Promotion Marketing Association

Overview

The Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) was a U.S. trade association for the promotion and integrated-marketing industry, headquartered in New York City (Associations Now). The Association of National Advertisers, which later acquired it, dates its founding to 1911 (Association of National Advertisers); independent trade and legal sources repeatedly marked its centennial in 2011 and 2012 — a Manatt events page noted in 2011 that PMA “celebrates its 100th anniversary” (Manatt), a legal-industry publication put the association’s inception at 1911 (Madison Ave Insights), and the grocery trade press described it as “established in 1911” (Progressive Grocer). Its membership comprised marketers, agencies, lawyers and service providers (MediaPost); at the time of its acquisition the organization had 200 members, according to ANA chief executive Bob Liodice (MediaPost). Its affiliate was the PMA Educational Foundation, Inc. (Progressive Grocer).

The Marketing Law Conference and promotion law

PMA’s signature institutional role was its annual Marketing Law Conference, a forum on the law governing sweepstakes, contests, advertising, privacy and related subjects. The Federal Trade Commission records that the first such conference was held in 1978, that the 2007 gathering was the 29th annual, and that the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection director addressed it that year (Federal Trade Commission); a senior FTC official again addressed the 32nd conference in Chicago in 2010 (Federal Trade Commission). Law firm Venable called it “the most important gathering for marketing and advertising legal and business professionals,” noting 100 governmental, legal and business speakers at the 2012 edition covering promotion, advertising, sweepstakes, social media, privacy, mobile marketing and intellectual property law (Venable). Kirkland & Ellis recorded the 34th annual conference, held November 13–14, 2012, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers under the theme “Converging Platforms & Diverging Laws,” with sessions on social media policies, mobile marketing, apps, online behavioral advertising, global privacy, gamification, sweepstakes, contests, gift cards, coupons and incentive marketing (Kirkland & Ellis). An independent summary by Gowling WLG on Mondaq reported that the 2012 Chicago conference drew representatives of major brands, the FTC, technology pioneers and leading law firms, with data privacy — online and mobile tracking and targeting — the dominant theme (Mondaq). A year earlier, Manatt had noted the 33rd annual conference (November 14–16, 2011, Chicago), co-chaired by its advertising-law chair Linda Goldstein, with sessions on sweepstakes and contest law, affiliate and negative-option marketing, and a mock trial of promotional mishaps presided over by a federal judge (Manatt).

Fighting promotion fraud: the Justice Department-reviewed database

Less visible than its conferences was PMA’s work against rebate and mail-order fraud. In a February 8, 1995 letter to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the association — then styling itself the “Promotion Marketing Association of America (PMAA)” — described itself as an association of manufacturers, consumer-product and service companies, promotion agencies and fulfillment concerns, and said rebate “mail-in offer” fraud was costing manufacturers more than $500 million a year at the hands of an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 violators (U.S. Department of Justice). To fight it, the association proposed a “Central File System” that it would operate, aggregating suspected-fraud data from fulfillment companies and sharing it with law enforcement (U.S. Department of Justice). The department’s Antitrust Division later reviewed an expanded version of the program — a PMA-operated central database to which mail-order firms would report suspected fraud, with findings reported to law enforcement and aggregated data shared with members — and told the association it had “no current intention to challenge” the information exchange, adding that reducing fraud costs could lower prices and expand output for consumers (U.S. Department of Justice). The department’s letter was addressed to Claire Rosenzweig, CAE, then the association’s executive director, at 257 Park Avenue South in New York (U.S. Department of Justice).

Research and industry programs

PMA also produced proprietary industry research. Its first Shopper Marketing Conference, “Making Shopper Marketing Work for You — a 360° View,” held May 20–21 in Minneapolis, was the launch venue for “The PMA Survey on Managing and Measuring Shopper Marketing,” research conducted with Nielsen Business Media (Progressive Grocer). Reporting on the findings, Convenience Store News said more than 60 percent of respondents practiced shopper marketing, 94 percent of retailers believed competitors did, and two-thirds of both retailers and manufacturers reported sales and profitability gains (Convenience Store News). In 2007 the association announced an expanded mission — “to be the primary source for integrated marketing solutions” — after a two-year strategic planning process, organized around five Centers of Excellence covering Marketing Law, Experiential Marketing, Digital Marketing, Entertainment Marketing and Shopper Marketing (HispanicAd).

