For the second year in a row and the third time in the last eight years, “AI” has been crowned the ANA Marketing Word of the Year, reinforcing its profound and transformative impact on the marketing industry in 2024.
Since 2014, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has selected its marketing word of the year through a voting process. ANA staff first identify a list of finalists, then ask members to vote to determine the winner. The survey has two questions: Which word should be the ANA marketing word of the year? and Why did you vote for this word?
This year, the ANA surveyed its members between November 18 and December 2. A total of 284 ANA members participated in the online poll, where AI emerged as the clear winner, receiving 65% of the votes. The second-place candidate, “personalization,” received only 14% of the vote. In the 11-year history of ANA Marketing Word of the Year, AI is the only repeat winner, taking top honors in 2023 (with 69% of the vote) and 2017.
Marketers who voted for AI shared compelling reasons for their choice, highlighting the technology’s pervasive influence. “Nothing has affected the world of marketing in 2024 more than AI,” said one marketer, summarizing the sentiment of many. Additional answers included:
- AI is over! No matter where or when, AI always appears when we talk about marketing.
- AI is now 100% part of our daily professional lives. No exceptions.
- They are everywhere! Flooding feeds and a hot topic of conversation that I think scares us all a little, intrigues us and has so much to learn to help us improve our work and our lives.
- AI is increasingly pervasive across all of our technology stacks, our tools, and virtually every application we use.
- There has been a lot of buzz around AI and its potential to change the way we work as marketers. We are at the point where we need to figure out how to integrate AI into the way we work, otherwise we will be left behind.
Previous ANA Marketing Words of the Year were inclusion (2022), diversity (2021), pivot (2020), personalization (2019), brand purpose (2018), transparency (2016), content marketing (2015) and programmatic (2014). ).
With this designation highlighting AI’s transformation from a buzzword to a cornerstone of modern marketing strategy, the ANA is committed to equipping its members with the resources needed to successfully navigate AI.
The ANA Artificial Intelligence practice aims to address industry challenges associated with AI to ensure marketers’ voices are heard when creating standards, as well as to educate and enable members to adopt safe and effective use of technology to increase efficiency, mitigate risks, and drive growth of their respective businesses. The ANA’s growing portfolio of AI resources includes:
Additionally, the ANA will host a national industry conference focused largely on AI in 2025. The ANA AI and Technology for Marketers 2025 conference will take place March 26-28 in Austin, Texas.
