(ANA) was established in 1910 in Detroit, Michigan, by 45 companies in order to safeguard and advance the interests of both advertisers and consumers and is the oldest trade organization in the United States. Some of the founding companies were the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, Glidden, Macey Company, Sherwin Williams, and National Lead. Originally known as the Association of National Advertising Managers, in 1914 the association officially adopted its present name.
At the onset, the group’s overarching objective was to promote cooperative relationships between regional and national advertising industries, manufacturers and dealers, and advertisers and agencies. They also aimed to standardize accurate reporting of audience measurement and the establishment of national standards for measuring advertising results.
In their bylaws they documented other goals such as establishing universal values in advertising and promoting them as a positive economic force. Other goals included:
- Enhancing the “science” of advertising and marketing to benefit both advertisers and consumers;
- Improving efficiency and promoting responsible advertising; and
- To promote common interests and welfare for members.
Within the group they formed the Audit Bureau of Circulations in 1914 in order to responsibly and truthfully verify publication data that is vital to advertising sales, as these numbers directly affect the prices that publications can charge based on subscriber and demographic reach.
In order to maintain responsible advertising, and for the purpose of industry self-regulation concerning matters of truth, taste, and social responsibility, the ANA, formed partnerships with the AAAA, American Advertising Federation (AAF), and the Council for Better Business Bureaus (BBB), launched the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) in 1971.
Over the many decades the ANA has operated they have spearheaded numerous studies that was instrumental in developing advertising measurement systems in establishing national standards by which radio audiences could be measured, to the recently introduced Ad-ID, which is a web-based system accessible 24/7 worldwide that generates a unique identifying code for each advertising asset, creating a capability to identify them across all media. This service greatly improves workflow between agency, advertiser, distributor and medium.