The REGGIE Awards

PMA established the REGGIE Awards in 1983 to recognise promotional marketing campaigns (Association of National Advertisers). In 2006, the Super Reggie — the top honor — went to KTRS-AM and the St. Louis Cardinals’ “Missing Birds” campaign, created by St. Louis agency Schupp Co., a buzz campaign built around vandalised-looking billboards, MySpace, eBay and staged “Cardinal Birds” sightings that lifted the station’s ratings from No. 19 to No. 5; the PMA awarded 45 Reggies in all across 14 categories that year (Chief Marketer). In 2008, marking the 25th year of the awards, the Super Reggie went to 7-Eleven and agency FreshWorks for a campaign that transformed a dozen 7-Eleven stores into real-life Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie — a 72-lb. antique cash register served as the trophy — with PMA president Bonnie Carlson calling it “the largest-scale promotion to hit the convenience retail channel” (Chief Marketer). The awards survived the association itself: Adweek reported the 40th annual ANA REGGIE Awards in April 2023, with the Super REGGIE going to Liquid Death Mountain Water’s brand-activation campaign. The name REGGIE, the ANA notes, was chosen because it symbolizes results by “making the cash register ring,” and the Super REGGIE recognizes the best in class among the Gold winners (Adweek).

Leadership

The Justice Department’s business review letter was addressed to Claire Rosenzweig, CAE, as the association’s executive director (U.S. Department of Justice). In 2007 the association announced the permanent appointment of Bonnie Carlson as president; she had served as interim president since March of that year after a career as Vice President of Integrated Marketing at ConAgra Foods, where, the association said, she created the integrated marketing function and launched the shopper marketing discipline across four divisions and a 70-brand portfolio (HispanicAd). Carlson — who described herself as a 22-year member of the association — led it through the rebrand and the ANA acquisition as president and CEO; the association’s chairman of the board at the time of the 2007 repositioning was Mark Mears (HispanicAd).

Rebranding and acquisition

In November 2012 the association announced it would become the Brand Activation Association, the umbrella organization for brand activation, with PMA president and CEO Bonnie Carlson telling a legal-industry publication the move was “an active response to changes in our industry brought about by the explosion of digital, social and mobile communication,” aimed at growing “beyond the narrow traditional definition of ‘promotion’” (Madison Ave Insights); an independent law-firm summary of that month’s Chicago conference likewise referred to “PMA — now ‘Brand Activation Association’” (Mondaq). On May 22, 2014, the Association of National Advertisers announced it would acquire the Brand Activation Association effective July 1, 2014 (Association of National Advertisers). Media Daily News reported that ANA chief executive Bob Liodice described the deal as more merger than acquisition, since no money changed hands; marketing members of the BAA gained ANA privileges without automatic full membership, non-marketing members remained BAA members, the BAA would operate as an ANA subsidiary, and its leadership team stayed intact with Carlson reporting to Liodice (MediaPost). Associations Now noted both groups’ century-plus histories — the ANA founded in 1910, the BAA a year later — and reported that members of both groups would vote to ratify the deal at their June annual meetings, with the BAA continuing as a division of the larger ANA (Associations Now). IRS filing data compiled by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer shows the organization’s final filed fiscal year, ending June 2014, recorded revenue of $1,350,739 against expenses of $1,735,718, leaving net assets of –$678,119, with Carlson’s reported compensation at $192,540 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer).

A note on the name

This profile is about the promotion-marketing trade association, not two unrelated bodies that share the PMA initials: the Produce Marketing Association, a produce and floral trade association founded in 1949 (Cal Poly), and the Performance Marketing Association, the trade association for the performance marketing industry, founded in 2008 (Performance Marketing Association).

What this profile does not claim

No claim beyond “founded in 1911” is made about the organization’s early 20th-century history: the date is now corroborated by independent centennial references, but no primary founding document was located. No membership count is stated for the PMA era — only the 200-member figure for the Brand Activation Association in 2014, attributed to the ANA chief executive via Media Daily News. The 1995 “Promotion Marketing Association of America” styling is reported as written in the Justice Department record; no source found explains its relationship to the “Promotion Marketing Association, Inc.” name used elsewhere. No year is stated for the first Shopper Marketing Conference or for the Justice Department’s published business review letter, because the sources read did not establish them. The HispanicAd item is the association’s own 2007 announcement republished by a trade outlet and is used only for uncontested facts about its plans and leadership. Most trade-press coverage of specific REGGIE Award winners closely follows the organization’s own award announcements; the FTC speeches, the Justice Department records and the IRS filing data are the fully independent anchors of this profile.