Editor's Viewpoint

Editor's Viewpoint: Looking back at 2007
Over the course of 2007, I have been pleased to deliver to you the industry news that matters to your business. Part I of this AAF SmartBrief special year-end report rounds up the most important trends, stories and events of the past year. Part II, which will hit your inbox on Thursday, will provide a glimpse into what's in store for 2008.

In 2007, people began to understand branding as a two-way street. It was the year of the first user-generated Super Bowl spot and the year YouTube became a proving ground for wannabe creatives. Major marketers banded together to rethink the way food products are advertised in media aimed at young people, and in so doing managed to avoid a sticky regulatory battle. AAF and other groups helped change a bill that would have placed onerous restrictions on the way pharmaceuticals are marketed. It was also a year of consolidation in the interactive space, with Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google each making news with their purchases of major independent online advertising services firms. Finally, it was the year advertisers experimented with ads enhanced for DVR playback, and the year that television ratings were expanded to account for time-shifted viewing.

It was also a year of change for the AAF: Murray Gaylord, vice president for marketing at NYTimes.com, was elected chairman of the AAF board of directors, and Frank Cooper III of Pepsi-Cola North America will serve as vice chairman.

Gaylord's projected goals for his two-year term as chairman include a Web-based "AAF University," expanding AAF membership and strengthening the ADDY® Award brand. The purpose of "AAF University" would be to provide a series of webcasts to inform and educate AAF members in all aspects of advertising, media marketing and events; a curriculum would be developed with regularly scheduled presentations on a wide variety of topics. Gaylord would also like to see AAF membership doubled by the year 2010. Based on research presented earlier this year, there are approximately 458,000 individuals working in the advertising industry. Ten percent of these individuals are represented in AAF membership. "As the unifying voice for advertising with members from agencies, media and advertisers, I believe we can achieve this goal," Gaylord said.

Best of 2007

• Bud ads score with Super Bowl viewers (2/5)

• Amateur ad gets big league attention (10/26)

• The leading global brands (8/6)

• Wooing and winning the modern woman (2/14)

• Amateur video is special sauce for McNuggets spot (7/25)

• Ten principles to guide your agency search (8/15)

• The $12.79 Super Bowl ad (1/15)

• Marketing to the Facebook crowd (10/8)

• Advertising stunt brings Boston to a standstill (2/1)

• Ad slogans infiltrate the vernacular (3/16)

Digital Tie-Ins

Here are the quotes you shared with colleagues most often during 2007:

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it at the bud."

--Alex Osborn, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

There is no such thing as a Mass Mind. The Mass Audience is made up of individuals, and good advertising is written always from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone."

--Fairfax M. Cone, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga."

--David Ogilvy, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

It's not what the dream is but what the dream does."

--John Johnson, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves."

--Ray Kroc, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

A large part of virtue consists in good habits."

--William Paley, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

The mystery of writing advertisements consists mainly in saying in a few plain words exactly what it is desired to say, precisely as it would be written in a letter or told to an acquaintance."

--George P. Rowell, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death."

--Leo Burnett, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

--Benjamin Franklin, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements."

--Norman Douglas, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

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