The Association of National Advertisers will acquire the Data & Marketing Association (formerly the Direct Marketing Association), forming a coalitionthat, thanks to other recent mergers within both organizations, will create a powerhouse lobbying organization with deep interests in privacy and data security as well as advertising taxes and other media issues.

The merger expected to be completed by July 1. Financial details were not disclosed, although published reports suggested a "fire sale" price as DMA has seen declining revenue and membership in recent years.

One topic that is not on the merged group's agenda right now is net neutrality. Although some ANA members have questioned the FCC's rollback of net neutrality rules, neither ANA nor DMA "has taken a stance on net neutrality," Daniel Jaffe, group executive vice president for government relations at ANA's Washington office, told Multichannel News.

ANA's members include Comcast Cable, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, AT&T, Verizon, the National Football League, Time Warner and many other media and telecommunications organizations. DMA's members include Google, Facebook and Twitter. eBay is among the companies that are members of both organizations.

Jaffe added that the ANA-DMA combination will "substantially increase the reach of both groups" in areas involving privacy and data security.

"We have always believed that the Federal Trade Commission should have the primary jurisdiction over privacy," Jaffe said, citing a major policy concern of both groups.

The merger, announced May 31, will create the largest advertising/marketing trade group in the U.S. Its combined membership will include 2,000 corporations representing 20,000 brands and engaging 150,000 industry professionals, including major national advertisers, ad agencies, media operators, law firms. ad tech firms and technical consultancies.

ANA CEO Bob Liodice, who has headed the organization since 2003, will remain as the merged group's top officer. DMA will become an ANA division to be headed by DMA CEO Tom Benton. The combined leadership team will "focus on identifying and implementing data-driven initiatives to advance the industry and drive growth," the companies said.

Among the benefits of the merger that Liodice and Benton cited is "advancing the development of new technology platforms to energize brand and business building efforts in the marketing ecosystem."

Their emphasis on that topic underscores the growing significance of digital, targeted advertising in the overall marketing environment.

The ANA-DMA alliance is the latest step in the ongoing integration (some may say fight for survival) of specialized lobbying entities in the marketing category.

ANA, founded in 1910, has in recent years acquired the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the Business Marketing Association (exclusively B2B members) and the Brand Activation Association.

DMA, established in 1917, has changed its name several times in recent decades, reflecting the shift toward digital marketing. In the 1970s it was known as the Direct Mail and Marketing Association, changing its name to Direct Marketing Association 1n 1983 and then to Data + Marketing Association in late 2016.

AT&T barely outpaced Google to be the third quarter's top spender on lobbying, shelling out $4.13 million, up 8% from Q3 2016, according to Consumer Watchdog's tracking of 16 telecom/technology companies.

The telco is trying to shepherd its Time Warner merger through Washington, though it has just extended the close on that deal as the Justice Department continues to vet it; the FCC is not separately reviewing the merger.

Google was a close second behind AT&T, spending $4.17 million on lobbying, up 9% from Q3 2016.

On the cable side, Comcast spent $3.51 million, up 3%, while Charter spent $1.88 million, down 6%. Among technology companies, several saw double-digit percentage increases in lobbying spend for the quarter.

Amazon spending was way up, increasing 26% year-over-year to $3.41 million, almost triple what it spent in 2013. Facebook spending was $2.85 million, up 30% over Q3 2016, and Apple spent $1.86 million, up a whopping 74% from last year. In contrast, Twitter's spending was tweet-sized at only $120,000, down 29%.

Consumer Watchdog based its numbers on filings with the House of Representatives that were due last week.

Google and Comcast were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in 2015 federal lobbying spending by 16 tech and communications firms monitored by Consumer Watchdog, according to records filed with Congress.

Google topped the list at $16.66 million, followed closely by Comcast at $15.63 million. Comcast's total was down 7% from last year, but only a portion of 2015 was spent trying to push the ultimately failed Time Warner Cable merger through the FCC and the Justice Department.

Time Warner Cable, the nation's No. 2 cable operator, spent $6.98 million in 2015, down 31.2% from the year before, when it, too, was trying to get the would be Comcast merger through the regulatory gauntlet, though it was (and is) back at it with the Charter deal. 

Edge providers were on the upswing. Amazon's spending was up a record 91% to $9.07 million in 2015 over $4.74 million in 2014.

Facebook, which has boosted its Washington profile in recent years, came in slightly ahead of Amazon at $9.85 million, but only up 5.5%.

Google spent a record $16.83 million on lobbying last year, barely edging out Comcast's $16.8 million, in efforts to influence policy decisions, based on records filed with the Clerk of the House, according to the nonpartisan public interest group Consumer Watchdog.

