At the beginning of this year, 
MASB unveiled its new logo, which represents our purpose of elevating marketing and getting it recognized as the driver of demand. The following list of accomplishments demonstrates our commitment to this purpose and our ability to gather the talent and resources required to achieve our goals. Thanks to our trustees, directors, advisors and project team members for the significant time and expertise contributed over the past 12 months. We have tremendous plans for 2024, beginning with a Membership & Media Campaign to grow our ranks and expand our audience. We hope you will join with us to further elevate marketing and the CMO by making accountable marketing standard operating procedure, and adding your own contributions to next year’s list.
MASB Chair David W. Stewart introduced the Financial Value of Brands video series to further promote the recommendation that “brand-centric enterprises develop an internal methodology to annually measure, explain and report FVB to the executive level.” Joanna Seddon and Neil Bendle also contributed installments, and several more are in the works for 2024.
MASB Spring Summit was conducted via Zoom and featured Johnson & Johnson’s Michael McCaffrey on “Measuring Corporate Reputation,” the Association of National Advertisers’ Latha Sarathy on “The Measuring Creativity Initiative,” Purush Papatla on “Insights from Unstructured (Big) Data for Marketing Value,” and a CMO Insights Panel with Pam Forbus of Pernod Ricard, Kalli Chapman of Prudential, and Rafael Alcaraz of CVS Health.
Marketing industry veteran Lee Hornick joined MASB as Membership Director. To discuss your organization’s future in MASB, contact Lee, leehornick@themasb.org.
Two new brand evaluation standards were published by Technical Committee 289 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with contributions by MASB, representing the U.S. under the auspices of ANSI (American National Standards Institute). ISO 20671-2 provides requirements for implementing and reporting brand evaluations as described in the previously published ISO 20671-1. The second new standard, ISO 20671-3, addresses requirements and recommendations for brands related to geographical indications.
MASB Director of Communication Erich Decker-Hoppen was appointed Convenor of the ISO-20671 Communications Task Group, working with the Standardization Administration of China and 38 members worldwide to promote global brand evaluation standards.
Johnson & Johnson joined MASB and Michael McCaffrey, Global Strategy & Insights Leader of Johnson & Johnson Global Corporate Affairs was appointed to the MASB Advisory Council.
Marquette University hosted MASB Summer Summit, which featured a chat with Mark Stouse of Proof Analytics, MASB Trustee Jim Meier on “The Truth About Brand Boycotts,” Edgar Baum of Avasta on “Intellectual Capital in the Boardroom,” and Larry DeGaris of Northwestern University on “The Power of Synergy.” Karen Ebben of Global Marketing Impact and Chris Hummel of United Rentals discussed “The Economic Value of Marketing.”
MASB founding director Kate Sirkin, EVP of Global Data Partnerships at Publicis Epsilon, received the 2023 Margaret H. Blair Award for Marketing Accountability.
Samford University joined MASB and the Sponsorship Accountability Metrics Project team now includes Darin White, Ph.D., Executive Director of Samford’s Center for Sports Analytics.
MASB launched The Measuring Creativity Initiative with a summit presentation by Dave Stewart captured in a new white paper by MASB Director of Communication Erich Decker-Hoppen. The Data Quality & Accountability Initiative and The Economic Impact of Marketing Initiative also began under the leadership of MASB CEO Joanna Seddon.
MASB Executive Director Frank Findley & MASB Trustee/Treasurer Jim Meier wrote three articles tracking The Bud Light Brand Divorce which became another popular white paper and an academic case study being taught by marketing professors around the world.
MASB represented the U.S. at the 9th Plenary Meeting of ISO Technical Committee 289, hosted virtually by the Standardization Administration of China. Other countries who were represented included Austria, Canada, India, Italy, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. The implementation of global brand evaluation standards, including those for geographic indications and tourism cities, was a leading topic. MASB Brand Evaluation Standards Project team members Frank Findley, Bobby Calder, Larry Lyu, Edgar Baum and Erich Decker-Hoppen participated.
Along with Virginia Tech’s Shane Wang, MASB Director Neil Bendle co-wrote The Customer Asset: Understanding and Managing its Value, edited by MASB Chair David Stewart. A central argument is that we need a standardized way of valuing customers that works for marketers, finance, and accounting. This is based upon customers as having a forward-looking value (an asset) derived from cash flows directly associated with the customer.
The increasingly popular Universal Marketing Dictionary added 26 new marketing definitions crafted by the project team and invited experts. New terms include opportunity cost, generative AI, integrated marketing and brand divorce.
Google’s use of UMD definitions to answer marketing searches has truly made it the definitive source for the industry.