Personalisation is U.S. marketing word of the year

The ANA survey, which has been running every year since 2014, asks association members to vote for the word that defined the year in marketing for them as a barometer for current and persisting trends. This year, 341 members participated. Prominent runner-up’s included ‘equality’, ‘inclusion’, ‘data’, and ‘in-house’.

Some voters anonymously commented to justify their choice. One stated, “Consumers are busy. Too busy to invest time with anything that’s not relevant to them personally. It’s all about relevancy, aka personalization. ‘Make it all about me’”. Others highlighted the opportunity offered by personalised marketing, citing it as “the holy grail of brand marketing [providing] the ability to speak directly to the consumer or shopper with the right message, at the right time, in the right medium”.

The result reinforces the findings of an ANA report published in mid-2019 which revealed that over half of consumers expect companies to know their purchasing habits and anticipate their needs from them and that half of marketers plan to increase investments in personalisation.

Previous years’ winning words have included ‘brand purpose’, ‘artificial intelligence’, and ‘transparency’.

For more information, please contact the ANA.