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For over a month, advertising giant Dentsu Inc. has quietly been investigating “inappropriate operations” at its digital ad businesses in Japan. On Friday, it announced some preliminary results: It tallied 111 clients affected, and 633 suspicious transactions amounting to $2.3 million.
Read More AdAge: Dentsu: 111 Clients in Japan Faced Overcharging, ‘Inappropriate Operations’
Dentsu Inc. will pay an estimated 230 million yen ($2.3 million) back to customers, including Toyota Motor Corp., that it overcharged for Internet advertisements in a case likely to stoke concern that digital media transactions have lacked transparency.
Read More Automotive News: Toyota’s Japan ad agency Dentsu to repay advertising overcharges
Dentsu Inc. will pay an estimated 230 million yen ($2.3 million) back to customers, including Toyota Motor Corp., that it overcharged for Internet advertisements in a case likely to stoke concern that digital media transactions have lacked transparency.
Read More Bloomberg Markets: Dentsu to Repay Advertising Overcharges Flagged by Toyota
When Dentsu Inc. proactively informed longtime client Toyota of “irregularities” related to some digital media business transactions this week, the Association of National Advertisers applauded.
Read More AdAge: ANA Applauds Dentsu, Calls Major Marketers’ Audits ‘Appropriate’
Two months after the Association of National Advertisers released its controversial agency media-buying “transparency” practices report by K2 Intelligence, most advertisers and agencies remain relatively unaware of it. Among those who are aware of it, there was a marked disconnect between marketers and agency executives about who would be most impacted by it.
Reactions to the Association of National Advertisers’ media-buying transparency recommendations Monday ranged from muted to “we’re all in.” Muted was Madison Avenue’s official response, underscored by 4As chief Nancy Hill’s statement that the trade association will respond in due time, after thoroughly reviewing the report, its recommendations and a proposed template for media-buying contracts that would give clients explicit and unprecedented audit rights of their agencies.
Read More MediaPost: Reactions To ANA Range From Wait-And-See To All In
WPP’s media buying arm, GroupM, has been revising the majority of its contracts with UK-based media owners, in an apparent attempt to shore up any transparency concerns.
Ebiquity’s subsidiary Firm Decisions has been summoned into court by Group M, WPP’s media buying agency. And WPP CEO Martin Sorrell argues that Ebiquity, the media auditor working with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and K2 Intelligence on the U.S. media transparency report, is ”heavily conflicted” because its subsidiary, FirmDecisions “audits whether agencies have complied with their contracts with advertisers while other parts of the business manage pitches for clients, advise them how to ‘secure better prices’ and audit media spend,” according to Gideon Spanier, writing on US Campaign.
Read More MediaPost: Creating Distraction From The Real Media Transparency Issues
Marketers are being urged to re-evaluate the role of media auditors amid concerns over a potential conflict of interest, with WPP CEO Martin Sorrell advising them to use one of the “Big Four” global accountancy firms to vet how agencies spend their clients’ money.
Read More Campaign: ‘Conflicted’ Media Auditors Come Under Fire from Sorrell
The Association of National Advertisers said this month that rebates and nontransparent practices are “pervasive” in the U.S., as evidenced by the outcome of an eight-month probe by corporate research investigations firm K2 Intelligence.
Read More WSJ: Probe of Advertising Rebates Wasn’t Independent, Argues WPP Chief Martin Sorrell