Google and Comcast topped the list of the 15 technology and communications companies that spent the most money on lobbying efforts, Consumer Watchdog said. Facebook, Apple and Amazon also spent record amounts last year. Taken together, the top 15 spent a total of $116.62 million on lobbying in 2014, a 3% decrease from 2013's total of  $120.28 million.

While six of the companies increased spending from 2013 levels -- Facebook (up 45% to $9.34 million from $6.43 million), Amazon (up 35% to $4.74 million from $3.46 million), Apple (up 22% to $4.11 million from $3.37 million), Google (up 20% from $14.06 million), Sprint (up 9% to $2.99 million from $2.75 million) and Yahoo (up 6% to $2.94 million from $2.78 million) -- the other nine companies showed decreased outlays, according to the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database, Consumer Watchdog said.

Notably, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among those with decreased spending, despite waiting on approval for their pending merger. Comcast's $16.8 million expenditure was down 10% from 2013's $18.71 million, while TWC's $7.83 million was down 6% from its $8.29 million in 2013.

Rounding out the top 15 spenders in the tech/communications sector were AT&T ($14.56 million), Verizon ($11.22 million), Microsoft ($8.33 million), Oracle ($5.83 million), IBM ($4.95 million), Intel ($3.8 million) and Cisco ($2.35 million).

“It’s important to understand just how much money these companies are throwing around in Washington to buy the policies they want,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director, said. “Policymaking is now all about big bucks, not big ideas.”

Two new reports demonstrate the accelerating scale of Washington lobbying in connection with the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger and with the FCC's network neutrality proceeding.   

Comcast is currently registered with 40 firms, and it spent $5 million lobbying Congress during the first quarter of this year, according to Senate reports as quoted in Politico, which calls Comcast's campaign "a K Street stimulus package."  Among Comcast's recent lobbying recruits is Joseph Gibson, who once served as chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and also as chief of staff for Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a former chairman of that committee. 

For its part, Time Warner Cable has spent $33 million so far this year, according to official records.

Separately, Maplight, a Berkeley, Calif. organization that compiles data about campaign contributions, has identified 28 House of Representatives members - including Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and  Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) - who have urged the FCC not to adopt a Title II reclassification of the Internet and who also have received well-above-average campaign contributions from the cable industry.

The 28 House members (eight Republicans and 20 Democrats) who signed one of three recent letters to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler have received an average of $26,832 in contributions from the cable industry, says Maplight. That sum is 2.3 times more money than the average for all members of the House of Representatives, $11,651, according to Maplight's research.  In their letters to Wheeler (two of which were signed only by Republicans, one signed only by Democrats) the House members advised the Commission to reject the reclassification plan as a means to assure net neutrality, a position supported by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Comcast and many other cable and communications firms.

Walden has received more money from the cable industry than any House member: $109,250 over the last two years, says Maplight. Overall, Republicans signing the letters to the FCC have received, on average, $59,812 from the cable industry, five times more than average contributions to House members; Democrats signing the letters received an average of $13,640 from the cable industry, 1.2 times more than the average, according to the Maplight analysis.

In its evaluation of the congressional appeals to the FCC to reject Title II reclassification, Maplight cites three letters sent to Wheeler in recent weeks:

Letter 1: Signed by Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Energy and Commerce Committee vice chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Vice Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) expressed "grave concern" about the Title II approach and warned that, "Such unwarranted and overreaching government intrusion into the broadband marketplace will harm consumers, halt job creation, curtail investment, stifle innovation, and set America down a dangerous path of micromanaging the Internet."

Letter 2: Led by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) and signed by John Barrow (D-GA), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), George Butterfield (D-NC), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Corrine Brown (D-FL), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), William Owens (D-NY), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Lacey Clay (D-MO), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Scott Peters (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and David Scott (D-GA), the message to Wheeler said, "While we still have further to go to ensure that the benefits of broadband reach all Americans, we are concerned that opening the door to subjecting broadband service to a wide array of regulatory burdens and restrictions, including imposing Title II, might halt this progress."

Letter 3: Signed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), expounded, "As we continue to ask the world to keep their hands off the Internet and to allow people to freely engage with each other, we should lead by example and reject calls to return to a bygone model of network regulation."

Maplight's analysis points out that a recent Comcast filing to the FCC in the network neutrality proceeding used similar arguments, such as: "Title II would spark massive instability, create investor and marketplace uncertainty, derail planned investments, and slow broadband adoption."

Maplight tallies 29 members of Congress who own stock in Comcast, making Comcast the 25th most held stock among members of Congress. Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) owns more Comcast stock than any other member.

According to Maplight's tally of campaign contributions "from cable interests" during the past two years, the top recipients who signed the recent letters to Wheeler are Walden (who received $109,250), Cantor ($80,800), Boehner ($75,450), Upton ($65,000) and Barrow ($60,500).

Gary Arlen follows telecom/media policy and technology at Arlen Communications (www.Arlencom.com)