At least four people so far have asked me if we somehow infiltrated the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) meeting last week. In case you don’t know, the ANA hosts an annual get-together for some of the largest marketers in the world.  The mic is taken by CMOs and CEOs who direct billions of dollars in annual advertising spending. And this year the consistent topic was Brand Purpose and Marketing with Meaning.

A record-breaking 1,600 attendees saw industry leaders such as P&G’s Marc Pritchard, Dell’s Erin Nelson, and Coca-Cola’s Joe Tripodi talk about how they are transforming their organizations. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to attend this meeting, but I could not be happier to see the message we have been spreading for years finally take root with these industry giants. It was consistent with The Burning Question seminar that Jim Stengel and I hosted in Cannes this June, when another group of seven CMOs shared their stories, struggles, and early successes in shifting the marketing paradigm.

While the big corporate keynotes were great, my favorite speaker from the event was Cindy Gallop, founder of IfWeRanTheWorld, who summarized this new marketing paradigm pretty succinctly: “Make Stuff.”  Take a peek here.

IfWeRanTheWorld is a fascinating concept of crowd-sourcing solutions to major problems. Its simple idea is to break down big cause problems and opportunities into smaller, doable chunks. And the lesson here for big brands is that it doesn’t take millions of dollars and expensive agencies to start experimenting with meaningful marketing. It really just requires marketers to recognize the need for change, and the courage to fulfill their brand purpose through advertising itself.

A few folks remarked that the recent amount of press behind brand purpose and meaningful marketing will lead to this being considered just a passing fad. Well, I think we’re still far behind on the level of press that should be focused here. And how could we get tired of hearing about how brands are trying to do something positive, aside from just making better products or services?  I am encouraged by the progress toward our goal and proof of success in events such as the ANA meeting, and I do believe that this new marketing paradigm is within our grasp.