of Rosé, or bikes with flower-filled baskets. Make no mistake: this is not a judgement, but a shared burden.

A new Gartner, Inc. survey1 found that 87% of business leaders expect to increase organization investment in sustainability over the next two years. As packaging professionals, we can help customers reach their sustainability goals while continuing to meet day-to-day business needs. As companies prioritize sustainability, its importance grows across organization departments – all of which have different day-to-day business needs to consider. Understanding customers’ unique motivations and needs will help guide impactful conversations. What are their goals? How do they measure success? What keeps them up at night?

For the first time, a joint study spearheaded by Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) measured the entire digital advertising ad spend to estimate the fraud rate for invalid traffic (IVT). The joint study -- brought together by TAG with American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) -- determined that by working together the digital advertising industry collectively saved an estimated $10.8 billion in 2023, dramatically reducing fraud related to IVT in U.S. display and video ad channels by 92%.