The Association of National Advertisers provided results from the third annual ANA Marketing Accountability Survey yesterday, at the 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Forum in New York; preliminary info had been released on Monday.

Among the new ANA data released was an improvement in marketers' confidence about their ability to quantify their contribution to the bottom line, writes BtoB Online. Some 57 percent of respondents said they had established a formal marketing accountability program, up from a very small number in 2005. Moreover The proportion of those who said they could now measure the sales impact of a 10 percent cut in marketing spend doubled - from 15.6 percent in 2005 to 30 percent.

Significant differences were found between "capable and confident" marketers - those who said they can both predict the impact of a 10 percent change in marketing budget and have senior managements' confidence - and the other marketers surveyed.

Some 64 percent of the "capable and confident" marketers have a cross-functional team involved in marketing measurement, compared with 24 percent of the remaining marketers; also, nearly 40 percent of "capable and confident" marketers reported "full cooperation" between marketing and finance, compared with 20 percent of the rest.

The poll was conducted by the Association of National Advertisers in conjunction with Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) and the 2006 ANA Marketing Accountability Task Force.